ADHD, Sleep & Hormones: Why Your Brain Won’t Shut Off at Night

Dr. Brighten: [00:00:00] You know those nights where your body is exhausted, but your brain Is running like a full marathon, you're lying in bed, your eyes are open, you're replaying like every awkward conversation and moment you had in the day, planning your next big event and wondering, things like, do OC Occupy have feelings? Meanwhile, the clock is ticking closer to your alarm and you just know tomorrow is gonna be rough. If you have a DHD sleep can feel like an impossible puzzle, but here's what no one tells you. Your hormones are a massive part of the problem. If you've ever felt like your A DHD symptoms get worse before your period, or that your meds just don't seem to work depending on where you're at in your cycle, or that your brain refuses to shut off

at night.

It's not in your head, It's definitely your hormones. Today I'm gonna take you on a deep dive into the real reasons why A DHD brains [00:01:00] struggle with sleep, how estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol are messing with your

rest. And most importantly, what you can do about it all. Plus, I'll be sharing my A DHD friendly sleep hacks that actually work.

even if nothing else has helped. you before. Now, listen, If you're in perimenopause struggling with fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, weight, you know all those symptoms

that plague us in our forties, your sleep may be the driver of these issues. but today you're gonna get all the tools to help you fix that.

And hey, if this episode resonates with you, I've put together a free five day A DHD hormones and brain

sink mini course to help you finally understand how to work with your hormones. instead of against them. You can grab that at dr brighton.com/sync, That's D-R-B-R-I-G-H-T-E n.com/s YNC. [00:02:00] Alright, with that said, let's get into it. Let's start with the basics. So Why do A DHD brains fight sleep so much? I mean, they feel like perpetual toddlers in some ways.

It's because they operate on a totally different clock than the neurotypical brains.

It's not just about having bad habits or needing better discipline.

Your brain is wired for delayed sleep phase syndrome. A DHD literally equals naturally delayed sleep

clock. Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about that and let's get into the neurotypical counterparts. So a neurotypical brain starts producing melatonin roughly around nine o'clock. So 9:00 PM but A DHD brains, it's more like midnight or later. This means you might feel tired, but wired. your body is done down for the count, but your brain

fully [00:03:00] operational. So here's one action step, and you'll have a lot in today's episode to choose from. But number one, action step is If you can shift your schedule to match your natural

clock, you'll do better. Nine hours do better with A later

start

time. Okay, but let's be real. That's not gonna work for everyone. That's probably not gonna work for most people. If that's true for you, Oh, my God. More power to dive in.

But I thought like small humans and puppies running around my house keeping me up in the morning. So let's talk about other things that you can do And what is actually gonna help you get better sleep. So to start this off, I'm going to explain the circadian rhythm. So let's get into the science behind A DHD and the delayed sleep phase from the perspective of what's going on with your body's internal clock.

A K, A, the circadian rhythm. Now this is regulated by a mix of light exposure, melatonin production, dopamine levels, genetics, like there's a lot going on. We're gonna focus on the things that [00:04:00] you can actually control. So for most neurotypical people. Like I said, melatonin is going to rise starting roughly around nine, maybe

10:00 PM. This signals the body to wind down. It lowers our body temperature and it gets the body prepared for sleep. You naturally start feeling tired around 10:11 PM when your melatonin starts creeping at nine to 10:00 PM But for A DHD brains, things look very different. Melatonin production is delayed by upwards of three hours. It's usually at least one to three. So instead of feeling tired by nine or 10. It might be more like midnight or 1:00

AM. dopamine and alertness levels can also stay higher in the

evening. And we're gonna talk a little bit about

like things that drive that. Mm, looking at you doom scrolling, but this can make it harder for your brain to

turn off.

Not to mention some of us [00:05:00] with A DHD have blue light sensitivity and that can further delay melatonin if screen time isn't managed. So here's the key insight for you. A DHD brains operate on a natural night owl schedule, meaning they feel more awake, productive, creative in the evening, even when their body is super drained and tired. Now, is this true for everyone with a DHD? No. No. Like of course we all can't be like a cookie cutter and then things be easy, right? No. So not everybody with a DHD has delayed sleep phase, okay? Not everyone's struggling with that. but it is extremely common and studies suggest that like 75% or more of adults with A DHD show issues with delayed sleep.

