Often people with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) will have difficulty falling or staying asleep at some point in his or her lifetime. This condition known as insomnia can happen at any age and for many reasons. Insomnia or lack of sleep can cause people to feel unfocused, irritable, and have difficulty in concentration.

Acute or sudden onset of sleeplessness may be due to lifestyles changes at home, work, or school and usually will resolve itself as quickly as it began, especially once the stressful event or life style change ends.

Chronic insomnia is a persistent inability to sleep over a longer period, despite changes to lifestyle to promote healthful sleep. Some people have had insomnia for a lifetime and although he or she may feel, they have accepted and adapted to life with insomnia, the truth is insomnia can affect all aspects of our health and can be life threatening if left untreated.

The experts have varying opinions as to whether one can ‘catch up on sleep’ later, and many feel once sleep deprived you are simply out of luck. However, if you are able to take a short power nap during the day you may feel more energized and able to concentrate better.

Insomnia, which is the inability to fall or stay asleep, can happen in several different intervals. Initial insomnia is the difficulty falling asleep when one first lies down in bed. Middle insomnia happens when someone is able to fall asleep initially but wakes up after one or two hours later and has difficulty falling back to sleep. Terminal insomnia is difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep throughout the night.

One’s idea of actual amount or lack of sleep may vary greatly from one’s perceived amount of sleep. Keeping a sleep log will help narrow down the true amount of missed sleep. Chronic insomniacs often believe the amount of sleep acquired nightly is less than the true amount gained. Understandably as one tosses, turns, and watches the sky go from pitch black to light gray.

One key factor to promoting regular sleep cycles is maintaining the same bedtime and rise times. This can also be one of the hardest steps for chronic insomnia suffers. The consistency in bed and rise time will help in the end, and do not change despite work, school, or time off schedule changes.

Many people with ADD/ADHD are simply night people and seem to prefer waking up late and staying up late, which is fine if your job, school, and home life allow this freedom. Another reason an ADD/ADHD person may not go to bed is he or she is hyper-focused on a project and becomes unaware of how quickly time is passing. If this is the problem using a timer, set at intervals of 15 to 30 minutes may help to remind the person to stop and go to bed.

Several common causes of insomnia that affect people with ADD/ADHD are easily treatable. Racing thoughts are common for those with ADD/ADHD, and essentially the person is unable to stop the vicious cycle of constant thoughts that will run through one’s brain late at night, and once the head hits the pillow the mind is wide-awake, despite the physical exhaustion.

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is another common find for ADD people. Restless legs feel antsy and jumpy like there are ants crawling inside the legs, causing the legs to be on constant motion. Eating a banana, which is a good source of potassium, is one way to help quiet restless legs. Sleep apnea and snoring are other causes of insomnia, and are easily treatable by a family doctor.

Think about when you go to bed, and ask yourself is your room to dark, light, cold, hot, or noisy. A fan may cause enough white noise to drown out the street noise. Experts suggest using the bedroom only for sleeping and relaxing. That means no televisions, computers, video games, or paying bills in the bedroom.

It is common to take 30 minutes to an hour to fall asleep, yet much more than that is frustrating and it might help to mention it to a doctor who can evaluate if medications, allergies, or other medical conditions are contributing to the problem. Being chronically tired is a problem and causes us to be less alert and that can be dangerous if we are driving or working with machines. Chronic insomnia is a health issue and needs to be addressed with a physician.