Tired but Wired: Why ADHD Makes Sleep Harder

As a Certified Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) therapist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and ADHD specialist who also has ADHD, I teach people how to reduce stress and create the conditions that make sleep more likely.

My area of expertise isn’t sleep supplements, herbs, or products. It’s the thoughts, behaviors, and routines that affect sleep.

People with ADHD are more likely to struggle with sleep. We tend to have active minds, inconsistent schedules, and often a delayed circadian rhythm. In other words, many of us are natural night owls. Unfortunately, being exhausted doesn’t necessarily mean your brain is ready to turn off.

One thing I teach my clients is that sleep is a 24-hour process. What you do throughout the day, and sometimes even the days before, affects how easily you sleep tonight. Stress, stimulation, routines, activity, light exposure, and how you respond to your thoughts all matter.

One of my favorite techniques for ADHD brains is worry postponement. Instead of trying to solve every problem that pops into your head at bedtime, you designate a specific “worry time” during the day. When a worry comes up, you remind yourself, I have time set aside for this tomorrow.

This teaches your brain to compartmentalize worries rather than turning bedtime into problem-solving time. Interestingly, when worry time arrives, sometimes the thing that felt incredibly important at 11:30 p.m. doesn’t seem very important anymore.

ADHD brains can also use thinking and rumination as a form of stimulation. We are very good at keeping ourselves mentally entertained, which is great in many situations but not particularly helpful when we're trying to fall asleep.

For an active ADHD brain, simply lying in a dark room and trying to “think about nothing” may not work. Instead, I teach people to replace highly stimulating activities with calming forms of stimulation. Progressive muscle relaxation, box breathing, sleep stories, calming music, or a weighted blanket may give the brain and body just enough input without keeping them awake.

The goal isn’t to force yourself to sleep. You actually can’t force sleep. The goal is to create the physical and mental conditions that allow your brain to finally say, Okay, there’s nothing else I need to do right now.

For an ADHD brain, sometimes learning how to sleep better starts with learning how to be a little less interesting to yourself at bedtime.