“Being a night owl is a quality that I never associated with ADHD I assumed the pressure of a deadline was what enabled me to stay up all night making Halloween costumes every October 30th! The late-night hours are also the time when solitude is possible and distracting stimulus is gone.” – Janet I finally realized I had Sensory Processing Sensitivity and ADHD, and there are too many distractions during the day.” – Anonymous I often stay up working, writing, and studying until the sun rises, and then sleep until the afternoon.
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“No matter what time I get out of bed, I don’t mentally wake up until the sun is going down. I don’t have people contacting me at night, so I’m not faced with the difficult task of telling people ‘no.’ It’s just me and my work.” – Anonymous “I like to work on my least preferred tasks at night because that’s the time when there are no interruptions and minimal distractions. Only getting three hours of sleep each night, however, did not give me a lot of energy to follow through on these plans.” – Joe Other times, I justified my late nights by using the time to plan a new elaborate system that would help me organize and fix my life. I wasn’t necessarily more productive I just tended to stay up late playing video games and scrolling though social media.
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“I described myself as a night owl for a long time, but I was actually just practicing Revenge Bedtime Procrastination. I tell myself I’ll catch up on sleep during the weekend, but we all know it doesn’t work that way.” – Steve Late nights crash into early mornings and getting the kids ready for school. But with big projects, distraction and procrastination lead to all-nighters. Now, especially since I’ve had kids, nighttime feels like my chance to get work done. “Growing up, nighttime was my private time to read, watch, or listen to whatever I wanted. The vicious cycle continues when my brain wakes up after I get my kids in bed – the house is finally quiet enough for me to process all of the endless stimuli I’ve had thrown at me all day.” – Anonymous I always want to push myself to wake before my kids so I can ease into the craziness of the day, but I am too exhausted from staying up late. “ Staying up late has been a huge issue for me as a stay-at-home mom. Read their stories below and add yours to the Comments section below. But this ADHD symptom is not universally bad, according to the ADDitude readers who said they do their best thinking and creating during the distraction-free quiet of nighttime. This is what adults with ADHD told ADDitude in a recent survey about ‘night owl’ tendencies and drawbacks.Īs we know, ADHD makes it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up by impairing the brain’s ability to sustain and regulate arousal and alertness. We are able to process and focus and create with a special clarity at night - and the later the better, it seems. As the rest of the world tucks into bed, our phones and brains grow quiet.
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The cacophony of life diminishes with the dying light.