after spending more than 20+ years in formal education, I finally realised...

I've reached a point where I have completely stopped relying on the traditional education system because it repeatedly failed me.

Throughout school and college, I barely understood anything in class. Standard teaching methods just don't work for me. I need repetition 100x, novelty through mnemonics, engagement by making a funny story with all the stuff I have to learn using a chatbot, active learning, and information broken into smaller pieces. I can study on my own in short bursts of 5 minutes every hour of the day and retain more than I ever did sitting in a classroom, which was... nothing, I could never pay attention or understand anything, the books had everything written in such a disorganised and such a complex manner I could not understand anything by reading them, and teachers could not repeat the same thing 100 times for me like I needed.

I had the same issue with hobbies. Singing classes, guitar classes, dance classes... nothing really worked. I thought I just couldn't learn anything.

Then I realized I had ADHD and started rebuilding EVERYTHING around it.

Gym? ADHD-friendly.

Food? ADHD-friendly.

Singing? ADHD-friendly.

Dance? ADHD-friendly.

Studying? ADHD-friendly.

It honestly feels like learning to walk again.

I had a sudden epiphany:

I could learn stuff, just not boring stuff and the stuff that isn't taught to me in the right way.

Now I have recently become a neurodivergent psychologist specialising in ADHD, but I learnt all concepts on my own because lectures and internships often felt unstructured to me, lectures feel like 60 year old outdated stuff being told to us by a professor who is doing the job out of some compulsion. The internships were just, 'see patients like you are already a psychologist, but with no payment, and the supervisor will just sit in their office doing nothing'.

Ironically, the things that actually help me learn are private tutors, YouTube tutorials, Reddit discussions, self-study, chatbots, making songs around the stuff I have to learn and adapting information into a format my brain can work with.

after this experience, we mods of this subreddit are making another subreddit called r/ExamEngineering, it is the systematic study of optimizing the encoding, retention, retrieval, and application of information for measurable academic performance outcomes

I was only recently diagnosed with ADHD and started reading about how to deal with ADHD symptoms when medicine isn't sold in one's country, now I work as an ADHD coach with everything I have learnt

But this post is about my experience last year! :)

I started exercising last year after a break of 4 years because I read that it improves dopamine tone and exercise isn't just some weight loss or muscles technique, it's very good for ADHD, and guess what...after around 2 weeks, exercise started giving me dopamine (my hypothesis) that I previously chased through food, Junk food became way less interesting for my brain, and the hunger basically...died

second thing, stabilizing my circadian rhythm for ADHD was also something I learnt I could do, I learnt I have to wake up at the same time and get sunlight, I used to avoid sunlight earlier because I was afraid of skin damage, but I learnt that a few minutes of exposure daily in the early morning is actually good rather than harmful, it was the one thing that helped me the most with ADHD but it also somewhat reduced random hunger spikes

third, meditation with the lights turned off and using my breath or heart beat or the noise of the clock as an anchor made me much more aware of my stomach signals instead of eating automatically.

Weirdly, ab exercises reduced binge urges the most for me in this ENTIRE JOURNEY

The surprising part is that people usually say exercise increases appetite and causes them to eat more, for me it did almost the opposite.

for me, junk food started feeling less appealing and I liked to drink more water instead

I’m wondering if some of my binge eating was actually dopamine-seeking + executive dysfunction rather than pure hunger.

I was only recently diagnosed with ADHD and started reading about how to deal with ADHD symptoms when medicine isn't sold in one's country, now I work as an ADHD coach with everything I have learnt

But this post is about my experience last year! :)

I started exercising last year after a break of 4 years because I read that it improves dopamine tone and exercise isn't just some weight loss or muscles technique, it's very good for ADHD, and guess what...after around 2 weeks, exercise started giving me dopamine (my hypothesis) that I previously chased through food, Junk food became way less interesting for my brain, and the hunger basically...died

second thing, stabilizing my circadian rhythm for ADHD was also something I learnt I could do, I learnt I have to wake up at the same time and get sunlight, I used to avoid sunlight earlier because I was afraid of skin damage, but I learnt that a few minutes of exposure daily in the early morning is actually good rather than harmful, it was the one thing that helped me the most with ADHD but it also somewhat reduced random hunger spikes

third, meditation with the lights turned off and using my breath or heart beat or the noise of the clock as an anchor made me much more aware of my stomach signals instead of eating automatically.

Weirdly, ab exercises reduced binge urges the most for me in this ENTIRE JOURNEY

The surprising part is that people usually say exercise increases appetite and causes them to eat more, for me it did almost the opposite.

for me, junk food started feeling less appealing and I liked to drink more water instead

I’m wondering if some of my binge eating was actually dopamine-seeking + executive dysfunction rather than pure hunger.

one mistake I always see therapists make when it comes to ADHD is not understanding that treating ADHD is somewhat like treating a newbie to do push ups, you don't tell them to do 20 push ups a day, you see if the newbie has some deficiencies or sleep problems, give them some creatine, start with 2-3 knee push ups a day before they can even do one push up and calibrate the difficulty after listening to and observing the client

whenever I went to a therapist, they would think that my ADHD is simply a routine problem and would wtite me hours and hours of detailed routines to follow as in I could even do that.

when I would say that it is not possible for me to do that, they would say that I am using my ADHD as an excuse rather than fighting it.

later when I myself became an ADHD coach, I realised that ADHD treatment is somewhat like going to the gym and building muscle, but you cannot see the muscle and the equipment, it's all in your head.

if a person has ADHD, the treatment isn't to make an impossible routine for them, it is to pick the easiest and the most effective stuff FIRST to IMPROVE THEIR executive function to a point where they can actually do the stuff they need doing

for example, when I used to go to therapy, I would be told to study 3 hours a day, using....pomodoro, that would totally help my ADHD apparently

but now as an ADHD coach, I don't even start with studying or the stuff the client actually needs to be doing, we start with things that help executive function first and the easiest stuff like...

check and correct any deficiencies that the client may have if they complain about weakness/fatigue with ADHD

recommend the patient to get medicated

wake up at roughly the same time for 2 weeks and get 15 minutes of sunlight

that's literally it, one goal, one easy goal, it doesn't even have to be perfectly at the same time every day, the idea is to stabilise the circadian rhythm and stabilise the biology, the easy stuff, no willpower nonsense, just biology

once these things have been done, the symptoms of the patients usually improve A LOT, to an extent where I am comfortable advising the patient to add things to their routine every 2 weeks like 5 minutes of exercise, which in turn improves executive function even more, and after that, only after that, we start thinking about adding the stuff to the daily routine that the client actually wants to do like the chores and studying and the work

basically, it takes me around 2-4 months usually to get my clients from 0 to a point where they can actually start doing the boring and important stuff in life, while most therapists like to pretend the client will immediately become 'disciplined' in the first session

ADHD treatment to me feels like gym for the brain, only that you can't see the equipment

Recently came across some LinkedIn posts from my therapist that came across as pretty misandrist...like she believes all men want to rape women and that men are inherently born evil...

