Since I was a child I've always been hard to rouse in the mornings. There were many Calvin & Hobbes strips hanging on our fridge, and once I was able to pick my own bedtimes and mornings, I would easily sleep in till 2 PM.
This is no surprise, as ADHD circadian rhythms are famously weird. As an adult with a job that relies on other people's schedules fitting with my work, I obviously find myself in a position where I can't so much pick and choose and I'm now a very early bird. Getting up never stopped being hard, though, and in the past year I've come to realise that while I could definitely do with getting more sleep, the quality of the sleep I get is just pish.
I've used an app called Sleep Cycle on my phone for years, primarily because it's the only effective alarm I've had that isn't obnoxious. It has audio-based sleep tracking, which probably isn't the most accurate considering I have a second human and a dog snoozing in the same room and two cats that run wild all night. However, when I wake up and feel particularly rough or rested it seems to bear out in the report from the last night's sleep.
I can get to sleep just fine most days now, as long as I steer clear of caffeine in the latter half of the day, don't take my ADHD meds too close to bedtime and distract myself from ruminating. It's the sleep I get once I'm there that's really never improved.
So I've been on a mission to fix this.
So far I've tried:
ZMA: Zinc, Magnesium and Vitamin B6
This is a supplement trifecta the Health Bros have been pushing hard. I generally take these supplement trends with a pinch of salt, but I've been willing to give it a try. I can't honestly say it's done anything for me.
Ear plugs
Obviously having proper silence is beneficial. The only plugs I've found that don't give me massive sensory issues in the middle of the night and wake me up tearing them out of my ears are wax ones, and lately even those have not been doing the job. When they work, it's amazing, but if the fit isn't 100% I get really interrupted sleep. The obvious answer is to get professionally fitted reusable plugs, but I'm not sure I'm ready to make the jump.
Eye Mask
Having complete darkness does help! But again, even with the super comfy satin mask my partner Cal got me I end up waking up most nights having pulled them up or down in my sleep and having to replace them. Clearly there's some sensory stuff going on. I've not given up on them, but I'm having a break at the moment.
I think both the mask and the plugs are really an individual thing. I'd love to hear from people who've tried them for whom they work really well.
Less/ No Tech at night
Honestly... I've tried but not super hard. I love scrolling before bed!
It's a funny things, because I get the principle, but it's also (mostly) comforting to have a wee scroll, and I do keep my screen at the lowest settings of brightness. I'm currently reading Uzumaki for some lovely relaxed evening reading away from screens, and I do enjoy and should do more of that, but while it helps me get to sleep I'm not sure it helps the quality of my sleep.Melatonin
I'm finally trialling Melatonin! Melatonin is a hormone produced in our brain during sleep, and is crucial for regulating sleep cycles. My GP was incredibly sceptical when I came to them about melatonin, but because I've been trying so many different things, they relented.
It's been less than a month, but I can feel a clear difference between the days I don't take it and the days I do. According to my trackers, my initial deep sleep phase is longer and the REM cycles much more regular and uninterrupted.
It's incredibly frustrating that melatonin is a prescription-only medication in the UK and that apparently the official NHS line is that it's generally only used for children and adults should just deal with it, I guess. Thankfully, I'm able to access it now, but it shouldn't be this hard!
What's YOUR experience?
So that's all the stuff I've been getting up to, how about you? Anyone else with similar struggles and have you found things that worked for you? If you try stuff out yourself, please let me know how you found them, especially if you did things a bit differently in a way that work.