So it's definitely something that could be affecting you if you have a DHD. Now, on the flip side, some people are completely opposite. So in A DHD and perimenopause or post menopause, [00:06:00] some women notice they start getting tired earlier, and that's due to the changes of estrogen and progesterone, which can sometimes shift melatonin production earlier.

Then there's the A DHD burnout camp, which I hope you never find yourself in, but if you do let me know, I can do a whole episode on it. You can let me know. Now, chronic stress and high cortisol can cause people to crash out earlier than usual.

So when the majority of people with A DHD tend to be a little bit later when they go to bed. that might not be true for you, but you may still have disrupted sleep. so I wanna talk about shifting the sleep schedule and not everyone can just adjust their work schedule to fit their natural circadian rhythm.

I mean, only it was that easy, right?

So if you have a nine to five job kids like I do, other obligations, things that are shifting your sleep needs to be earlier.

I want you to start training your brain. 

You can use light exposure

to [00:07:00] reset your circadian rhythm. First thing in the morning, 10 to 20 minutes of bright

sunlight.

That's just upon waking, within 30 minutes of

waking, and this tells your brain, hi, it's morning. Then two hours before bed, we're gonna dim the lights to signal that sleep is coming. Okay, got another action step for you. Try using blue light blocking glasses or dim red lighting at night to encourage melatonin release earlier in the

evening. These are some basic action steps to support melatonin production, but I want you to understand a little bit more about the dopamine melatonin connection better, and we're also gonna talk about how we can actually. Start shifting our clock and shifting what time we go to bed. So we're, I'm gonna teach you how to shift your bedtime, but I just wanted to give you a couple of those tips , so that we can help your hormones start operating the way that they need to.

Okay, so like did you know that dopamine and [00:08:00] melatonin are connected? Because I feel like this is not something enough of us are talking about, and is one of the most overlooked pieces

of the entire A

DHD puzzle. So according to one study titled Melatonin Dopamine, interactions from Basic Neurochemistry to a Clinical Setting, melatonin and dopamine

work in opposite ways.

In some ways, they inhibit each other depending on whether it's day or night. Now this helps regulate circadian rhythms, sleep cycles, and when you're actually awake. But in A DHD, this balance is often dysregulated. I feel like dysregulated

is a key word for us sometimes, and so it makes it

harder to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling rested.

Okay, Now melatonin and dopamine operate kind of like in a seesaw. So I want you to, uh, visualize, uh, if you're listening to me a seesaw, If you're on YouTube, you can see me. so there's within specific parts of the [00:09:00] brain, we have this seesaw, so during the day, dopamine is high and it keeps us alert and engaged.

While melatonin is low. at night, melatonin should rise. Signaling sleepful dopamine naturally decreases to allow rest. Now this is where the problem

happens. A DHD brains have disrupted dopamine regulation, meaning that dopamine levels may not decline properly at night.

So since melatonin production is inhibited by dopamine, the delay pushes back the sleep cycle, making it harder to fall asleep at a normal time.

And what's the result? The A DHD brain stays wired at night. It craves more dopamine, high doom scrolling and getting stuck on social media, and it struggles to transition

to sleep. So people with A DHD often feel more alert

at night. It's kind of like this dopamine, melatonin, tug of war. [00:10:00] And the study I just shared with you highlights how melatonin 

naturally suppresses dopamine levels when it's time to sleep. So in the A DHD brain, dopamine doesn't drop the way it should, and we get those melatonin issues and that results in several things. So one trouble falling asleep.

Two, nighttime restlessness and hyperfocus. Three, revenge bedtime procrastination. If you know, you know, four, waking up groggy. So I wanna talk about these four in a little more in

detail.

Number one, trouble falling asleep. This is when your brain is still in day mode with too much dopamine, really kind of blocking melatonin, or maybe you're getting your dopamine hits that you wish you got during the day.

With nighttime restlessness and hyperfocus, this is where the brain is seeking more dopamine, and it leads to the binge watching, the scrolling, uh, just like [00:11:00] all of us during the pandemic with Tiger King, um, and the sudden productivity bursts.

Then there's the revenge, bedtime, procrastination. This is wearing, like all of us with a DH, ADHD or perpetual toddlers. We're staying up late to enjoy the dopamine surge.

That didn't happen earlier in the day. We're wanting to play. And then there's the waking up groggy. So since melatonin was delayed, the natural wake up signal, cortisol

doesn't align

leading to exhaustion in the morning.