As a male client of hers, this honestly made me uncomfortable and now I’m worried that her personal beliefs might affect how she perceives or interprets my experiences..besides, I do not want to share anything with her anymore as I believe she is probably thinking bad stuff about me while pretending to be nice to my face, I suffer from GAD so I might be overreacting?

Part of me thinks I might be overreacting based on something outside the therapy room. Another part of me feels like this is a valid concern and that I should consider switching therapists.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Is this a red flag, or should I bring it up with her before making a decision?

note: this is actually a repost from our partner subreddit r/ADHDAutismAsia

I have struggled with sleep for basically my entire life until now as a person with ADHD, my dopamine spikes at random hours and crashes at random hours, most people with ADHD struggle with sleep and only recently realized how overpowered and underrated sleep is for everything (building muscles, skincare, mental health), talked about this in great detail elsewhere, this is actually a repost of my post from r/ADHDAutismAsia

I have finally fixed my sleep routine and consistently sleep 7-9 hours every night at roughly the same time and wake up at roughly the same time

I am sharing everything that helped me:

#1. Melatonin

OVERPOWERED FOR ME!

Used 0.3-0.5mg melatonin sublingual. makes you yawn a few times and you will sleep in 1 hour. Sublingual works faster for me than oral. Basically melatonin tells your brain that it is night and for me, my body doesn't naturally produce melatonin consistently at the same time every day, so I take this supplement and it is what has helped me the most. I take my melatonin, turn on some dumb show on my phone, melatonin makes me yawn for 1 hour and then I sleep

#2. Magnesium spray on feet

You can use some magnesium spray on feet, it really helps in sleeping, use it if melatonin doesn't work for you!

This magnesium spray stuff isn't really backed by science but it has worked for a lot of people I have seen, so keep that in mind that this recommendation is based on my anecdotes, not hard science.

#3. glycine powder

It helps some people in sleeping, I personally use it. It basically calms your body and makes you less restless during the night. It's stronger than melatonin for me, I take 5g every night 3 hours sleep

#4. Lukewarm shower before sleep

This helps relax your muscles, I do it 1 hour before sleep

#5. AC on 16-20 celsius in summers

16–20°C is really comfortable to me, I sleep better when it is a little cold.

#6. Air Purifier while sleeping

Since I live in Poland where AQI is always terrible, poor air quality irritates my lungs and nervous system. We don't notice how pollution affects us but poor air really does make it harder for our body to sleep because our bodies are always in a state of low grade inflammation due to the shitty air

#7. quit caffeine

Caffeine has a long half life of 6-8 hours so even if I take it at 5 Pm, half of it is still in my system by 11 PM!

#8. have a very light dinner

This is very important, I have a heavy breakfast and lunch, but I don't eat too much at night, it makes it harder to sleep, if i am feeling hungry, I will just drink a glass of milk at night

#9. Don't exercise close to sleep

Should be obvious but it wasn't for me for many years, I was exercising close to my sleep time and then wondering why I couldn't feel sleepy. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, finish all exercise before 3 hours of your sleep time. By the way, cardio in the day helps me get tired by night and that really helps me sleep, if I don't exercise, I don't feel much tired and hence, not sleepy at night

#10. Meditate for 5 minutes just before sleep

This helps me A LOT in sleeping, I think the reason it helps me is that I have Inattentive-ADHD and my brain is overstimulated all the time thinking about 1000 things, so this really helps me finally relax.

Basically, got into my sleeping position, closed my eyes, and focused on my breath, focus on inhaling and exhaling and how my body moves when you inhale and exhale, and if I get some thought, notice it and label it 'thought' and just continue focusing on your breath, I will automatically fall asleep and won't even notice when I fell asleep.

#11. Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI) 5 minutes before sleep

When I am bored of meditation, I do this. Basically, all I have to do 5 minutes before sleeping is think in extremely simple language and imagine scenery, so instead of thinking 'tomorrow will be stressful, my wife will beat me, my boss will fire me, if black widow had a child, would it be called black...kiddo?'

Think of simple one word things THAT ARE NOT EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED and imagine them in your head,

'sun' (imagining the sun)

'black' (imagining the colour black)

'table'

'red'

'bed'

'pasta'

#12. Light discipline

So this one is kinda hard guys, but really worth it if someday your executive function improves

Basically buy the overhead lights that have 3 colours (3000k,4000k,6500k), use 4000k light in the day and then after 5-6 Pm, switch to 3000k light

2-3 hours before sleep, Turn off all lights in your home and just use a 2700k 0.5W bulb. It really helps a lot

And after 5-6 PM, switch to using a blue light filter and reduce brightness, choose the colour 'red' in your blue light filter app and use whatever % blue light filter you can consistently stick to, ideal would be 50%, as for phone brightness, ideal would 10%-20%

2-3 hours betore sleeping, you should ideally increase blue light filter to 60%-70% and keep brightness at 10% or lower

You can even automate these things using most blue light filter apps available!

#13. Trazodone

this is a prescription medicine that my doctor gave to me to sleep, it is very effective, it always makes me sleep within 1 hour but I just do not like the idea of using meds to sleep and focus on fixing my habits instead, so I do not use it anymore, but I did not suffer from any side effects.

I want to share my experience trying to get an ADHD diagnosis in an Asian country, because I know a lot of people here are struggling with the same thing.

I went to multiple psychologists and psychiatrists before I finally got SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS ADHD

the process was very frustrating and very traumatising

Doctor 1 Told me ADHD only means hyperactivity and people with ADHD cannot sit still and it only occurs in children.

Diagnosed me with Illness Anxiety Disorder and prescribed sertraline.

Doctor 2 said you can’t have ADHD if you can focus at all. According to them, ADHD means you cannot focus on anything ever.

They attributed my issues to “family problems” and even recommended shock therapy and ketamine therapy.

My parents were almost convinced to push me into shock therapy.

Doctor 3 claimed I had “childhood trauma” within 2 minutes of meeting me, didn’t ask about my childhood, didn’t ask any questions. They described themselves as a cildhood trauma specialist, and said that all their patients have childhood trauma, all of them, every other thing is a misdiagnosis.....😂

Across all these experiences, there was a concering pattern. No structured assessment, No detailed history-taking, No written diagnosis or reasoning, Promises to “analyze later” that never happened, Fees taken, but no real follow-up or clarity

Eventually, I said FUCK THIS SYSTEM took things into my own hands. I searched for professionals on LinkedIn and Google, reached out to over 100 professionals, and directly asked if they were ADHD-aware and whether they recognized the mysterious existence of a komodo dragon called inattentive ADHD.

After all that, I finally found a doctor who could answer a basic question: “What is ADHD?”

That alone explained to me how broken mental-health care is in Asian countries

I got properly diagnosed, but it cost me ONE YEAR OF SAVINGS! Since then, I’ve tried the available meds here: methylphenidate, atomoxetine, and bupropion, but none worked well for me personally.

