this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
613 points (97.2% liked)

ADHD memes

8416 readers
644 users here now

ADHD Memes

The lighter side of ADHD

Rules

  1. No Party Pooping

Other ND communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
UnlimitedRumination
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
613
If I don't overshoot my planned sleeping time by 1 hour doomscrolling, I'm usually sick. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
49 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

I tried caffeine before bed the other night because I read in my ADHD book that that stimulants could have the opposite effect in some people with ADHD, and help the specific problem of racing thoughts before bed(understimulation) which I get pretty often. Slept the best I had in a long time for 4 hours, then got woke up by pets and lost 4 hours because I couldn’t sleep again funnily enough; I did tea for my first test but it definitely ran short, may try a caffeinated something else next time ~~ibuprofen~~.

Edit: Caffeinated ibuprofen doesn't exist to my knowledge and probably for the best not to test it, I got mixed up making comments too early for my brain to wake up.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

Yeah caffeine is a siren song for a select few. It's not necessarily an 'everyone and every form of ADHD thing', but it seems to present together often enough.

In my case it's tricksy because the line between "this much coffee will help sleep" and "this much coffee will make you feel like it re-activated the magic conversion machine the actual ADHD meds just shut down" is about 1 oz one way or another from a 5oz cup (a real small amount in sane units, I didn't convert).

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (2 children)

tried the same thing and i feel very tired but my pulse shoots through the roof and my heart feels like its gonna stop :[

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

It’s definitely not for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Maybe less caffeine if you're so essily stimulated metabolically.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Yeah caffeine when tired already is the best way to make my body go "ok, I sleep now, lie me down".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah, coffee specifically does shit for me. Literally. Pretty sure I'd lose weight at a rapid pace if I kept drinking it. Energy drinks on the other hand are...okay? More mood stabilization than energy improvements.

Unless you count sometimes getting more anxious as energy, in which case some days I may actually be able to vibrate through walls.

Course I don't have just adhd. I also deal with separate depression and anxiety with adhd as a sort of foundation, while also not being the primary reason for either. So fuck if I know.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I'm autistic and I'm the same but for me it's less about going a minute without stimulation, more about not wanting to be alone with my thoughts because they're constant and horrible at best.

Without my tv and pc always on around me (and weed) I don't think I could sleep at all (pc to scroll/read till my eyes get sleepy, and tv to give my brain external conversation to focus on rather than the one going on in my brain). Even then it's a struggle, but I'm still 100% more likely to get some sleep with these things on, than I am without (I don't consider crying for several hours in either frustration or deep despair until my eyes can't stay open anymore a good enough alternative ¯\(ツ)/¯).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I feel you...

🎶 I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax
I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me, I'm a real live wire 🎶

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Those lyrics hit far too close to home right now..

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (2 children)

If I don't put on a decent to good movie I've already seen several times AND brown noise (not to be confused with the theorized Brown Note), odds are I don't fall asleep for several hours if at all.

Sleep advice and other such "lifehacks" are seldom very ADHD-friendly and can be borderline ableist at times.

[–] Murdoc 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes, I usually watch tv or a movie in bed and it also has to be something I've seen before so I'm not kept awake wanting to see what happens next. Also it has to be not too funny, not too sad, or make me just too happy to see, etc. Interesting enough for me to want to watch it at all, boring enough for me to fall asleep quickly. It can be tricky sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I go to sleep wearing noise cancelling headphones and playing YouTube videos from a handful of creators with nice monotone voices that I've seen before. If I don't, then my mind gets too preoccupied with thinking about things that aren't important, and on top of that every single little noise gives me an adrenaline rush and I feel the need to get out of bed and go investigate

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I have this 1 have this one creator, The Exploring series covering mainly SCP who has just the right monotone with no special sound effects to perk you alert. He started on youtube but has 95% of his material on spotify as well. His stuff plus a dose of melatonin 2H before when I want to go sleep mode is what does it for me.I've solely used his material to sleep for more than 4 years now (uploads once a week so Ive gone through his whole production multiple times). Been trying to find a comparable podcaster but no luck so far. Either they have too much background music, use sound effects or too much variance in speech volume & tone. Any recomendations are welcome.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Recently I've been falling asleep to ThioJoe. They do occasionally have minor sound effects, but I can ignore those. He maintains a consistent tone throughout

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (6 children)

I find listening to (already listened to—this part is important) stuff is like a sleeping pill. Rip YouTube videos and put just the audio on your phone. Play it at bed time—I use earbuds and throw it under my pillow.

Right now, I’m listening to Kings & Generals and Operations Room audio. In the past, I’ve done Futurama audio.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

The sweet sweet, soothing voice of Robert Stack on "Unsolved Mysteries". I've seen damn near every episode, so it's become like a "comfort food"... puts me to sleep almost everytime

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Futurama has been my go-to for years at this point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

This is exactly a trick of mine. It has to be already listened to, so that it’s a more passive listening experience.

