OK so I'm sure i've said this before but let me tell you a little hack that *may* help you quiet your busy brain and get to sleep if you have #ADHD.

first - disclaimer - there are a lot of reasons people with #ADHD suffer from sleep-related issues. If you have been chronically underslept let me remind you that <6hrs of sleep a night on the reg will certainly exacerbate your ADHD symptoms so it's worth it to keep working on it

(that being said I know it is SO HARD and if you are a warrior in the War Of Eternally Trying To Get Better Sleep And Failing, I have empathy and love for you!)

okay, so on to the tip:
have you ever been like "*yawn* i'm tired and I really want to get a good night's sleep, I'm going to go to bed!" and then you lay down.... AND THEN YOUR BRAIN IS SO BUSY? like, you start thinking troubling, upsetting, embarrassing or scary thoughts

you get existential dread, you remember something you forgot to do, an upsetting conversation gets dredged up and you are suddenly mad or crying, or your brain just goes down a rabbithole about something and next thing you know you're Googling the history of Himalayan Salt Lamps?

Our brains are constantly looking for the best source of stimulation in the room. It's why we sometimes have trouble focusing. The most interesting thing is what gets our attention. *YOU* may want to sleep but YOUR BRAIN THINKS SLEEP IS BORING AND IT IS SCARED OF IT

So when you lay down with the intention to sleep, your brain has a different agenda. It doesn't wanna go to sleep. So it starts rooting through boxes in the proverbial attic to stimulate itself.

Upsetting conversation from 3 years ago? = strong emotional response
Fear of death? = strong emotional response
Unsolvable world problem? = strong emotional response
Important email you forgot to send? = Strong emotional response

Interesting topic you wanna write a blog post about? Curious about random thing? Just remembered a thing you suddenly wanna do RIGHT NOW?

All of this creates stimulation and excitement in your brain and keeps your brain amused. It also keeps you awake.

THE TIP:

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO WHAT YOUR BRAIN WANTS TO DO. YOU ARE NOT A PRISONER OF YOUR BRAIN'S IMPULSES AND THOUGHTS.

This essentially boils down to mindfulness or what's known as 'metacognition'.

When you lay down to sleep, notice the moment that your brain starts gearing up, say to yourself 'my brain is bored. it's trying to think about something upsetting'.

When it switches to curiosity about whatever happened to the voice actor who played SpongeBob, think, 'my brain is scared to sleep. It wants to think about curious thoughts'

Keep flagging and categorizing thoughts

It might take a few minutes and you might need to repeat this like, ten times. But essentially what you're doing is stepping OUTSIDE the thought and taking back control. You might add the thought, "my brain wants to be busy but I want to sleep so I'm not gonna listen".

Imagine that your brain is an actual person in the bed beside you & it keeps talking. You have one agenda; it has another. You can tell your brain to shut up.

"my brain doesn't want to sleep. It's trying to think about something upsetting. I want to sleep. SHUT UP BRAIN!"

When it pipes up again, just use good boundaries with your own brain. As soon as you start slipping into another rabbithole or train of thought, keep coming back to "nope! I'm not having this conversation right now!"

Yes, it is important to know what happened to the actor who played SpongeBob. Certainly you should think more about that rude thing your mother in law said to you recently. Absolutely one must ponder life after death! BUT YOU DONT HAVE THINK ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW.

If you're still struggling you might try doing a bit of a 'body scan' and going from head to toe, just noticing where you are holding tension in your body, breathing deeply, focusing on relaxing. It might take a few repetitions of doing this.

The key thing here is to remember that YOU HAVE A STRATEGY TO TRY. That's the hardest part; we look for solutions to solve our problems but in the moment we are so wrapped up in whatever the thing *is* that we forget to actually USE the strategies we so carefully researched.

If you are reading this and you want to try this, the hard part won't be doing it, the hard part will be remembering that it is a thing you can try the next time you're staring at the back of your eyelids wondering who the Queen of England's proctologist is.

I don't have a silver bullet for that, but it could look like a post it note next to your bed, on your bathroom mirror, asking a partner to remind you at bedtime,

if you know you'll be tempted to go to your phone, put the post it note on the front of your phone screen that says "YOUR BRAIN IS TRYING TO KEEP YOU AWAKE, YOU CAN CHOOSE TO NOT ENGAGE IT. DON'T GO ON YOUR PHONE, YOU WANT TO BE BETTER RESTED!" or something like that

i find it helpful to include a reminder of what i'm trying to accomplish along with the reminder. Not just "don't drink soda!" but "don't drink soda! you're trying to cut down on sugar and you have to keep choosing water to do that!" or something like that.

Anyway, hope this helps someone out there, happy ZZZZs!