Right now, I manage my symptoms with EPA, natural methods, meditation, and self-CBT. It’s not the best but it is what is accessible to me.

Because of this horrible and invalidating experience, I started r/ADHDAutismAsia to help others find ADHD-aware and autism-aware professionals, avoid misinformation and harmful advice, and navigate diagnosis in countries where awareness is limited

I’ve also started working as a non-clinical ADHD coach to share practical strategies for people who don’t have access to informed professionals.

If you’re in a similar situation, you’re not alone. The system can fail you, but there are ways to move forward. Yes it's very hard to get diagnosed and find a professional who is aware, but it's not impossible and this subreddit is here for you! :)

hello everyone 😊 I recently became the moderator of this subreddit, and I would like to inform that our subreddit is looking for a new icon and banner, we could make one ourselves or use AI (the cursed solution everyone would hate)

but instead, we would like to ask all of you to kindly help us get an icon and banner for this subreddit, we believe in community contribution instead of the moderators doing everything

if we get more than one icon or banner, we will run a poll for 1 month on which one to choose for our community.

whomever's icon and banner are chosen, they will have their name mentioned in our wiki as the creator of the icon and banner :)

I have struggled with sleep for basically my entire life until now as a person with ADHD, my dopamine spikes at random hours and crashes at random hours, most people with ADHD struggle with sleep and only recently realized how overpowered and underrated sleep is for everything (building muscles, skincare, mental health), talked about this in great detail on r/adhdautismasia

I have finally fixed my sleep routine and consistently sleep 7-9 hours every night at roughly the same time and wake up at roughly the same time

I am sharing everything that helped me:

#1. Melatonin

OVERPOWERED FOR ME!

Used 0.3-0.5mg melatonin. makes you yawn a few times and you will sleep in 1 hour. Basically melatonin tells your brain that it is night and for me, my body doesn't naturally produce melatonin consistently at the same time every day, so I take this supplement and it is what has helped me the most. I take my melatonin, turn on some dumb show on my phone, melatonin makes me yawn for 1 hour and then I sleep

#2. Magnesium spray on feet

You can use some magnesium spray on feet, it really helps in sleeping, use it if melatonin doesn't work for you!

This magnesium spray stuff isn't really backed by science but it has worked for a lot of people I have seen, so keep that in mind that this recommendation is based on my anecdotes, not hard science.

#3. glycine powder

It helps some people in sleeping, I personally use it. It basically calms your body and makes you less restless during the night. It's stronger than melatonin for me, I take 5g every night 3 hours sleep

#4. Lukewarm shower before sleep

This helps relax your muscles, I do it 1 hour before sleep

#5. AC on 16-20 celsius in summers

16–20°C is really comfortable to me, I sleep better when it is a little cold.

#6. Air Purifier while sleeping

Since I live in Poland where AQI is always terrible, poor air quality irritates my lungs and nervous system. We don't notice how pollution affects us but poor air really does make it harder for our body to sleep because our bodies are always in a state of low grade inflammation due to the shitty air

#7. quit caffeine

Caffeine has a long half life of 6-8 hours so even if I take it at 5 Pm, half of it is still in my system by 11 PM!

#8. have a very light dinner

This is very important, I have a heavy breakfast and lunch, but I don't eat too much at night, it makes it harder to sleep, if i am feeling hungry, I will just drink a glass of milk at night

#9. Don't exercise close to sleep

Should be obvious but it wasn't for me for many years, I was exercising close to my sleep time and then wondering why I couldn't feel sleepy. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, finish all exercise before 3 hours of your sleep time. By the way, cardio in the day helps me get tired by night and that really helps me sleep, if I don't exercise, I don't feel much tired and hence, not sleepy at night

#10. Meditate for 5 minutes just before sleep

This helps me A LOT in sleeping, I think the reason it helps me is that I have Inattentive-ADHD and my brain is overstimulated all the time thinking about 1000 things, so this really helps me finally relax.

Basically, got into my sleeping position, closed my eyes, and focused on my breath, focus on inhaling and exhaling and how my body moves when you inhale and exhale, and if I get some thought, notice it and label it 'thought' and just continue focusing on your breath, I will automatically fall asleep and won't even notice when I fell asleep.

#11. Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI) 5 minutes before sleep

When I am bored of meditation, I do this. Basically, all I have to do 5 minutes before sleeping is think in extremely simple language and imagine scenery, so instead of thinking 'tomorrow will be stressful, my wife will beat me, my boss will fire me, if black widow had a child, would it be called black...kiddo?'

Think of simple one word things THAT ARE NOT EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED and imagine them in your head,

'sun' (imagining the sun)

'black' (imagining the colour black)

'table'

'red'

'bed'

'pasta'

#12. Light discipline

So this one is kinda hard guys, but really worth it if someday your executive function improves

Basically buy the overhead lights that have 3 colours (3000k,4000k,6500k), use 4000k light in the day and then after 5-6 Pm, switch to 3000k light

2-3 hours before sleep, Turn off all lights in your home and just use a 2700k 0.5W bulb. It really helps a lot

And after 5-6 PM, switch to using a blue light filter and reduce brightness, choose the colour 'red' in your blue light filter app and use whatever % blue light filter you can consistently stick to, ideal would be 50%, as for phone brightness, ideal would 10%-20%

2-3 hours betore sleeping, you should ideally increase blue light filter to 60%-70% and keep brightness at 10% or lower

You can even automate these things using most blue light filter apps available!

#13. Trazodone

this is a prescription medicine that my doctor gave to me to sleep, it is very effective, it always makes me sleep within 1 hour but I just do not like the idea of using meds to sleep and focus on fixing my habits instead, so I do not use it anymore, but I did not suffer from any side effects.

1. Get medicated

Stimulants are usually the first-line option in the guidelines of most countries, do not give up if a med doesn't work for you, coordinate with your prescriber and ask about the viability of other meds for your specific case.

2. Correcting deficiencies

life changing, get a blood test, test for Vitamin D, B12, Serum Folate (B9), RBC Magnesium,Serum Zinc, and Ferritin especially

a deficiency in these made my ADHD symptoms significantly worse!

The normal range in lab tests miss sub-clinical deficiency, you can be feeling shit yet technically not be deficient, most women especially are low in iron in my country.

3. Light therapy

morning, after waking up, look at the blue sky for 10-15 mins, basically 10k lux+ light, fo not look at the sun PLEASE IT'S DANGEROUS!

4. CBT (skills-based ADHD management)

Basically get an ADHD-aware therapist, or better, get an ADHD coach, they are usually cheaper and a more practical solution.

5. Wake up and sleep at the same time every day

wake and sleep time within 1-hour variation daily, personally, I am using melatonin and glycine powder to manage my sleep, fixing my sleep was the MOST IMPORTANT INTERVENTION in my case!

6. Exercise

even 5 mins a day is enough! I started with 5 minutes a day, now I am at 30 minutes a day.

7. Meditation

mindfulness, basically close your eyes, sit still, and count your thoughts, each count of thought is one mental push-up rep, do it for 5 minutes a day, add 2-3 minutes every week.

