Why can't I just go to sleep like everyone else?

You are not bad at sleep. Your clock runs late.

The short version.

Your body clock runs late, and always has

Many ADHD brains send the sleepy signal an hour or two after everyone else's. Midnight to you is ten o'clock to them. That is timing, not stubbornness.

The night is the first hour that is yours

All day you were interrupted, managed, needed. Then the house goes quiet and the day finally feels like your own. Of course you do not want to hand it back.

Lights off is when the thoughts clock in

Nothing to look at, nothing to do, and every unfinished thing from the day arrives at once. A racing mind at bedtime is a brain with no input.

Anchor the morning, not the bedtime

A bedtime is a rule you will argue with at 1 a.m. A wake time is a clock you set once. Same time every day, weekends too, and the night slowly follows.

Set an alarm to start winding down, not to sleep

You do not notice tired until it is 3 a.m., so make the signal external. An alarm at 10:30 does not mean lights out. It means the next thing you open is the last.

Empty your head before the pillow does it

Write down what you would otherwise rehearse in the dark. Tomorrow's first task, the reply you owe, the thing you forgot. On paper, it is not yours to hold.

Put the phone somewhere you have to walk

Not face down. Not on charge by the bed. Another room. The scroll is not a habit you break with willpower at midnight. You just make it further away.

You are not broken at sleep. You are running late on a clock nobody set with you. Dump tomorrow into my.adhd before bed, and let the pillow hold nothing.

How my.adhd helps

Adapted from our carousel series. A starting point, not medical advice — for that, talk to a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist.