It turns out they were right. The whole time. Assholes. I’ve been doing a pretty consistent midnight to 9-9:30 for a couple of months, no screens in my bedroom, just a nightly podcast. And I’m usually asleep inside half an hour. Sometimes well inside. I still sometimes wake up during the night but that’s mainly cos of painful crampy legs from working on my feet all day.
I regret to report that sleep hygiene is in fact a thing.
"have you tried not having adhd"
by the time its bedtime my medication has worn off and its time for my brain to consider 20 complex topics all at once
literally cannot sleep until im exhausted beyond the point of being able to stay awake or i just lay in bed with my mind closed trying to solve imaginary puzzles, plan my life, and address world hunger
I listen to podcasts on my phone with one earplug in. Wired, not bluetooth so no batteries. The podcast shouldn't be anything actually interesting, just enough to keep the brain occupied. I like history, things I'm not really interested in like the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Siam, or super ancient history like Gilgamesh or Ur. Tolkien lore is good, get a 90 minute livestream of Q&A and it keeps the brain busy until sleep arrives.
ive also tried listening to chapo before bed but matts screaming isnt helpful
I have the same problem. I used to put on a movie I found soothing and knew well enough to not keep me awake wondering what would happen next, but the light from the screen wasn't great, so I switched t audiobooks. I have audio editions of several books I've loved since childhood, so they make me feel cozy and keep my brain engaged enough that it won't decide to entertain me with weird bullshit and keep me awake, while not being a new story that's going to keep me awake wondering what happens next. I have no idea if this will work for anyone besides myself, but it might be worth a shot.
So I don't really have ADHD, but I used to have a pretty terrible daily rythm, which caused me a lot of trouble in the last year of my bachelor. What I ended up doing was listening to either real deep dives on Game of Thrones lore, or one of the thousands of Dark Souls lore channels. In particular I can recommend SmoughTown, who seems to have a voice that was made to make you fall asleep. Now a days I don't need it quite as much to fall asleep, since my job has me waking up at 5 AM most weekdays. But if I can feel my brain struggle to go to bed, I just put on :rocz-yes: and the :wtyp-gang:. Their episodes are typically long enough that you don't need to look at the phone, and Rocz's voice is so monotone that you end up asleep pretty quick. Also, they have no adds, so you don't suddenly get jolted awake because some fucking eletronics store has a sale they want to tell you about.