8. Use Serial Diverse Imagining to sleep (SDI)

basically imagine random objects like dog, cat, pencil, ball, objects that aren't emotionally charged, only imagine one object for 1-3 seconds, the goal is to think about random objects while lying down on the bed so your brain cannot get the fuel it needs to overthink and keep you awake for hours. Do this 20-30 minutes before designated sleep time.

9. Join a library or go to a café to work and study

when you see other people being quiet and hustling, you feel bad for being the one scrolling and you start working/studying, also others can see the stuff you are watching...

10. use an app to lock your entire phone AUTOMATICALLY

for 1 hour after you wake up, apps like StayFocused, Keep Me Out, and Lock My Phone (Zen Mode) have this feature

11. Remove distractions

uninstsall youtube, consider youtube revanced, you can disable reels and recommendations and ads and whatever you want.

consider distraction-free instagram, you can remove reels and posts unless you click on a link your friend sent to you.

Disable all ads and recommendations and notifications on reddit, go to settings, then account settings, and scroll down and disable everything related to 'alllow ads' 'personalise ads' and ' show recommendations', if you are still seeing subreddits, go and mute 3-4 of those subreddits, reddit will never show you any recommendations ever again.

disable Google News, it is content meant to make you angry and engage and make your ADHD worse. Best advice: do not read news at all, just focus on self-improvement.

12. Blue Light Filter Automated

Use a blue light filter and set a schedule like it starts automatically at 6PM at 50% and becomes more red like 70% at 9PM, use the colour 'red' for the best effect! most blue light filter apps allow scheduling daily like this, don't do it manually because you will forget after one day and using a blue-light filter all day is counter-productive.

13. make cooking simpler!

cook for the entire week in batches on the weekends, cooking daily is very hard for ADHD people, just cook once on the weekends and eat all week, and cook a lot of quantity, keep only like 3-4 dishes for the entire week! and make dishes in which you don't have to cut tomatoes/onions, just pureé them, it's easier, if possible, get a crock-pot, it helps a lot.

14. Supplements for ADHD

best supplements I have tried: 1-2g EPA per day, caffeine + l-theanine pills.

I use these two personally and EPA is actually my only real ADHD 'med' because it works amazingly for me! actual ADHD meds have failed to work for me till now

brands I use for supplements: Naturaltein, MyProtein, Sun Pharma, NowFoods, Nutricost, Nordic Naturals

not all brands of supplements are equal and may have quality issues, I only recommend going for established and well-known brands

trying currently: Saffron extract, Panax Ginseng, Bacopa Monnieri, Panax Ginseng, L-tyrosine. no idea about these, only friends have tried these, some got benefit, some didn't, so I am curious to try

15. JUST STAND

literally, that's the entire tip, just stand, sit down = ADHD, task paralysis, executive dysfunction, All I do is, i tell myself to stand up, I stand up and walk around = in 30 seconds I am automatically doing the task I had been dreading for 5 hours

16. break everything down into small chunks

don't make a goal like 'bath', make a goal like 'remove clothes'

do not make a goal like 'brush', make a goal like, 'touch the brush'

every goal must be as small and simple as possible, you will end up doing more than the simple task you planned most of the time, and it is better than nothing

17. Five-Second Rule

Spot the moment you have an impulse to act on a goal or task before your brain starts making excuses.

Count backward specifically from 5-4-3-2-1 to interrupt your habit of overthinking and focus your mind.

Physically move the second you reach "1" to kickstart your momentum and break through task paralysis.

18. ALARM DISCIPLINE

I see a lot of ADHDers abuse alarms to the point they become useless, like using 10 alarms to wake up, 20 alarms to do chores, this is essentially useless as you are training your brain to not care about alarms

just go for 2 alarms for waking up,

wake up time alarm

and a secondary alarm that rings 3 minutes later.

tried to use generic alarms and alarms that chatbots suggested to me, supposedly 'the best', I found that what actually worked was just using my favourite song as my alarm, nothing else.

also, only set 1 new alarm once in 2-3 weeks, and the alarm should not be about...DO XYZ TASK

it should be an alarm to 'STAND UP'

Use the 5-second rule mentioned earlier to help you actually stand up when the alarm rings!

Yes, ADHD brains do not understand 'study for 5 minutes' as a goal, because even 1 minute seems herculean, they only understand the easiest unit, once the easiest unit has been achieved, we feel that dopamine rush and future tasks become easier!

19. APP TO NOTE DOWN CHORES

I personally use Finch, but there are 100s of apps out there for this. Catzy, Habitica, and many others, if you do decide to use something like this, PLEASE ADD A WIDGET TO YOUR HOMESCREEN, otherwise you will forget to check the app after a week, it would be useless

also, if possible, make your daily fixed chores that you have to do every day your Phone Wallpaper, your WhatsApp wallpaper, Instagram wallpaper and whatever app allows you to add wallpapers, ADHD brains do not care about chores unless their chores haunt them like ghosts

20. Routine Planning

If your ADHD is severely unmanaged currently and your first goal in the morning to be achieved is... exercise... you will probably not have a good day

the first task you see, the first task you do, must be a super easy task, this will give you that sweet juicy dopamine, and then you will do a harder task, then an even harder task, you need to build that dopamine loop and use progressive overload!

21. STANDING DESKS

sitting and working on my laptop was the worst thing I ever did...

Sitting makes me...less attentive and less activated.

I started using a standing desk and it was a game changer, it is not like I can work for hours now. I can work for 10-15 minutes at a time

and those 10-15 minutes are equivalent to 2-3 hours of my work I used to while sitting, so it is seriously a game-changer for me!

>HOW TO IMPLEMENT THESE TIPS:

> only add 1 tip from this list to your life in 2 WEEKS, if it is not automatic in 2 weeks, give it 1 month.

>only after the implementation of 1 tip feels easy, implement another tip.

>if you are wondering what tip helped me the most, it is 'same wake up time and light therapy for 10-15 minutes immediately after waking up', nothing comes close for me

This is a mod post, it is a repost from our partner subreddit r/ADHDerTips, we run that subreddit for people for whom medicine is not accessible or medicine is not solving ALL their problems, kindly check out our partner subreddit and its wiki, it may be useful for some of you, everything is free except 1:1 coaching 😊

# 1. Get medicated

Stimulants for ADHD are first-line in the guidelines of most countries, if one med doesn't work for you, don't give up, ask your doctor about the viability of other meds for your specific case, I only gave up on ADHD meds after trying out 24 meds in around 3 years, not kidding here, I have tried first-line ADHD meds, second-line meds, and off-label meds for ADHD

I have no idea about how it works in your country but if diagnosis cost is a big concern or it is taking years to get diagnosed, in some countries, GPs and psychiatrists are licenced to prescribe ADHD meds based on their provisional diagnosis, so you may save money depending on your country, full diagnosis by a clinical psychologist is the recommended method but sometimes it is out of reach for many

# 2. Correcting deficiencies

life changing, get a blood test, test for Vitamin D, B12, Serum Folate (B9), RBC Magnesium,Serum Zinc, and Ferritin especially

optimal B12 range: 500-800 pg/ml in blood

ideal ferritin range: 70-100 ng/ml in blood

Ideal vitamin D range: 40-60 ng/ml

optimal magnesium range: 5.5–6.5 mg/dL

optimal zinc range: 80–120 mcg/dL

optimal folate range: 13–15 ng/mL

The normal range in lab tests miss sub-clinical deficiency you can be feeling shit yet technically not be deficient, most women especially are low in iron.