Sometimes it also helps if the content of the audio does not clue me in to how far through the video I am. That’s just one less “I’m not falling asleep fast enough” indicator to keep me awake longer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I just let old Drawfee episodes play on low volume while I sleep. Multiple familiar voices seems to be more effective to me.

[–] Murdoc 1 points 6 months ago

I use one of those sleep masks with the built-in earphones to listen to different kinds of music and/or rain and thunder. Oddly I tend to like creepy and scary music or ambiance.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I've taken to listening to the Cobalt Core soundtrack, I never remember getting very far so I guess it works.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That advice is bullshit. I look at screens for hours before bed and then just fall asleep. Doesn’t apply to everyone.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Because it's talking about quality of sleep rather than time it takes to get to sleep

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah bro not gonna happen. 2 hours is 2 entire hours and I have things I care about to do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

A while ago, I read something about how back in the day, people would spend half of their evenings "thinking about sleep" and not really doing anything, talking about it like wasted time when you could be doing more fulfulling things. So it's weird to me to hear that people are recommending two whole hours of this.

As someone who doesn't have ADHD, here's what works for me*: No heavy metal or intense video gaming right before bed. I usually just take one final scroll through the front page of Lemmy before I go to bed. And I leave my phone at my desk - that part seems more important. Studies have found it's harder to fall asleep while looking at a screen. I learned this a while ago and thought it was a no-brainer, then was surprised over the years to learn how many people are literally scrolling through their phones while they're trying to sleep. If you can give that up*, you'll fall asleep easier, and if your phone is out of arm's reach of your bed, your alarm clock will be much more effective in the morning.

*I can't even guess how easy this would be to pull off with ADHD. Maybe it's about as easy as it is for anyone else (which may not be all that easy tbf,) maybe it's borderline impossible. If it's the latter, sorry, I don't have any ADHD-specific advice.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Always appreciate someone who doesn't have adhd coming in and giving advice like they have it all figured out. You might as well just say, have you tried not having adhd?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (7 children)

Yeah, I know it's not necessarily going to be applicable. That's why I gave two asterisks pointing to a disclaimer about exactly that.

Anyways, the point of my comment was more to talk about my thoughts and experiences regarding sleep routines, and the fact that the "two hours of nothing stimulating before bed" is incredibly alien even to me, as a person who doesn't have ADHD.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You may need to update your "no brainier"

As those of us who scroll in bed have long known:

One study, published in the National Sleep Foundation’s journal, Sleep Health, investigated iPhone use in young adults before bed and found no significant differences in sleep outcomes regardless of whether subjects used a phone with a less-blue display, a normal display or no phone at all.

Several studies have suggested blue light emissions suppress the production of the sleep-promoting hormone, melatonin. But researchers now say these effects are not as extreme as previously believed, amounting to, at most, a 10-minute delay due to screen use.

https://nypost.com/2024/05/30/lifestyle/screentime-before-bed-could-be-less-harmful-than-earlier-thought/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's talking about being on the phone before bed, not while trying to sleep. I'm not talking about people doing one last scroll before they go to bed, I'm talking about people lying in bed, scrolling through their feeds, expecting to fall asleep with their phone in hand.

And yeah, I thought it was a no-brainer that actively reading social media makes it harder to fall asleep while doing so, but these days I'm not so sure how common this "common sense" is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And yeah, I thought it was a no-brainer that actively reading social media makes it harder to fall asleep while doing so, but these days I’m not so sure how common this “common sense” is.

And there it is.

The NT has ridden in on their white horse to teach all us NDs about their "common sense" that is clearly what we're lacking..

What would we do without you, oh great neurotypical??? /S

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Why are you being so hostile? I'm not even talking about ADHD here, I know neurotypical people who do it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Because you're on an ADHD page. The rest of us are here talking about the ADHD experience and you're going on and on saying BuT wHaT aBoUt ThE nEuRoTyPiCaL eXpErIeNcE?

For people with ADHD, falling asleep with the phone in your hand can be objectively quicker.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Weirdly, I can spend hours meditating. But meditating before sleep? Impossible. If I can't have Netflix, I require music

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I fall asleep super easy if I am watching stuff in VR. The trick appears to be to completely immerse yourself with stimulation until your brain shuts down.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Try weed instead

[–] Unforeseen 15 points 6 months ago

The problem with that is there is no middle ground, because then you rely on it daily. So you have the option of being a habitual user and living each day in a semi haze or trying other things instead

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Am I the only one that smoking before bed has a stimulant effect? I am awake for hours. Have to time it like people time coffee.

My mind goes into thinking all the things mode, which I enjoy but it is not restful.

[–] Scubus 3 points 6 months ago

I don't smoke anymore but when I did id smoke in the morning to wake me up and then smoke at night to put me to bed. I really have no idea how it worked but it did.

Not different strains either, the exact same bag.