Worn out but wired? Why sleep can be harder if you’re neurodivergent

After a day of noise, demands, decisions and sensory input, for some people the quiet of the evening can bring not sleep but an unexpected surge of energy — and a mind that suddenly has plenty to say.

“For a lot of individuals with ADHD, the evenings are a time where the energy comes back up and the focus starts coming back up,” explains psychologist Amy Lynn Degner from therapist service HelloSelf.

“Once you’re lying in bed and there’s actually quiet around you, that’s when the brain starts telling you, ‘Have you thought of that? Have you thought of this?’”

For an ADHD brain, switching that mental chatter off can be particularly difficult. Thoughts can also arrive with an intense sense of urgency. A problem at work, an idea or something suddenly remembered can feel as though it needs to be dealt with immediately, rather than safely parked until morning.

Memory difficulties can add to the pressure. I’m remembering this now, so I need to do it before I forget, can be a powerful impulse. Instead of lying down and allowing the brain to wind down, you can find yourself answering emails, solving problems or starting projects at the very moment you should be sleeping.

Why ADHD brains struggle with routine

And then there is the paradox of routine. Sleep responds well to consistency, but repetitive routines aren’t necessarily attractive to an ADHD brain.

“The ADHD brain is very excitable and is very drawn to dopamine and stimulating things,” says Degner. “Routines are just quite boring.”

That can make establishing a bedtime routine surprisingly difficult. You might genuinely want to follow the same sequence every night, but remembering to do it, resisting more stimulating activities and making all those tiny decisions — Do I shower? Do I wash my hair? Do I read? What do I need to do tomorrow? — can themselves become mentally activating.

Yet once established, a routine can be enormously helpful. Repeating the same sequence before bed creates familiar cues for the brain: this is what happens before sleep. Brushing your teeth, putting on your pyjamas, doing your skincare, reading something calming or listening to relaxing music may seem insignificant, but repeated consistently, they can become a signal that the day is ending.

Visual reminders can help too. For someone who struggles with working memory, putting the steps somewhere visible can remove the need to remember them each night.

A good night’s sleep starts with a good wake up?

And the routine shouldn’t begin at bedtime. Sleep psychotherapist Heather Darwall-Smith takes a 24-hour approach, looking at what happens from the moment someone wakes rather than focusing exclusively on the hour before bed.

One of her most important recommendations is to wake at roughly the same time every day, including weekends, ideally within about half an hour.

That consistency helps anchor the body’s circadian rhythm — the internal timing system that influences sleep and wakefulness throughout the day. Morning light can reinforce that signal, too, which is why Darwall-Smith recommends getting light into the eyes early in the day, including through a light-based alarm clock during darker mornings.

This can be particularly relevant for neurodivergent people, who may be more likely to experience difficulties with sleep timing. Some people with ADHD describe themselves as natural night owls, finding that their concentration and creativity arrive later in the day. For some autistic people and others with neurodivergence, circadian rhythm differences can also make conventional schedules difficult to align with.

Teenagers face another version of this problem. During adolescence, the biological clock naturally shifts later, meaning young people often don’t feel sleepy as early as adults expect them to — while school still requires them to get up early. For neurodivergent teenagers, that mismatch can be even more challenging.

Understanding the role of sleep pressure

There is another reason to think about sleep across the whole day: sleep pressure. As we stay awake, a chemical called adenosine builds up in the brain, contributing to the increasing pressure to sleep. Caffeine temporarily blocks adenosine’s effects — which is why it can make us feel more alert — but it doesn’t eliminate the underlying sleep pressure, and can lead to a crash once the caffeine has worn off.

The aim, says Darwall-Smith, is to allow the body’s natural sleep systems to work together: the circadian rhythm providing the timing and sleep pressure building during the day.

That means irregular bedtimes and wake times, excessive caffeine and high levels of stress can all make the system harder to regulate.

Stress itself doesn’t have to be eliminated. Instead, Darwall-Smith suggests releasing some of the pressure throughout the day rather than arriving at bedtime carrying all of it.

Think of the body like a bottle of fizzy drink being shaken throughout the day. If you wait until bedtime to take the lid off, there’s going to be an explosion. Instead, she recommends small moments of “punctuation”: breathing between meetings, standing up, walking, stretching, drinking water or simply stepping away from a screen.

If you are neurodivergent, these small interventions may be more achievable than attempting a complete lifestyle overhaul.

Creating the conditions you need

Ultimately, better sleep isn’t necessarily about forcing a neurodivergent brain to behave like a conventional one. It’s about understanding how your particular brain and body work — and creating conditions that support them.

The evening surge of energy, the difficulty with routine, the tendency to become absorbed in an idea, a delayed body clock or simply needing more time to wind down aren’t necessarily personal failings.

The more useful question may be: What can I do throughout my day to make sleep easier when night finally arrives?

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