# 3. Light therapy

morning, after waking up, look at the blue sky for 10-15 mins, basically 10k lux+ light, fo not look at the sun PLEASE IT'S DANGEROUS!

# 4. CBT (skills-based ADHD management)

Basically get an ADHD-aware therapist, or better, get an ADHD coach, they are usually cheaper and a more practical solution.

# 5. Wake up and sleep at the same time every day

wake and sleep time within 1-hour variation daily check out my post on sleep for how to fix your sleep

# 6. Exercise

even 5 mins a day is enough! I started with 5 minutes a day, now I am at 30 minutes a day.

# 7. Meditation

mindfulness, basically close your eyes, sit still, and count your thoughts, each count of thought is one mental push-up rep, do it for 5 minutes a day, add 2-3 minutes every week.

# 8. Use Serial Diverse Imagining to sleep (SDI)

basically imagine random objects like dog, cat, pencil, ball, objects that aren't emotionally charged, only imagine one object for 1-3 seconds, the goal is to think about random objects while lying down on the bed so your brain cannot get the fuel it needs to overthink and keep you awake for hours. Do this 20-30 minutes before designated sleep time.

# 9. Join a library or go to a café to work and study

when you see other people being quiet and hustling, you feel bad for being the one scrolling and you start working/studying, also others can see the stuff you are watching...

# 10. use an app to lock your entire phone AUTOMATICALLY

for 1 hour after you wake up, apps like StayFocused, Keep Me Out, and Lock My Phone (Zen Mode) have this feature

# 11. Remove distractions

uninstsall youtube, use youtube revanced you can disable reels and recommendations and ads and whatever you want.

Use distraction-free instagram, you can remove reels and posts unless you click on a link your friend sent to you.

Disable all ads and recommendations and notifications on reddit, go to settings, then account settings, and scroll down and disable everything related to 'alllow ads' 'personalise ads' and ' show recommendations', if you are still seeing subreddits, go and mute 3-4 of those subreddits, reddit will never show you any recommendations ever again.

disable Google News, it is garbage meant to make you angry and make your ADHD worse. Best advice: do not read news at all, become apolitical and believe only in ADHD-improvement

# 12. Blue Light Filter Automated

Use a blue light filter and set a schedule like it starts automatically at 6PM at 50% and becomes more red like 70% at 9PM, use the colour 'red' for the best effect! most blue light filter apps allow scheduling daily like this, don't do it manually because you will forget after one day and using a blue-light filter all day is counter-productive.

# 13. make cooking simpler!

cook for the entire week in batches on the weekends, cooking daily is very hard for ADHD people, just cook once on the weekends and eat all week, and cook a lot of quantity, keep only like 3-4 dishes for the entire week! and make dishes in which you don't have to cut tomatoes/onions, just pureé them, it's easier, if possible, get a crock-pot, it helps a lot.

# 14. Supplements for ADHD

best supplements with strong evidence: 1-2g EPA per day, caffeine + l-theanine pills. I use these personally, Vyvanse and Concerta feel like sugar pills to me, EPA is actually my only 'medicine'

best brands: Naturaltein, MyProtein, Sun Pharma, NowFoods, Nutricost, Nordic Naturals

Weak evidence but may be useful: Saffron extract, Panax Ginseng, Bacopa Monnieri, Panax Ginseng, L-tyrosine. I have heard of some people seeing improvement on these but I haven't tried any of them, so take it with a big grain of salt

# 15. JUST STAND

literally, that's the entire tip, just stand, sit down = ADHD, task paralysis, executive dysfunction, All I do is, i tell myself to stand up, I stand up and walk around = in 30 seconds I am automatically doing the task I had been dreading for 5 hours

# 16. break everything down into small chunks

don't make a goal like 'bath', make a goal like 'remove clothes'

do not make a goal like 'brush', make a goal like, 'touch the brush'

every goal must be as small and simple as possible, you will end up doing more than the simple task you planned most of the time, and it is better than nothing

# 17. Five-Second Rule

Spot the moment you have an impulse to act on a goal or task before your brain starts making excuses.

Count backward specifically from 5-4-3-2-1 to interrupt your habit of overthinking and focus your mind.

Physically move the second you reach "1" to kickstart your momentum and break through task paralysis.

1. Get medicated

Stimulants are usually the best option with the highest effect size

2. Correcting deficiencies

life changing, get a blood test, test for Vitamin D, B12, Serum Folate (B9), RBC Magnesium,Serum Zinc, and Ferritin especially.

optimal B12 range: 500-800 pg/ml in blood.

ideal ferritin range: 70-100 ng/ml in blood.

Ideal vitamin D range: 40-60 ng/ml

optimal magnesium range: 5.5–6.5 mg/dL

optimal zinc range: 80–120 mcg/dL.

optimal folate range: 13–15 ng/mL

The normal range in lab tests miss sub-clinical deficiency, you can be feeling shit yet technically not be deficient, most women especially are low in iron.

3. Light therapy

morning, after waking up, look at the blue sky for 10-15 mins, basically 10k lux+ light, fo not look at the sun PLEASE IT'S DANGEROUS!

4. CBT (skills-based ADHD management)

Basically get an ADHD-aware therapist, or better, get an ADHD coach, they are usually cheaper and a more practical solution.

5. Wake up and sleep at the same time every day

wake and sleep time within 1-hour variation daily, check out my post on sleep for how to fix your sleep

6. Exercise

even 5 mins a day is enough! I started with 5 minutes a day, now I am at 30 minutes a day.

7. Meditation

mindfulness, basically close your eyes, sit still, and count your thoughts, each count of thought is one mental push-up rep, do it for 5 minutes a day, add 2-3 minutes every week.

8. Use Serial Diverse Imagining to sleep (SDI)

basically imagine random objects like dog, cat, pencil, ball, objects that aren't emotionally charged, only imagine one object for 1-3 seconds, the goal is to think about random objects while lying down on the bed so your brain cannot get the fuel it needs to overthink and keep you awake for hours. Do this 20-30 minutes before designated sleep time.

9. Join a library or go to a café to work and study

when you see other people being quiet and hustling, you feel bad for being the one scrolling and you start working/studying, also others can see the stuff you are watching...

10. use an app to lock your entire phone AUTOMATICALLY

for 1 hour after you wake up, apps like StayFocused, Keep Me Out, and Lock My Phone (Zen Mode) have this feature

11. Remove distractions

uninstsall youtube, use youtube revanced, you can disable reels and recommendations and ads and whatever you want.