So we already talked about getting your morning sunshine and doing the darkening of your house in the evening Because A DHD brains don't regulate dopamine effectively. You can't just force yourself to go to bed earlier. It's not gonna work. And instead, what you need to do is help your melatonin rise naturally while guiding dopamine into its nighttime rhythm.

[00:12:00] So in addition to the light dark cycles that you're gonna

do, we also wanna give your

brain controlled dopamine at night instead of scrolling social media, especially like news reports and stuff, which is high stimulation for dopamine, try low stimulation, dopamine activities, like listening to a low key audio book, light stretching, maybe doing a puzzle or super chill, calm, boring reading.

I just mean no like super dramatic. Fantasy books. Alright, the other thing you can try is magnesium glycinate that can help support melatonin dopamine, and that glycinate

component can help you stay asleep at night. Now, I talked earlier, I want you to start shifting your sleep gradually. So what

does this look like?

Okay. Wherever your bedtime is right now. I want you to try to move it back by 15 to 30 [00:13:00] minutes at a time. Instead of trying to force an unrealistic early bedtime, I want you to just make a little shift at a time. So if you're going to bed at midnight and the goal is

10, every few days you're going to go to bed, 15 minutes earlier.

Okay, so from this

section, uh, I don't want your a DHD brain to fatigue, so your action step. Is creating like a dopamine anchor around bedtime, uh, listening to a favorite audio book, light stretching Essential Oils, a puzzle, something that your brain will associate with sleep

instead of forcing sleep.

When you're not tired, uh, create a dopamine, wind down ritual. So again, I want you to just pick one thing. . Are you going to listen to an audio book or a podcast with a low energy tone? Maybe I should try to

Chill out more. Uh, is it gonna be essential oils? Is it gonna be fidget friendly [00:14:00] relaxation tools, like a weighted blanket, a stress ball?

Are you gonna do some light stretching or are you gonna engage in low stimulation activities like. Puzzles. Journaling, coloring. Knitting. I want you to think about, you know what you can do as part of your bedtime routine that's gonna feel good to you, that's gonna make your brain feel that little happy reward without doing what social media does and pushing your dopamine to the extreme, and then getting you in that I'm stuck.

I can't fall asleep. Cycle. So I mentioned magnesium glycinate. That's one supplement that can help calm your brain and supports neurotransmitter balance. The glycine component in it again, can help you with staying asleep at night. Collagen is rich in glycine. So drinking a beverage with glycine can help as well. And Acetol is another supplement that can help with your neurotransmitters but also sleep.

So people [00:15:00] say it makes them feel less anxious, they get better sleep at night. Um, people also use it for weight loss, uh, specifically when you have insulin resistant issues. So I just wanted to add that side note there. 'cause I always get questions about supplements. Okay, so we have to have some real talk about A DHD stimulants and caffeine because if you're not using stimulant medications, you might be leaning heavy on caffeine.

stimulants taken too late in the day can absolutely keep you awake. So if stimulants are the issue, this is actually an easy fix. We're gonna take them earlier in the day. Now, if caffeine is the issue, I need you to know some facts here. It has a half-life of about five hours, but some people are even slower metabolizers, and it can take like

twice as long to meet

that half life. So if you drink coffee at 2:00 PM. That coffee is still gonna be around 7:00 PM and if you're aiming for [00:16:00] 9:00 PM or 10:00 PM bedtime, that's going to disrupt it.

I also need you to understand that some women can metabolize caffeine slower during certain phases of their cycle, namely the luteal phase. So some women notice they're more sensitive and caffeine keeps them up

more. So I definitely want you to pay attention to that. And if this is true for you, then this is your action step. And maybe it's not true for you, but if it is.

you

need to cut caffeine at least eight hours before bed. uh, and you need to try something like a low caffeine

alternative in the afternoon if you're like, but I just need a beverage because that's my reward friend. See herbal tea, uh, as a resource. Okay, Okay. So far I've given you a ton of information, so I just wanna do like little recaps here.

So number one is A DHD. Brains operate on a naturally delayed sleep cycle. It's not just bad habits. 

​

Dr. Brighten: If you can't shift your schedule, you can [00:17:00] still hack it and hack your sleep by resetting melatonin production with morning light exposure and evening,

dark,

dark, dark. Keep your room totally dark and two hours before bed.

