This week’s video explores a hot topic: the cost of insomnia when you have ADHD.

You’ll hear from 3 of my favourite experts: Dr. Ari Tuckman, Dr. Roberto Olivardia, and Dr. Kathleen Nadeau.

Roberto says, “Sleep disorders and ADHD go hand in hand. I don’t know anybody with ADHD, myself included, that does not have an issue with sleep.”

Kathleen notes that poor sleep, “impacts the frontal lobes of the brain. Almost like giving yourself a double dose of ADHD.”

YIKES!

Poor sleep & ADHD go hand in hand. Lying in bed, your mind racing. It’s impossible to sleep. And sleep deprivation makes it much harder to manage your ADHD. In fact, the fallout from sleep deprivation: impaired memory, inability to concentrate, focus, and follow conversations–are core symptoms of ADHD.

While everyone benefits from better sleep, when you have ADHD it’s doubly important. And doubly difficult.

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Let’s talk about the high cost of sleep deprivation and why it is doubly dangerous when you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Hi I’m Rick Green, I’m an amateur brain surgeon and comedian.

I know a mother who had two very active boys under the age of five, I won’t say ADHD but very active, and then she had a newborn girl who required constant attention due to some health issues.

It was touch and go for that little baby and it was a huge strain on everyone, when her baby was 5 months old I asked Mom how she was coping and she said “you know sleep deprivation is a form of torture, and it’s a form of torture that works”.

The following year I became a father and discovered first hand what she meant, lack of sleep isn’t just annoying it can be deadly, being deprived of sleep increases your risk for depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior, car accidents, mood disorders, weight pain, poor self-care.

It impairs your working memory and long-term memory, your decision making, your ability to concentrate, to learn, to follow conversations, and more. Eventually you can even start having psychotic episodes.

It’s alarming right? And as you may know ADHD increases your risk for depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior, car accidents, mood disorders, yeah it’s quite a list.

Take any one of those, say impaired decision making, if you can’t think straight, or consider possible consequences, or foresee the fallout from a decision, or something you do, you could end up broke, alone, or surrounded by hundreds of like-minded people who are also serving time in prison.

Don’t take my word for it ask any ADHD doctor or expert, especially the ones who have it themselves, and they will tell you.

Sleep deprivation is a huge, huge issue. People with ADHD are prone to have difficulty getting to sleep at night, it’s something that’s called delayed sleep phase syndrome, adults with ADHD are natural night owls, and delayed sleep phase syndrome is just a fancy term for being a natural boor night owl.

So sleep disorders and ADHD go hand in hand, I don’t know anybody, anybody with ADHD, myself included that does not have an issue with sleep.

We also know if you don’t get adequate amounts of sleep your ADHD symptoms are going to be worse, so you know there’s almost this commonality between sleep issues and ADD, it’s going to be that much harder to pay attention, that much harder to focus, that much harder to be on top of things, so it makes the ADHD symptoms worse.

Do you dream of enjoying better sleep? Friends, you’re not alone, these days pretty much everyone is stressed, and sleeping poorly, world events, climate change, workplace stress, financial issues, the high price of model railroading equipment.

Look a few good nights sleep doesn’t cure my ADHD, but I know it doesn’t make it worse, and it can reduce the symptoms noticeably.

One of the things that so many adults with ADHD do is give themselves jet lag every weekend, that they’re so exhausted from the week, they sleep very late on Saturday, possibly even later on Sunday if they’ve been out doing something recreational.

So if you sleep until 10 or 11 :00 you’re certainly not going to be ready for bed at a normal time on Sunday and the cycle replays itself, and many adults with ADHD manage that by arranging for work and lives that allow them to sleep till 10:00 in the morning and they’re fine, but most of us don’t have that luxury, and so lots of adults with ADHD are running on empty.

That impacts the prefrontal lobes of the brain, almost like giving yourself a double dose of ADHD, and you’re going to be very prone to be irritable, to lose your temper, to become more anxious, to become moody if you’re chronically sleep deprived.

One of the unfortunate things about ADHD is that there’s this kind of avalanche effect, or this compounding effect, that you know everybody in the world does better when they get enough sleep, when they eat well, and when they exercise. It doesn’t make you better than you can be but it makes you as good as you can be.

So you know that obvious advice that I call the New Year’s resolution stuff, you know we should probably all be doing a little bit better, but unfortunately adults with ADHD do notably worse on these things, and again not because they don’t know, and not because they don’t intend to, or they don’t have a desire to, but as anyone who’s tried to be on a diet knowing what to do and actually doing it are completely different things.

So you know if you’re tired your focus is not as good, you’re not as motivated you’re not as effective if you’re not eating well, you’re not as effective if you’re not exercising, you’re not as effective because exercise is not only good for your body it’s good for your brain too.

Oh, oh, say that again Ari that’s important.

Because exercise is not only good for your body it’s good for your brain too. So you know the bad side of this is when the person isn’t working on trying to do better with these things, or isn’t able to do better with these things. It makes their ADHD seem worse.

Let’s wrap it up before we all nod off. Good sleep isn’t just helpful for managing ADHD it is fundamental, it is foundational.

It is so much easier to build good habits, better diet, regular exercise, being on time, when you enjoy regular restorative sleep.

Building better habits including getting good sleep is much harder when you’re sleep deprived, which of course is the Catch 22 of 40 Winks. The solution?

The solution to sleep deprivation is is to problem solve to get enough sleep, which and I I don’t you know mean that in a glib way because that’s a very difficult thing for many adults.

Oh I love that, problem solve, experiment, trying out sleep hacks or apps, the good news is there are lots of things you can draw upon to problem solve and get high quality sleep, from app settings on your phones to supplements, from boring bedtime reading to bananas with peanut butter.

I’ll explore those solutions and many others in other videos, for now, if you’re still awake, what tricks apps rituals and so on do you use to sleep sooner, to fall asleep soone,r to stay asleep longer, and to sleep deepe,r let us know in the comments.

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Poor Sleep Doubles Your ADHD

Poor Sleep Doubles Your ADHD

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