In My Head: ADHD And Sleep Hygiene

Hi,

Hello,

How are you?

Welcome to In My Head,

A new series of talks that I'm going to be giving on Insight Timer,

Specifically related to mental health and emotional well-being.

My name is Shanna Moyer.

I'm a mental health counselor,

An ADHD management specialist,

And a trauma support specialist based out of London,

Ontario.

I'm also a human who exists with late-diagnosed ADHD,

And I'm a parent of two neuro-spicy ADHDers.

I know a thing or two about how the brain works,

Why we are the way we are,

And how the world just has not been created with neurodiverse humans in mind.

So my hope with this new series of lectures here at Insight Timer is that you will take away one little sliver,

One nugget,

Every single time,

That helps you understand your brain and helps you embrace who you are.

Welcome back to In My Head,

The monthly lecture series here at Insight Timer where I talk all about different topics that ADHDers have to deal with from time to time.

And today we are talking all about sleep hygiene,

What it is,

How to improve it,

And why it matters for neurodiverse brains.

So let's get right into it.

Sleep hygiene refers to the habits surrounding sleep and how we can sleep better.

So think about the environment that you sleep in,

Your routines leading up to the moment when you head up to bed.

All of that matters.

I think about my own routine and it's pretty much the same every single night.

I'll be watching whatever show I'm currently binge-watching and eventually I'll get to the point where it's,

You know,

It's bedtime.

But I'm the adult in the house so I get to say when I get to go to bed.

I head up after locking up the house and I always do it in the exact same way.

You would think that these things might be maybe some OCD tendencies,

But they're not.

It's just a routine.

Lock up the doors,

Turn off the fish tank light,

Set the alarm,

Turn off the porch light,

And head up to bed.

Once I'm up there it's the same routine every night with a few variations.

I set my phone down by my nightside table,

Close the door ever so slightly with a door wedge behind.

The dog and cat like to come and go as they please and that's perfectly fine with me.

I do the routine of washing the face and all of those things as well.

And then I turn to insight timer and I put on a ambient noise or some type of musical track that's under 20 minutes to listen to while I'm putting pajamas on,

While I'm getting into a space where I'm going to be sleeping.

I put on lip balm,

I put on cuticle oil,

And then I change what's on my phone,

What's playing on my phone,

To be the sound of waves,

That consistent in and out that helps regulate my breathing.

I turn out my light and then I put ear plugs in.

I can still hear the waves but they're a little fainter,

They're a little softer,

And then I go to sleep.

And for the most part I sleep straight through into the next day,

Not always but sometimes.

ADHDers,

If you're one or if you're thinking that you are one,

The likelihood is you don't get consistent sleep.

That's something that plagues all of us.

But here's a few things that we need to consider when creating a healthy sleep routine.

Your schedule.

Going to bed at approximately the same time every night.

We're humans,

We need wiggle room,

We need to be able to still live our lives and experience things,

And we need to wake up at the same time most every day.

We live in a blended family so when my kids aren't here I still have my alarms on when they're going to be getting on the bus.

So there is consistency.

Your bedroom environment.

Keeping it dark,

Keeping it quiet,

And keeping it cool.

Those are three things within the realm of stimuli that can be really overstimulating to an ADHD brain.

We can start obsessing about the light that's coming through the crack of the door and the shadows that likely aren't even being created in the hall,

But our brain likes to take us down these thought spirals and create stories.

So a environment.

A quiet environment.

Those earplugs that I talked about?

I've been using them ever since university and I thought back then it was simply because there was always construction going on at all of the different apartments and houses that I would live in in second,

Third,

And fourth year.

What I've come to understand is that my brain will pay attention to every single minute noise and my hearing is really acute.

If I don't have my earplugs there's no chance I'm going to sleep.

And keeping the room cool.

Now personally this isn't really one that I subscribe to.

If my feet are too cold I have a pair of socks on my nightside table so that I can slip them on in the middle of the night just in case.

If my back is too cold,

If my shoulder is peaking out,

If I am disrupted by coolness in the room I can't sleep.

But for some people a cooling pillow or a cooling blanket is really important because neurodiverse humans,

Especially those that are on the autism spectrum,

Often have trouble regulating their body temperature.

I know this and have read the research on it but I'm also a parent of a human who exists that way.

He needs very specific fabrics.

He needs very specific things in his room like a fan at his bedside table to make sure that that wind is blowing on his face.

It helps him sleep and so does the white noise.

Making sure that your bedtime routine is consistent and one that aids in relaxation.

Keeping the lights dim.

I never ever ever have the overhead light on in my bedroom.

Only the side lamp and even in the bathroom I turn on the dimmest possible light.

Sometimes no lights at all because the string lights out back in my backyard are still on and provide enough light for me to take out my contacts and wash my face.

It's all about reducing the stimuli because stimuli is just a distraction for the brain.

So think about your sleep routine and then think about the quality of sleep that you get overnight.

Do you wake up feeling well-rested?

That's kind of a joke question for most ADHDers,

Especially those who are female-presenting humans.

We always wake up exhausted.

We always wake up thinking just nine more minutes on that snooze.

Please just nine more minutes.

But life still needs to be tended to and if we can give ourselves an opportunity to maybe make that a little bit more effective in our sleep,

A little bit more conducive to having a positive day on the day that follows,

Turn down the lights.

Get yourself some beautiful bedsheets in a fabric that makes you feel cozy and nurtured.

One that isn't rough on the skin.

No tags anywhere.

Sleep in fabrics that feel good against your body.

Ones that don't send your brain into overdrive because they're too stiff or too scratchy.

Have extra blankets handy in case it gets too cold.

A fan beside your bed or overhead.

Spray your pillow with something calming or have a diffuser in your room that can be both white noise and add the aroma into your environment.

There are so many things that we can do to improve our quality of sleep and when an ADHD-er gets enough sleep,

Their day that follows flows so much easier.

We are more productive.

We are more present.

So that's what I do.

That's my routine.

It's not going to work for each and every one of you,

But maybe it will give you a lens over something small that you can change.

Something small,

Like going to bed at the same time every day or putting on the same wave soundtrack every single night.

We're creating repetition and we're creating routine and that is where your ADHD brain thrives.

Until next month,

That's all I've got for you today.

Remember,

You're not broken,

You just have ADHD.