Let's dim everything in the house. You can also create a pseudo dopamine powered bedtime routine and get away from doom scrolling by engaging in other activities

that

make you feel more relaxed. If you need to start shifting sleep gradually by 15 to 30 minute increments and doing that. For several nights before you change again.

And then we want to avoid caffeine in the late afternoon. For most people, I will say we wanna avoid

caffeine after

12:00 PM So now that I've said all of that, let's get into my favorite part, which is the hormone talk. So how do hormones impact A DHD sleep? Well, it's not just the estrogen, it's not just the progesterone. It's [00:18:00] also cortisol, and in some cases, histamine, which

is part of the immune system, but also ax as a neurotransmitter can be

playing a role. So as we dive into hormones, this is where things get really

interesting

Because if you've ever felt like some weeks your sleep is great and others, you're an insomniac mess, it's not random. It's something you need to track because it's

hormonal.

Now I wanna

talk first about how estrogen helps you sleep,

Because

this is something that can definitely impact women in perimenopause, but even in the luteal phase.

So. According to some studies on sleep disturbances in menopausal transition, estrogen plays a key role in regulating melatonin production. So when estrogen is high, mid cycle around ovulation, melatonin production is stable, making it easier to fall asleep. Serotonin levels are also higher, which improve sleep quality [00:19:00] and mood.

And your body temperature stays more regulated compared to what progesterone can do to it. So you're less likely to wake up from heat related discomfort unless you're in menopause. Then you're like, no, tell, talk to me about hot flashes lady. I do have episodes for that. I'll link to them

now. estrogen also helps regulate cortisol. Your stress hormone. They have an interplay and lower estrogen can make us feel a little more at the mercy of stress and cause cortisol to respond to

that. when estrogen is stable, our sleep is smooth, but when it fluctuates, everything feels like it's thrown

off. Now

I wanna talk a little more about what it looks like when estrogen drops. So when estrogen declines, which can be right before your period or maybe your postpartum or during perimenopause, your body starts struggling with melatonin production.

you can see melatonin levels begin to decline, making it harder to fall asleep, and that's in [00:20:00] part because serotonin also declines And we make melatonin from serotonin.

Sleep can become more fragmented, leading to frequent night waking. And then there's the hot flashes and night sweats that I already said, which can further disrupt sleep.

And if you know, then, you know, and again, I'll link to resources on that now, that one piece of

estrogen can contribute to a DHD women feeling more exhausted before their period, uh, postpartum perimenopause. And it's not just hormone shifts. it's sleep deprivation from poor melatonin regulation, the serotonin, the stress hormones, the dopamine issues.

 You're like, probably like. stop, Stop, going and let's talk about what to do about it. So let, let's talk. What should we do about it? Because clearly just hoping for better sleep is not gonna work. Alright, here are some action steps that you can take. Number one is we can support melatonin naturally. So if you are [00:21:00] breastfeeding magnesium glycinate and B six, those help with melatonin synthesis.

They should be in your prenatal, but you probably need extra magnesium glycinate. And you can also, so you can take that breastfeeding, you can take it any other time as well. I just wanna let you know it's breastfeeding. Safe.

We can stabilize body temperature by getting a cooling pad or you know, bedding that breathes well.

So that can help reduce. sleep disruption. And then balancing blood sugar is gonna be really important and we're gonna talk more about that as it relates to cortisol.

But having a protein rich snack before bed, like maybe a hard boiled egg or some almond butter, um, or even like the collagen I talked about,

that can help prevent the cortisol spikes. Now, at some point you may have to consider estrogen hormone replacement therapy. I have another episode. I have several episodes where we talk about HRT. I will also link to those. It's very nuanced, it's very individualized, but know that most A [00:22:00] DHD brains do benefit from estrogen hormone replacement therapy.

Okay, let's talk about progesterone. Now. Progesterone is a natural sedative. It helps calm your nervous system, and if it's low before your period or in perimenopause or menopause or postpartum, you may get racing thoughts at night that keep you awake. And sometimes they can feel like ruminating thoughts that just don't go away.