Use distraction-free instagram, you can remove reels and posts unless you click on a link your friend sent to you.

Disable all ads and recommendations and notifications on reddit, go to settings, then account settings, and scroll down and disable everything related to 'alllow ads' 'personalise ads' and ' show recommendations', if you are still seeing subreddits, go and mute 3-4 of those subreddits, reddit will never show you any recommendations ever again.

disable Google News, it is garbage meant to make you angry and make your ADHD worse. Best advice: do not read news at all, become apolitical and believe only in ADHD-improvement

12. Blue Light Filter Automated

Use a blue light filter and set a schedule like it starts automatically at 6PM at 50% and becomes more red like 70% at 9PM, use the colour 'red' for the best effect! most blue light filter apps allow scheduling daily like this, don't do it manually because you will forget after one day and using a blue-light filter all day is counter-productive.

13. make cooking simpler!

cook for the entire week in batches on the weekends, cooking daily is very hard for ADHD people, just cook once on the weekends and eat all week, and cook a lot of quantity, keep only like 3-4 dishes for the entire week! and make dishes in which you don't have to cut tomatoes/onions, just pureé them, it's easier, if possible, get a crock-pot, it helps a lot.

14. Supplements for ADHD

best supplements with strong evidence: 1-2g EPA per day, caffeine + l-theanine pills

best brands: Naturaltein, MyProtein, Sun Pharma, NowFoods, Nutricost, Nordic Naturals

Weak evidence but may be useful: Saffron extract, Panax Ginseng, Bacopa Monnieri, Panax Ginseng, L-tyrosine.

15. JUST STAND

literally, that's the entire tip, just stand, sit down = ADHD, task paralysis, executive dysfunction, All I do is, i tell myself to stand up, I stand up and walk around = in 30 seconds I am automatically doing the task I had been dreading for 5 hours

16. break everything down into small chunks

don't make a goal like 'bath', make a goal like 'remove clothes'

do not make a goal like 'brush', make a goal like, 'touch the brush'

every goal must be as small and simple as possible, you will end up doing more than the simple task you planned most of the time, and it is better than nothing

17. Five-Second Rule

Spot the moment you have an impulse to act on a goal or task before your brain starts making excuses.

Count backward specifically from 5-4-3-2-1 to interrupt your habit of overthinking and focus your mind.

Physically move the second you reach "1" to kickstart your momentum and break through task paralysis.

>HOW TO IMPLEMENT THESE TIPS:

> only add 1 tip from this list to your life in 2 WEEKS, if it is not automatic in 2 weeks, give it 1 month.

>only after the implementation of 1 tip feels easy, implement another tip.

>if you are wondering what tip helped me the most, it is 'same wake up time and light therapy for 10-15 minutes immediately after waking up', nothing comes close for me

Comment down below EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that helps you fall asleep.

I will list everything that has helped me, this is a repost from r/ADHDAutismAsia :

#1. Melatonin

OVERPOWERED FOR ME!

Used 0.3-0.5mg melatonin. makes you yawn a few times and you will sleep in 1 hour. Basically melatonin tells your brain that it is night and for me, my body doesn't naturally produce melatonin consistently at the same time every day, so I take this supplement and it is what has helped me the most. I take my melatonin, turn on some dumb show on my phone, melatonin makes me yawn for 1 hour and then I sleep

#2. Magnesium spray on feet

You can use some magnesium spray on feet, it really helps in sleeping, use it if melatonin doesn't work for you!

This magnesium spray stuff isn't really backed by science but it has worked for a lot of people I have seen, so keep that in mind that this recommendation is based on my anecdotes, not hard science.

#3. glycine powder

It helps some people in sleeping, I personally use it. It basically calms your body and makes you less restless during the night. It's stronger than melatonin for me, I take 5g every night 3 hours sleep

#4. Lukewarm shower before sleep

This helps relax your muscles, I do it 1 hour before sleep

#5. AC on 16-20 celsius in summers

16–20°C is really comfortable to me, I sleep better when it is a little cold.

#6. Air Purifier while sleeping

Since I live in Poland where AQI is always terrible, poor air quality irritates my lungs and nervous system. We don't notice how pollution affects us but poor air really does make it harder for our body to sleep because our bodies are always in a state of low grade inflammation due to the shitty air

#7. quit caffeine

Caffeine has a long half life of 6-8 hours so even if I take it at 5 Pm, half of it is still in my system by 11 PM!

#8. have a very light dinner

This is very important, I have a heavy breakfast and lunch, but I don't eat too much at night, it makes it harder to sleep, if i am feeling hungry, I will just drink a glass of milk at night

#9. Don't exercise close to sleep

Should be obvious but it wasn't for me for many years, I was exercising close to my sleep time and then wondering why I couldn't feel sleepy. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, finish all exercise before 3 hours of your sleep time. By the way, cardio in the day helps me get tired by night and that really helps me sleep, if I don't exercise, I don't feel much tired and hence, not sleepy at night

#10. Meditate for 5 minutes just before sleep

This helps me A LOT in sleeping, I think the reason it helps me is that I have Inattentive-ADHD and my brain is overstimulated all the time thinking about 1000 things, so this really helps me finally relax.

Basically, got into my sleeping position, closed my eyes, and focused on my breath, focus on inhaling and exhaling and how my body moves when you inhale and exhale, and if I get some thought, notice it and label it 'thought' and just continue focusing on your breath, I will automatically fall asleep and won't even notice when I fell asleep.

#11. Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI) 5 minutes before sleep

When I am bored of meditation, I do this. Basically, all I have to do 5 minutes before sleeping is think in extremely simple language and imagine scenery, so instead of thinking 'tomorrow will be stressful, my wife will beat me, my boss will fire me, if black widow had a child, would it be called black...kiddo?'

Think of simple one word things THAT ARE NOT EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED and imagine them in your head,

'sun' (imagining the sun)

'black' (imagining the colour black)

'table'

'red'

'bed'

'pasta'

#12. Light discipline

So this one is kinda hard guys, but really worth it if someday your executive function improves

Basically buy the overhead lights that have 3 colours (3000k,4000k,6500k), use 4000k light in the day and then after 5-6 Pm, switch to 3000k light

2-3 hours before sleep, Turn off all lights in your home and just use a 2700k 0.5W bulb. It really helps a lot

And after 5-6 PM, switch to using a blue light filter and reduce brightness, choose the colour 'red' in your blue light filter app and use whatever % blue light filter you can consistently stick to, ideal would be 50%, as for phone brightness, ideal would 10%-20%

2-3 hours betore sleeping, you should ideally increase blue light filter to 60%-70% and keep brightness at 10% or lower

You can even automate these things using most blue light filter apps available!

#13. Trazodone

this is a prescription medicine that my doctor gave to me to sleep, it is very effective, it always makes me sleep within 1 hour but I just do not like the idea of using meds to sleep and focus on fixing my habits instead, so I do not use it anymore, but I did not suffer from any side effects.

