I Need Some Sleep | Neurospicy Black Girl

We all need sleep, but if you're neurospicy, you definitely need it more...

Thank you, Softbliss for the discount code for my listeners! Use NEUROSP15 for 15% off your order at softblissearplugs.com

Sources:

• https://www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health/adhd-and-sleep#:~:text=Over%20time%2C%20insomnia%20may%20worsen%20as%20people,restless%2C%20non%2Drefreshing%20sleep%20with%20multiple%20nighttime%20awakenings.
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30176050/
• https://aasm.org/

Transcript

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Before we begin, I want to thank the company SoftBliss for gifting me a sample of their earplugs. They reached out to me and sent me a set because they want to help prevent noise disruption during sleeping. And I gotta say, the earplugs are comfortable. You can go on softblissearplugs.com and use my discount code NEUROSP15 for 15% off your order. That is N E U R O S P 1 5. Thank you again, SoftBliss! And now, let's get on to the episode. Hi, I'm Alani. I'm Black, female, and neurodivergent, aka I lost the genetic lottery. The only thing I could do is pull myself up on my bootstraps and live whatever life takes me. If anyone deserves to profit from my trauma, it's me. That's the life of a Neurospicy Black Girl. Welcome to Neurospicy Black Girl, the only place where you learn that you may physically need sleep, but your mind got other plans for you. I'm Alani, and today we're going to talk about the difficulties of sleep. Look, I think one thing everyone could agree on, no matter what your background is, what generation, etc., that we all need sleep. Sleep is important to everyone. Sleep helps replenish your energy. Sleep is a good escapism method from real life's BS. I love sleep! However, being neurospicy, my mind got other plans and shenanigans. If you have ADHD especially, sleep is another challenge added to the already long list of challenges you gotta deal with. If you're a Neurospicy Black girl, just existing is a lifelong challenge, so I wish sleeping is not a part of that. According to the National Library of Medicine of Biotech Information, people with ADHD are more likely to experience shorter sleep time, problems falling asleep and staying to sleep, and a heightened risk of developing a sleep disorder. Additionally, sleeping problems differ depending on the type of ADHD you have. If you have the more inattentive ADHD, you are more likely to have a later bedtime. If you have the more hyperactive ADHD, you are more likely to suffer from insomnia. And if you're like me who has the combined type of ADHD, then God just hates you. I got most of my information from the Sleep Foundation, so I'll leave the link to the articles in the description. But yeah, sleeping and waking up are terrible and not fun. Let's start with the sleeping part. So, I'm drained all day. Drained from my social battery, drained from being in a toxic, in-person job that has a manager who's in a competent rat-faced spawn from hell, and from other stuff You would think as soon as I get home, I would be tired and fall asleep right away. Well, ironically, when I'm in a room by myself, I'm actually recharging. I somehow gain all of my energy back. Well, one thing for sure is that I am truly an introvert. However, I shouldn't be regaining my energy during the middle of the night. If you remember from my roommates episode, the one where I went on a whole unmedicated, cussing tirade, I mentioned how I used the internet at the late hours because that's when it's the best time to use it. Because no one is awake to use it. It's also the time that I have the most energy. I think I may actually be a vampire. According to my mom, I apparently was bitten by one of her cousins who is a vampire. Yeah, let me try to quickly explain this. So, apparently we have a family member, and uncle or cousin, don't remember who, has vampiric powers. My mom told me that she once saw this relative squeezed through the keyhole of the guest bedroom where my mom and a toddler me were staying, and apparently he sucked my blood. Now that I think about it, I hope that wasn't a weird admission that I was molested or something. Mental illness runs high in both sides of my family, if you couldn't tell by now. Okay, going back to the topic of this episode.