The Sleepiness of It All

A colleague said: “Sure teens with ADHD like to sleep 11 or 12 hours. So do my own kids.”

“So does my husband,” I retorted. “Does that make him a kid?”

Maybe not, but it does make him a person with ADHD who has sleep problems.

For a long time now, ADHD has been linked to sleep difficulties. Actually I’ve heard that as many as 55 percent of person with ADHD complain of some sort of sleep problems.

For Husband that means he wears an apnea mask, and like many people with ADHD, he often has restless leg actions and jerky movements in his sleep.

Personally, I appreciate the apnea mask. I can actually get a quieter night’s sleep. Before he got it, his snoring kept me awake or on edge each night. The sound often caused me to dream I was driving a truck.

Seriously.

I appreciate the mask for him, though, more than I do for me.

He sleeps better. A rested Husband is less sluggish and moody. Some days, he is even more clever, witty, and funny.  It is well-known that sleep problems can lead to mood disorders and intellectual impairment. Treating sleep problems in children and adults with ADHD may improve symptoms and quality of life.

In the early days of our marriage, I noticed he slept with his lips tightly together. “How come? I mean you don’t snore or drool or anything.”

“I work at not snoring. My Dad snores,and it’s terrible. He also has the worst breath when he sleeps.” 

Honestly, I really didn’t want to hear this about my Father-in-law.

Husband went on to say, “I once asked Mom: can you imagine sleeping with that noise and breath all the time? She got this hurt look on her face. ‘Yes, I can’ she said.  I thought oops, that was the wrong thing to say to her. But I don’t want to be like Dad.”

Of course, as I mentioned, Husband got over his resolve not to snore. Our children used to complain about his loud snoring as he once did about his Dad’s.

“The worst thing about your sleep problems is how they affect your daytime functioning,” I once told him.

“What do you mean?” he said as he looked at me with a drowsy expression.

“The defense rests,” I retorted.

“But I want to tell you, I continued, “Some researchers think ADHD symptoms are caused by sleep deficiency. I know there is a link between sleep problems and ADHD, but I don’t see that sleep problems cause your ADHD symptoms. I think it may be the opposite.”

“Me, too. I used to wet the bed until I was 12 or 13. Maybe that was part of the restlessness.”

“I thought you were going to say one of your smart-aleck comments and say you wet the bed until you were 20 or 21.”

“Well, you know that I can say some really clever things.”

In case you or a loved one is a person with ADHD who has sleep difficulties, I recommend you see your physician or psychiatrist with a description of your sleep problems and a discussion of sleep hygiene.

If you are a person with ADHD, and you experience any type of problem associated with ADHD, we invite you to visit McNay & Voth.

We can meet by phone, face-to-face, or across Skype or Gmail Chat.

Contact us at www.coachadhd.com or phone 316-655-9807.

We sincerely care,

Dr. Atha McNay and McNay & Voth Gateway Community