1. Get medicated

Stimulants are usually the best option with the highest effect size

2. Correcting deficiencies

• life changing, get a blood test, test for Vitamin D, B12, Serum Folate (B9), RBC Magnesium,Serum Zinc, and Ferritin especially.
• optimal B12 range: 500-800 pg/ml in blood.
• ideal ferritin range: 70-100 ng/ml in blood.
• Ideal vitamin D range: 40-60 ng/ml
• optimal magnesium range: 5.5–6.5 mg/dL 
• optimal zinc range: 80–120 mcg/dL.
• optimal folate range: 13–15 ng/mL
• The normal range in lab tests miss sub-clinical deficiency, you can be feeling shit yet technically not be deficient, most women especially are low in iron.

3. Light therapy

morning, after waking up, look at the blue sky for 10-15 mins, basically 10k lux+ light, fo not look at the sun PLEASE IT'S DANGEROUS!

4. CBT (skills-based ADHD management)

Basically get an ADHD-aware therapist, or better, get an ADHD coach, they are usually cheaper and a more practical solution.

5. Wake up and sleep at the same time every day

wake and sleep time within 1-hour variation daily, check out our post on sleep for how to fix your sleep

6. Exercise

even 5 mins a day is enough! I started with 5 minutes a day, now I am at 30 minutes a day.

7. Meditation

mindfulness, basically close your eyes, sit still, and count your thoughts, each count of thought is one mental push-up rep, do it for 5 minutes a day, add 2-3 minutes every week.

8. Use Serial Diverse Imagining to sleep (SDI)

basically imagine random objects like dog, cat, pencil, ball, objects that aren't emotionally charged, only imagine one object for 1-3 seconds, the goal is to think about random objects while lying down on the bed so your brain cannot get the fuel it needs to overthink and keep you awake for hours. Do this 20-30 minutes before designated sleep time.

9. Join a library or go to a café to work and study

when you see other people being quiet and hustling, you feel bad for being the one scrolling and you start working/studying, also others can see the stuff you are watching...

10. use an app to lock your entire phone AUTOMATICALLY

for 1 hour after you wake up, apps like StayFocused, Keep Me Out, and Lock My Phone (Zen Mode) have this feature

11. Remove distractions

• uninstsall youtube, use youtube revanced, you can disable reels and recommendations and ads and whatever you want.
• Use distraction-free instagram, you can remove reels and posts unless you click on a link your friend sent to you.
• Disable all ads and recommendations and notifications on reddit, go to settings, then account settings, and scroll down and disable everything related to 'alllow ads' 'personalise ads' and ' show recommendations', if you are still seeing subreddits, go and mute 3-4 of those subreddits, reddit will never show you any recommendations ever again.
• disable Google News, it is garbage meant to make you angry and make your ADHD worse. Best advice: do not read news at all, become apolitical and believe only in ADHD-improvement

12. Blue Light Filter Automated

Use a blue light filter and set a schedule like it starts automatically at 6PM at 50% and becomes more red like 70% at 9PM, use the colour 'red' for the best effect! most blue light filter apps allow scheduling daily like this, don't do it manually because you will forget after one day and using a blue-light filter all day is counter-productive.

13. make cooking simpler!

cook for the entire week in batches on the weekends, cooking daily is very hard for ADHD people, just cook once on the weekends and eat all week, and cook a lot of quantity, keep only like 3-4 dishes for the entire week! and make dishes in which you don't have to cut tomatoes/onions, just pureé them, it's easier, if possible, get a crock-pot, it helps a lot.

14. Supplements for ADHD

• best supplements with strong evidence: 1-2g EPA per day, caffeine + l-theanine pills
• best brands: Naturaltein, MyProtein, Sun Pharma, NowFoods, Nutricost, Nordic Naturals
• Weak evidence but may be useful: Saffron extract, Panax Ginseng, Bacopa Monnieri, Panax Ginseng, L-tyrosine.

15. JUST STAND

literally, that's the entire tip, just stand, sit down = ADHD, task paralysis, executive dysfunction, All I do is, i tell myself to stand up, I stand up and walk around = in 30 seconds I am automatically doing the task I had been dreading for 5 hours

16. break everything down into small chunks

• don't make a goal like 'bath', make a goal like 'remove clothes'
• do not make a goal like 'brush', make a goal like, 'touch the brush'
• every goal must be as small and simple as possible, you will end up doing more than the simple task you planned most of the time, and it is better than nothing

17. Five-Second Rule

• Spot the moment you have an impulse to act on a goal or task before your brain starts making excuses.
• Count backward specifically from 5-4-3-2-1 to interrupt your habit of overthinking and focus your mind.
• Physically move the second you reach "1" to kickstart your momentum and break through task paralysis.

I have struggled with sleep for basically my entire life until now as a person with ADHD, my dopamine spikes at random hours and crashes at random hours, most people with ADHD struggle with sleep and only recently realized how overpowered and underrated sleep is for everything (building muscles, skincare, mental health), talked about this in great detail elsewhere, this is actually a repost of my post from r/ADHDAutismAsia

I have finally fixed my sleep routine and consistently sleep 7-9 hours every night at roughly the same time and wake up at roughly the same time

I am sharing everything that helped me:

#1. Melatonin

OVERPOWERED FOR ME!

Used 0.3-0.5mg melatonin sublingual. makes you yawn a few times and you will sleep in 1 hour. Sublingual works faster for me than oral. Basically melatonin tells your brain that it is night and for me, my body doesn't naturally produce melatonin consistently at the same time every day, so I take this supplement and it is what has helped me the most. I take my melatonin, turn on some dumb show on my phone, melatonin makes me yawn for 1 hour and then I sleep

#2. Magnesium spray on feet

You can use some magnesium spray on feet, it really helps in sleeping, use it if melatonin doesn't work for you!

This magnesium spray stuff isn't really backed by science but it has worked for a lot of people I have seen, so keep that in mind that this recommendation is based on my anecdotes, not hard science.

#3. glycine powder

It helps some people in sleeping, I personally use it. It basically calms your body and makes you less restless during the night. It's stronger than melatonin for me, I take 5g every night 3 hours sleep

#4. Lukewarm shower before sleep

This helps relax your muscles, I do it 1 hour before sleep

#5. AC on 16-20 celsius in summers

16–20°C is really comfortable to me, I sleep better when it is a little cold.

#6. Air Purifier while sleeping

Since I live in Poland where AQI is always terrible, poor air quality irritates my lungs and nervous system. We don't notice how pollution affects us but poor air really does make it harder for our body to sleep because our bodies are always in a state of low grade inflammation due to the shitty air

#7. quit caffeine

Caffeine has a long half life of 6-8 hours so even if I take it at 5 Pm, half of it is still in my system by 11 PM!

