3 ms·

This is a really weird topic! For example, I understand that Ritalin is used mostly as a stimulant and can be used to treat some cases of narcolepsy. But, acco

This is a really weird topic! For example, I understand that Ritalin is used mostly as a stimulant and can be used to treat some cases of narcolepsy. But, according to a psychiatric doctor I spoke to, some people take it to help them fall asleep.

vegardx 7y ago
It would surprise me if someone was able to sleep while influenced by stimulants. However, being on stimulants is very exhaustive for your body, and it temporarily stops the racing thoughts many people struggle with, even some time after taking it. I was having quite severe insomnia when I was younger and it all cleared around the time I was diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed stimulants. My insomnia doesn't seem to return when I'm on holidays or during weekends, periods which I usually don't take any medication. I asked my doctor about it, and he said it could be related, but it could also just be that I grew out of it, or any number of other reasons. He did say that some doctors was been experimenting with very low doses before going to bed with various degree of success. But it was a high risk that these people was suffer from some kind of undiagnosed variant of ADHD or another where insomnia typically is a comorbid disorder, like bipolar disorder.
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  > However, being on stimulants is very exhaustive for your body, and it temporarily stops the racing thoughts many people struggle with, even some time after taking it. Exhaustion is not the mechanism by which stimulants calm people with ADHD, as far as we understand it. Very approximately their internal world is less stimulating than that find restful so they’re constantly looking for more stimulation to reach a pleasant level. The stimulants let them reach that level without more environmental stimulation. One of my friends doesn’t drink anything with caffeine in it because it puts him to sleep.
  - vegardx 7y ago
    I never claimed it was. I said that you feel exhausted after using it.
raducu 7y ago
I am pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD(its pointless getting a diagnose in my country as an adult). My resting heart rate is pretty high, but if I do any intelectual work wahtsoever my heart rate is around 95bpm. RItalin analogues(in therapeutic doses) bring my heart rate to 60bpm when doing intelectual work while sitting on a desk -- during my deepest sleep my heart rate is 67bpm. My own bro-science explanation is that I compensate my ADHD with anxiety -- when I'm anxious, I can focus just fine; some stimulants allow me to focus without the anxiety and that's why I feel deep calm and reduced heart rate while using them.
- misterman0 7y ago
  I feel your bro science makes a lot of sense. I'm someone who's been identified as being bipolar and put on Lithium, which I quickly dropped (because it made me feel suicidal) and I instead turn to illegally acquired cannabis, which helps me to not feel the anxiety of not yet having solved a problem, something that these days freak the living shit out of me, if I'm not doped up.
  - no_identd 7y ago
    Lithium should almost certainly NOT make one suicidal when dosed correctly for Bipolar. You might wish to explore the uses of a micronutritional form of lithium, namely, lithium orotate, which gets metabolized in a very different (and safer) way than pharmacological lithium.
anoncake 7y ago
One factor is that it helps with self-control making it easier to calm yourself down or to stop ruminating.

vegardx 7y ago

It would surprise me if someone was able to sleep while influenced by stimulants. However, being on stimulants is very exhaustive for your body, and it temporarily stops the racing thoughts many people struggle with, even some time after taking it. I was having quite severe insomnia when I was younger and it all cleared around the time I was diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed stimulants. My insomnia doesn't seem to return when I'm on holidays or during weekends, periods which I usually don't take any medication. I asked my doctor about it, and he said it could be related, but it could also just be that I grew out of it, or any number of other reasons. He did say that some doctors was been experimenting with very low doses before going to bed with various degree of success. But it was a high risk that these people was suffer from some kind of undiagnosed variant of ADHD or another where insomnia typically is a comorbid disorder, like bipolar disorder.

barry-cotter 7y ago
> However, being on stimulants is very exhaustive for your body, and it temporarily stops the racing thoughts many people struggle with, even some time after taking it. Exhaustion is not the mechanism by which stimulants calm people with ADHD, as far as we understand it. Very approximately their internal world is less stimulating than that find restful so they’re constantly looking for more stimulation to reach a pleasant level. The stimulants let them reach that level without more environmental stimulation. One of my friends doesn’t drink anything with caffeine in it because it puts him to sleep.
- vegardx 7y ago
  I never claimed it was. I said that you feel exhausted after using it.

raducu 7y ago

I am pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD(its pointless getting a diagnose in my country as an adult). My resting heart rate is pretty high, but if I do any intelectual work wahtsoever my heart rate is around 95bpm. RItalin analogues(in therapeutic doses) bring my heart rate to 60bpm when doing intelectual work while sitting on a desk -- during my deepest sleep my heart rate is 67bpm. My own bro-science explanation is that I compensate my ADHD with anxiety -- when I'm anxious, I can focus just fine; some stimulants allow me to focus without the anxiety and that's why I feel deep calm and reduced heart rate while using them.

misterman0 7y ago
I feel your bro science makes a lot of sense. I'm someone who's been identified as being bipolar and put on Lithium, which I quickly dropped (because it made me feel suicidal) and I instead turn to illegally acquired cannabis, which helps me to not feel the anxiety of not yet having solved a problem, something that these days freak the living shit out of me, if I'm not doped up.
- no_identd 7y ago
  Lithium should almost certainly NOT make one suicidal when dosed correctly for Bipolar. You might wish to explore the uses of a micronutritional form of lithium, namely, lithium orotate, which gets metabolized in a very different (and safer) way than pharmacological lithium.

anoncake 7y ago

One factor is that it helps with self-control making it easier to calm yourself down or to stop ruminating.