r/ADHD • u/Dry-Amount-3033 • 14h ago
always tired Seeking Empathy
does anyone else just always feel tired no matter how much sleep they get? I’ve tried every amount of sleep, five hours seven hours nine hours 12 hours shit even 14 hours and no matter what, I’m still always tired! and caffeine only works if I take it literally once a week. If I take more than that, it just makes me MORE tired. I’m about 97% sure I have ADHD, but in the process of being diagnosed, but when I take addie, I actually feel awake. does anyone else have the same problem?
edit: i always sleep through the night too, it’s not like i’m waking up or anything.
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u/Sad_Meringue_4550 14h ago
I am also and have always been very sleepy no matter how much sleep I get. I can sleep a solid 10 hours, wake up for two hours, then nap another 4, multiple days in a row.
Going on Strattera helped a lot, literally the morning after I first took it. It felt like sleeping had actually done something. I'm still sleepier than I want to be but it's still a lot better. I'm slowly figuring out the pattern of sleepiness because for me it comes out of nowhere and also can disappear without sleeping. It seems to be strongly related to lack of useful stimulation, like if I'm reluctant to stay focused on work, bam I'm so sleepy I could cry. It tends to not happen when I'm at home engaged in something. I'm still working out how to get that stimulation someplace like work, but also am planning on asking my doctor to try stimulants, just to see if they help.
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u/Voges22 14h ago
Eh might be ADHD related. I have/had this problem, stimulants don’t make a huge difference, they just make it easier to get up and get going.
What really helped me with this issue is diet. I function a whole lot better on higher protein and animal fats as opposed to carbs. Slowly started eating more meat and cutting crap from my diet. The result was my ADHD symptoms were not a severe and I could wake up easily. (Often before my alarm’s went off.)
Of course this isn’t a diet Reddit, just what helped me.
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u/TheDarkCastle 10h ago
This may sound nuts but I need to sleep different times in order to be rested and ok sometimes i need 6 other times I need 8 sometimes it is 10. It depends where my brain and body is in some strange sleep cycle of need.
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u/OUCakici 6h ago
I am quite similar. 2-6 night sleep with a 10-13 nap for instance works for me quite well.
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u/Defiant-Strawberry17 9h ago
Yup. I can sleep from 8-5, get up for the day and then by mid-morning I'm exhausted. By the afternoon I can hardly keep my eyes open. By 7 I'm falling asleep on the couch. My blood work is fine. I take iron for anemia, vitamin D, and vitamin B12. My thyroid is fine. There is nothing really "wrong" with me. I don't understand it, but for as long as I can remember I've always been a tired person.
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u/JudiesGarland 4h ago
Get your iron levels checked. I had to start eating meat again because I couldn't get my iron levels up any other way. I was taking my meds and then napping for an hour until they showed up to give me 2 hours of working and 1 hour of wishing for death, every 4 hours. Worst. Pomodoro variant. ever.
Vitamin D is also tied into fatigue, and if you live in the Northern Hemisphere you are probably not getting what you need from the sun.
Having no memory of waking up doesn't necessarily mean you are sleeping well through the night. You can get a sense of your sleep patterns with a sleep tracker device, but a full on sleep study is more accurate.
In summary - talk to a doctor. Feeling tired after sleeping 14 hours isn't normal. From an ADHD perspective, keeping a sleep log is helpful for talking to a doc about it - my brain/memory tends to either idealize or catastrophize my patterns - aka, personally I often over, or under, estimate how much sleep I'm actually getting, especially when put on the spot to talk about it, like in an appointment.
Good luck! Hope you figure it out soon.
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u/whaffleagenda 3h ago
I second the vitamin D suggestion. Your dr can run a simple blood test to see if you’re deficient which so many people are! I literally thought I was going to have to go on disability I was so tired and couldn’t function. Nope, just needed vitamin D.
Other than that, try to get up at the same time every day. Consistency is often more important than actual hours of sleep. And expose yourself to sunlight as soon as you can in the morning which can help regulate your sleep-wake cycle.