#8. have a very light dinner

This is very important, I have a heavy breakfast and lunch, but I don't eat too much at night, it makes it harder to sleep, if i am feeling hungry, I will just drink a glass of milk at night

#9. Don't exercise close to sleep

Should be obvious but it wasn't for me for many years, I was exercising close to my sleep time and then wondering why I couldn't feel sleepy. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, finish all exercise before 3 hours of your sleep time. By the way, cardio in the day helps me get tired by night and that really helps me sleep, if I don't exercise, I don't feel much tired and hence, not sleepy at night

#10. Meditate for 5 minutes just before sleep

This helps me A LOT in sleeping, I think the reason it helps me is that I have Inattentive-ADHD and my brain is overstimulated all the time thinking about 1000 things, so this really helps me finally relax.

Basically, got into my sleeping position, closed my eyes, and focused on my breath, focus on inhaling and exhaling and how my body moves when you inhale and exhale, and if I get some thought, notice it and label it 'thought' and just continue focusing on your breath, I will automatically fall asleep and won't even notice when I fell asleep.

#11. Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI) 5 minutes before sleep

When I am bored of meditation, I do this. Basically, all I have to do 5 minutes before sleeping is think in extremely simple language and imagine scenery, so instead of thinking 'tomorrow will be stressful, my wife will beat me, my boss will fire me, if black widow had a child, would it be called black...kiddo?'

Think of simple one word things THAT ARE NOT EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED and imagine them in your head,

'sun' (imagining the sun)

'black' (imagining the colour black)

'table'

'red'

'bed'

'pasta'

#12. Light discipline

So this one is kinda hard guys, but really worth it if someday your executive function improves

Basically buy the overhead lights that have 3 colours (3000k,4000k,6500k), use 4000k light in the day and then after 5-6 Pm, switch to 3000k light

2-3 hours before sleep, Turn off all lights in your home and just use a 2700k 0.5W bulb. It really helps a lot

And after 5-6 PM, switch to using a blue light filter and reduce brightness, choose the colour 'red' in your blue light filter app and use whatever % blue light filter you can consistently stick to, ideal would be 50%, as for phone brightness, ideal would 10%-20%

2-3 hours betore sleeping, you should ideally increase blue light filter to 60%-70% and keep brightness at 10% or lower

You can even automate these things using most blue light filter apps available!

#13. Trazodone

this is a prescription medicine that my doctor gave to me to sleep, it is very effective, it always makes me sleep within 1 hour but I just do not like the idea of using meds to sleep and focus on fixing my habits instead, so I do not use it anymore, but I did not suffer from any side effects.

I have struggled with sleep for basically my entire life until now as a person with ADHD, my dopamine spikes at random hours and crashes at random hours, most people with ADHD struggle with sleep and only recently realized how overpowered and underrated sleep is for everything (building muscles, skincare, mental health), talked about this in great detail elsewhere, this is actually a repost of my post from r/ADHDAutismAsia

I have finally fixed my sleep routine and consistently sleep 7-9 hours every night at roughly the same time and wake up at roughly the same time

I am sharing everything that helped me:

#1. Melatonin

OVERPOWERED FOR ME!

Used 0.3-0.5mg melatonin. makes you yawn a few times and you will sleep in 1 hour. Basically melatonin tells your brain that it is night and for me, my body doesn't naturally produce melatonin consistently at the same time every day, so I take this supplement and it is what has helped me the most. I take my melatonin, turn on some dumb show on my phone, melatonin makes me yawn for 1 hour and then I sleep

#2. Magnesium spray on feet

You can use some magnesium spray on feet, it really helps in sleeping, use it if melatonin doesn't work for you!

This magnesium spray stuff isn't really backed by science but it has worked for a lot of people I have seen, so keep that in mind that this recommendation is based on my anecdotes, not hard science.

#3. glycine powder

It helps some people in sleeping, I personally use it. It basically calms your body and makes you less restless during the night. It's stronger than melatonin for me, I take 5g every night 3 hours sleep

#4. Lukewarm shower before sleep

This helps relax your muscles, I do it 1 hour before sleep

#5. AC on 16-20 celsius in summers

16–20°C is really comfortable to me, I sleep better when it is a little cold.

#6. Air Purifier while sleeping

Since I live in Poland where AQI is always terrible, poor air quality irritates my lungs and nervous system. We don't notice how pollution affects us but poor air really does make it harder for our body to sleep because our bodies are always in a state of low grade inflammation due to the shitty air

#7. quit caffeine

Caffeine has a long half life of 6-8 hours so even if I take it at 5 Pm, half of it is still in my system by 11 PM!

#8. have a very light dinner

This is very important, I have a heavy breakfast and lunch, but I don't eat too much at night, it makes it harder to sleep, if i am feeling hungry, I will just drink a glass of milk at night

#9. Don't exercise close to sleep

Should be obvious but it wasn't for me for many years, I was exercising close to my sleep time and then wondering why I couldn't feel sleepy. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, finish all exercise before 3 hours of your sleep time. By the way, cardio in the day helps me get tired by night and that really helps me sleep, if I don't exercise, I don't feel much tired and hence, not sleepy at night

#10. Meditate for 5 minutes just before sleep

This helps me A LOT in sleeping, I think the reason it helps me is that I have Inattentive-ADHD and my brain is overstimulated all the time thinking about 1000 things, so this really helps me finally relax.

Basically, got into my sleeping position, closed my eyes, and focused on my breath, focus on inhaling and exhaling and how my body moves when you inhale and exhale, and if I get some thought, notice it and label it 'thought' and just continue focusing on your breath, I will automatically fall asleep and won't even notice when I fell asleep.

#11. Serial Diverse Imagining (SDI) 5 minutes before sleep

When I am bored of meditation, I do this. Basically, all I have to do 5 minutes before sleeping is think in extremely simple language and imagine scenery, so instead of thinking 'tomorrow will be stressful, my wife will beat me, my boss will fire me, if black widow had a child, would it be called black...kiddo?'

Think of simple one word things THAT ARE NOT EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED and imagine them in your head,

'sun' (imagining the sun)

'black' (imagining the colour black)

'table'

'red'

'bed'

'pasta'

#12. Light discipline

So this one is kinda hard guys, but really worth it if someday your executive function improves

Basically buy the overhead lights that have 3 colours (3000k,4000k,6500k), use 4000k light in the day and then after 5-6 Pm, switch to 3000k light

2-3 hours before sleep, Turn off all lights in your home and just use a 2700k 0.5W bulb. It really helps a lot

And after 5-6 PM, switch to using a blue light filter and reduce brightness, choose the colour 'red' in your blue light filter app and use whatever % blue light filter you can consistently stick to, ideal would be 50%, as for phone brightness, ideal would 10%-20%

2-3 hours betore sleeping, you should ideally increase blue light filter to 60%-70% and keep brightness at 10% or lower

You can even automate these things using most blue light filter apps available!

#13. Trazodone

this is a prescription medicine that my doctor gave to me to sleep, it is very effective, it always makes me sleep within 1 hour but I just do not like the idea of using meds to sleep and focus on fixing my habits instead, so I do not use it anymore, but I did not suffer from any side effects.