[laughs] Falling asleep is hard when your mind is going 100 miles per hour. I'm thinking about getting a new job, thinking about my podcast, thinking about my clients that I edit videos for, thinking about finances, having existential crisis, wanting to revolt against capitalism, you know the usual. And when my mind is energized, then my body sometimes gets energized. I get work done at the late hours of the night, at the expense of my physical health. Let's talk about waking up now. Again, I must be a vampire or another supernatural nocturnal creature, because my body hates waking up. Waking up is like dragging weights around. I feel fatigued, even if I slept for five hours or more. A bad habit of mine is to wake up with my alarm, hit the stop button, and then go, "I can do another 30 minutes!" And then that 30 minutes turns into an hour, and then I'm out here rushing out of my apartment, hurting my flat-foot ass to the subway. I'm running on one sip of black coffee at this point. I try to give myself some grace because it's not really my fault why it's hard for me to get up in the morning. Another thing to consider is that ADHD people could have a delayed circadian rhythm. If you don't know what a circadian rhythm is, it's essentially a natural 24-hour cycle that regulates various physiological and behavioral processes in the body, including sleep-wake patterns, hormone release, and body temperature. Now, with ADHD in mind, most people with ADHD tend to be more alert at night. There is a thing called "delayed sleep-wake disorder," or also known as "delayed sleep-phase syndrome," or DSPS. It is marked by a delay in the sleep-wake cycle of two hours or more, which can negatively impact time-sensitive activities such as work or school. Additionally, you also got other possible scenarios like having a sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, which is where your legs have a tingling sensation to a point that it makes it hard to sleep, and so much more sleep disorders than I have mentioned. Ugh. Sleeping is rough, but don't worry, you do not need to sleep through the pain. That sounded more smooth in my head.[music] Okay, right off the bat, I'll give you the first tip because I think this is the most important one to help with sleeping problems. Go to a doctor and see if you can rule out any possible disorders. My late grandma always told me that prevention is better than the cure, and I take that seriously, especially when it comes to health. Go to your primary care provider and make sure you get every test done as much as possible to rule out health concerns. Your primary care provider will most likely have to refer you to a specialist such as a sleep doctor to do specific tests such as a sleep study. Make sure your insurance is up to date and you know what your co-pays are and such. Don't be afraid to advocate for yourself, especially if you are not too familiar with how insurance works. Tip number two, convince your body to go to sleep faster. What do I mean by this? Basically, make your environment more ready to go to sleep. Dim the lights or have a night light to make the room feel like night. If you like listening to rain sounds or something like that, have that playing in your ear with a speaker. I don't recommend sleeping in headphones if you have a tendency to break them, unless you've got headphones specifically made for that purpose. If you have an eye mask and you feel comfortable wearing one, wear it. Get some silk blankets and comforters, extra clothes if you have curly hair because silk doesn't mess with curly hair. The phone thing may be a tough one, but basically make it so inconvenient for you to get your phone. Have a set to do not disturb during your bedtime and put it far away so you don't feel like getting up to go use it. The more effort you've got to put, the more you want to go to sleep. Now, as far as waking up, tip number three, gamify the way you wake up. Now, with my earlier example with having your phone far away is a good start because what you want to do is set your alarm to the most annoying sound possible. Why? Because it will force you to get up, walk towards your phone to turn it off. When you get up, your brain and body is slowly losing the sleepiness in every step. Additionally, you can time yourself and see you can beat your record for stopping the alarm. If you make it fun, it will help make things easier to wake up. Now, let's see if I can find the most annoying sound ever. I unfortunately did not record the amount of bad subway singers, so I'll keep that in mind the next time I take the train. Thank you for listening to this podcast and thank you SoftBliss again for the earplugs and my poll goes for my audience. Again, it's 50% off using N-E-U-R-O-S-P-1-5 at softblissearplugs.com. Remember, it's okay to be human. Do what's best for you. Tune in next time where something new happens and it won't be boring. Bye! And if you're listening at night time, good night and sweet dreams! If you're listening in the daytime, have a great day![Music]