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u/Lisotogoto 14h ago
you may be tired but at least you get the sleep while i’m tired without sleep. idk what you should do maybe ask your therapist about it and take supplements like melatonin or something else i forgot for better Quality of sleep
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u/Dry-Amount-3033 14h ago
yep, it’s so frustrating since i prioritize sleep so much! but i’m still always tired! i talked to my psychiatrist and he said to ask my doctor. but i feel like it’s not my quality of my sleep that’s the issue either bc i never wake up in the middle of the night or anything i always sleep thru the night so it’s weird
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u/childoffate08 14h ago
Wake ups isn't always a good factor to go off of. A lot of people have sleep apnea without realizing it because they don't wake up at night or if they do wake up it's not enough to remember but still enough to disrupt sleep. Wouldn't hurt to talk to your doctor and mention your concerns.
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u/Secretcocoa 13h ago
Yep! Everytime tired...I tried medication to help my sleep quality and it didn't work!! I learned to quantify my activities. I have a combined adhd so I'm either hyperactive or inactive...
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u/Necessary-Peanut4226 6h ago
If I sleep well I’m still tired all day unless I take adderall. If I didn’t sleep well I’m still tired and yawning all day. Adderall helps give me the motivation to get up and going but doesn’t really take the exhaustion away.
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u/sam0sara 6h ago
Are you tired through the whole day? As in, not even first couple hours after waking up are fine, or the last few before falling asleep?
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u/AwardKey3907 5h ago
I said this recently "I could get 100 hours sleep id still wake u like crap and be tired" this week ive been ranging from 5-6 hours as up a 5am for work , Wednesday it got worse tired grumpy doing my own head in. tired on the way to work tired at work tired on the way home come bed time awake, Now ive made it to friday,
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u/Fun_Investigator9412 5h ago
If caffeine has only little to no effect, you may check your cortisol levels, which is the hormone emitted when taking caffeine. Too low on cortisol during the day means fatigue. A dirunal cortisol profile can clarify if there's a problem in that area.
Also see if there's something wrong with you sleep. You need good regular sleep to be refreshed in the morning. If that's not the case, you can sleep 15 hours and it won't help. Poor fitness and snoring may indicate sleep apnea, but it can also happen if everything looks fine.
If cortisol & sleep apnea (sleep quality in general) are ok and you still have your problems and they last for at least 6 month, you have to consider something in the direction of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Buy yourself a health watch that takes continuous measurements of your core body temperature and tracks your sleep. Body temperature is not constant, but has its own curve. If there's something bigger off with you, the temperature curve can provide you with answers.
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u/KuhlCaliDuck 4h ago
I used to wake up pissed off because I felt that I was just finally getting some good sleep and then needing to wake up. I never really felt like I slept well at night. My wife figured out I had sleep apnea and now using a CPAP and my sleep is much better in that I don't drop F bombs when I wake up.
I'm ADHD Combined type. Overall I'm tired throughout the day, Adderall helps. My blood work is fine. I wake up in the middle of the night about half the time and can't get back to sleep so I use Sonata. I just recently stopped drinking alcohol, 6 days now, but no change in my sleep pattern or daily tiredness
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u/othertigs 3h ago
I am like this. Just diagnosed. I got an Oura ring to make sure that I wasn’t having breathing difficulties/to see how often I was waking at night. I just started stimulants and I feel like this is helping a little.
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u/Oldisnotdead 1h ago
Sounds pretty familiar. I've felt constantly tired since I was a teenager. No matter how much sleep I got, I was always tired or very tired. Countless doctor visits and tests later, I sought help with my concentration so I could study a new profession. Somewhat unexpectedly, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Now the medication I'm on is lisdexamfetamine and it's the first medication that makes me feel "normal" at least in the sense that I don't feel constantly tired during the day. ADHD can be the cause of constant fatigue, especially if no other explanation can be found.
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u/Inevitable_Essay1445 ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) 1h ago
Check your cortisol level + symptoms of sleep apnea (especially if you are overweight like me)
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