Anyone else feeling like they have 47 tabs open today, like in this song? https://youtu.be/-K-G0cMf9fA?si=k5If8XoiApFpxX79 Curious to know what you all do to keep yourself on track and not distracted by shiny things! How many tabs are you at today?

Sleep isn’t a luxury for our brains (especially with ADHD). It’s the maintenance system that lets everything else work. When our sleep is poor, focus, mood, memory, and follow-through take a hit too. I’m a clinical neuropsychologist, and I teach behavioral sleep strategies every day. I put together a short, practical resource on brain-friendly sleep habits (things like realistic wind-down routines, protecting your sleep window, and how to handle racing thoughts at night). It also has a checklist at the end so you can track how you are doing in these areas. It’s purely educational, not medical advice, but I hope it gives you some concrete ideas to try. I hope the sleep resource helps, and cheers to prioritizing your sleep! 🙂

I used to struggle with my sleep for years. I spent the whole night gaming and finally went to bed at 12 or 1am, when I had to wake up at 5:30am for work. Not because I felt tired, but because I felt I had to at least get a little bit of sleep. And when I got into bed I struggled to sleep, I tried forcing it and it never worked. I just laid there with thoughts racing through my head for hours, occasionally checking how many hours I had left until I needed to wake up. On lots of nights it was 3 or 4am before I eventually managed to fall asleep and only 1-2 hours until I had to wake up for work. The only time I managed to sleep easily was when it was time to get out of bed. During this time I also barely exercised. I was spending 16+ hours per day sat at my desk constantly getting dopamine from gaming, social media, and junk food. My diet consisted of cereals, crisps, chocolate, microwave ready meals, and sugary drinks. And these all contributed to getting poor sleep. Reading this you might have noticed a problem with my lifestyle and that it could be the cause of my terrible sleep. And it wasn’t just my sleep that suffered. I had no confidence, self conscious because of my acne, no social skills, skinny fat, no goals or direction in life, and I didn’t want to do anything except play RuneScape and League of Legends. I lived like this for years and thought I had insomnia. I felt like I had no energy during the day, so I never wanted to exercise or be outside. Little did I know at the time that it was my lifestyle that was the cause of my poor sleep. Not a medical condition. I was trying to force myself to sleep, which just made actually getting to sleep worse. It was only after I started to take responsibility and improve my lifestyle and other behaviours when my sleep finally started to improve. I forced myself to stop gaming at certain times so I would prioritise things that actually matter instead. I joined a gym and I worked out 4-5 days per week at 7am.

Posted this in my Skool already but thought you all might appreciate it as well. Here is an autostereogram with a hidden message to remind you of something today 😁 Here is what to do to see it: 1. Hold your phone close (or sit ~10″ from your screen). 2. Relax your eyes like you’re looking through the screen. 3. Slowly move back, let it blur, then let the depth “pop.” 4. When it pops, hold steady for a second. The hidden figure appears.(If it’s tough, increase screen brightness and try again in good lighting.) Tip: Try to notice your faint reflection on the screen, that can help your eyes relax. Happy Monday!

Can you relate? And maybe help with some tips? So, right now, I am in a constant state of overwhelm and confusion. Things, that used to help, seem to be fruitless. I give you an example: I wake up at 6:30 and start the day with the intent to not let my overwhelm take over. So I sit down to start journaling. Very helpful practice. After two sentences, something crosses my mind that feels super urgent and important. I stop writing. I start breathing deeply, try to focus, get back to my journal, write another sentence. Suddenly I jump up, because another thought just crossed my mind and made me get up without even realizing that I wanted to continue writing in my journal. I somehow end up in the kitchen and have no idea, why I went there. Anyway, there are dirty dishes in the sink, so I start washing up. While doing this, my mind plays ping pong, and I wonder, if journaling might help. I remember that I had started doing this a few minutes before and think, brilliant, let me just quickly make a coffee, so I can concentrate better. While the machine is spitting out hot concentration concentrate, I wonder, if I have messaged a friend of mine about this interesting thing, I mentioned yesterday and promised to send a link. I grab my phone, open WhatsApp, the coffee machine burps the last drop of coffee into the mug. I place my phone on the counter, and finish preparing my coffee. On the way out of the kitchen, I remember to go back and fetch my phone! Big win! I did not forget it entirely! I look at my phone while sitting down on the couch and try to retrieve the thing I wanted to do on my phone from my brain. Never mind, I will remember later. Maybe, if I distract myself with a ten-minute YouTube video, the thought will come back. For the next two hours, I sip my coffee while my ten-minute video is playing, feeling paradoxically relaxed and stressed at the same time. It's only been ten minutes, my coffee is empty and I feel hungry. I get up, go to the kitchen for breakfast and start washing up the dirty dishes. I should go around my flat and see, if there are more dirty dishes standing around.