A Lot Is Finally Adding Up

by Jonathan
(Georgia)

I am a 22 year old male and have had difficulty falling asleep at the proper time since I was 7. I would often be put to bed at 9 PM when I was younger, but I would stay up reading books under the covers, quietly playing with toys, sneaking out to the kitchen for food, etc. This continued all through elementary, middle, and high school.

My family would often tease me about sleeping in until 2 PM on the weekends and would often force me to wake up. When I started college, my doctor diagnosed me with chronic insomnia and prescribed Ambien. This worked great until I was also diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Adderall, which exacerbated the insomnia to some extent.

After reading this article, I realized that I had been inadvertently treating myself for DSPS for the last few years!

My freshman year I had a terrible sleep schedule, often going to bed at 2 or 3 AM. Once I started heavier classwork, I began a more consistent sleep schedule, usually turning in by 11 or 12 fairly successfully. Unfortunately, I would occasionally have to stay up late working on a paper or project, which reset my clock and it would be several days before I would "accidentally" reset it.

Now that I've graduated and am unemployed at the moment, it's difficult to get on a consistent sleep pattern. But thanks to this article and a few other ones that I've found around the internet, I now know how to get myself back on track, especially since I'll be starting a new job next week!

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Kevin: Hey Jonathan, so glad to hear things are making sense for you, and that you're taking the time and the introspection to put the pieces together. I hope it really makes a big difference for you.

I wonder too if when you're sleep schedule is consistent (and I'm not sure if you're getting sleep deprived on your current schedule or not), the symptoms of ADD will start to melt away too. It's an interesting relationship ADD and sleep problems have, because any kind of sleep deprivation can produce negatives towards ones ability to concentrate, and often feelings of hyperactivity, and an ADD diagnosis is sometimes made in error when the real problem is sufficient quality sleep.

Just a thought. It may not apply in your particular situation. But in any case, congratulations on getting back on track!

Warmly,
Kevin