Has this ever happened to you? You’re doing your usual morning routine which is always hectic. You make it to work without seriously maiming your kids, spouse, other drivers on the road, and co-workers. You start your busy day and at some point during the day you wonder if you took your AD/HD medicine this morning. As the day progresses you notice you’re not getting things done, you feel scattered, and by the afternoon you have trouble finding the right words and you can’t make decisions.
This reminds you of how you were before you started taking medication.
If this ever happens to you, take a look at your sleep. In my experience 95% of the time when someone feels like their medicine works sometimes and not others or even loses its effectiveness completely, sleep deprivation is the cause.
Studies show that sleeping less than your optimal time in bed can cause:
- lapses of attention
- difficulty holding thoughts in your head and finding words
- difficulty making decisions
- depressed mood
- ruminating thoughts.
That sounds a lot like many AD/HD symptoms.
The other way you can tell sleep deprivation is affecting your productivity is if you notice that you’re more productive on Monday than on Friday (assuming you have weekends off and catch up on your sleep over the weekend).
Remember, getting enough sleep is one way of taking care of yourself and in times when you’re more stressed than usual, sleep is even more important.
Article by: Dr. Heather Brannon