It is also common to have more anxiety and wake up, especially around three o'clock in the morning. That seems to be the key time. Hot flashes and night sweats can also accompany it because as estrogen's going, or excuse me, as progesterone's going down, estrogen usually is two 

And for some women who have struggled with PMDD most of their life, sometimes that drop in progesterone can make it feel a whole lot worse. Now, your natural progesterone or oral micronized, progesterone, not topical, and not progestin, which is in the [00:23:00] pill, Your natural progesterone is metabolized to allopregnanolone, which interacts with the gaba, system of the brain. I want you to think calm, chill, getting good sleep, feeling in love with everybody, and not feeling emotionally

dysregulated and like your nervous system's dysregulated. I am gonna link to the Dr. Carrie Jones episode where we talked exclusively about gaba, but here's some things that you need to know. So that metabolite of progesterone allopregnanolone, it plays a crucial role in sleep and circadian rhythm. It's essential for maintaining a stable sleep wake rhythm. So keeping things. Consistent.

That's very hard to have when you have A DHD. Uh, it also promotes neural proliferation and improves brain structure and function.

What does that

mean? It helps with brain cell production. It makes your brain work better. So we love progesterone. Now, since allopregnanolone [00:24:00] allopregnanolone is a metabolite of progesterone.

Uh, the decline of progesterone in aging women, specifically we're talking about menopause, but this can be primary ovarian insufficiency. This can be happening in, PCOS, but all of this may contribute to increased sleep disturbance. If you've had a hysterectomy and your ovaries removed and suddenly you can't sleep, that might be

why

now the hormonal fluctuations that affect our ability to make this metabolite can explain why perimenopause and postmenopausal women experience disrupted sleep and cognitive decline.

It's not just the estrogen and when it comes to A DHD. A DHD. Brains already struggle with sleep. and

memory due to the dysregulation of dopamine and their circadian rhythm. So if allopregnanolone is also low, it could further disrupt these processes 

without a doubt, we see a sharp

drop in progesterone and its metabolites that affect our GABA [00:25:00] system when we are going through menopause. And that might explain why so many A DHD women experience worsening sleep and cognitive function during this transition.

Let's be real. Perimenopause is way

harder if you have a DHD or autism. If you are neurodivergent, your brain struggles so much more without these hormones.

So supporting allopregnanolone production

through

progesterone, okay, that's what we want to support, is a targeted intervention, and it could be the missing piece to A DHD related sleep and memory struggles for some people.

Now, what can you do right now if you're listening to this? You can't just go take progesterone. Okay, sorry friend. But what you can do as an action step is keep your bedroom cool, like cold, like 65 Fahrenheit, which is 18

Celsius. That's ideal. And try progesterone supporting foods. I will link to an article about how to boost progesterone and foods that you can eat for [00:26:00] that. You can also try incorporating more Vitamin C Selenium and use something like Vitex. You'll actually find all of that in the Dr. Brighton Essentials balance, women's Hormone Support supplement, which is designed to help with both progesterone and estrogen levels. I'll give you a coupon code. No pressure to buy my product, but if you are interested in it, I recommend checking it out.

 Now, if you're no longer able to make your own progesterone.

I. You are going to need to talk to your doctor about progesterone hormone replacement therapy, and specifically for sleep and brain health. We need to take it orally. Typically, we're gonna take a hundred to 200 milligrams at night, but here's the thing,

the A DHD brain may be more sensitive

in the way it metabolizes progesterone or the way the receptors

interact.

Sometimes you need less. I have some patients that we start on 25 milligrams and other patients who do just fine on like [00:27:00] 50 and, and they're great 

so it

just depends. And the way that we monitor hormone replacement therapy is based on your symptoms. So you need to

be tracking things.

And like I said, I will include links to episodes where I talk about hormone replacement therapy. I have an upcoming episode that is all about perimenopause weight loss, and that one talks extensively about what you should talk to your doctor about with hormone replacement therapy.

So I will provide

that to you. All I teased it. Cortisol, I've talked about it a little bit, but if you're waking up between two and 4:00 AM then cortisol might be your problem. So sometimes falling asleep isn't the issue, but it's waking up at night. and that can be due to cortisol spikes, histamine spikes, blood sugar dysregulation, and that low

progesterone issue we

talked about.

Now I wanna talk specifically about

cortisol because this can definitely get thrown off, whether it's a DHD on its own, or it's a DHD burnout. So [00:28:00] cortisol should be high in the morning and low at night. So it spikes the morning to wake you up. It goes down at night and the melatonin rises. But for many A DHD women.

And moms, it can be

reversed. So things like stress, low blood sugar, high histamine, those can also contribute to the two to 4:00 AM wake up driving that cortisol up.

So we've gotta work on a few things here if we wanna keep you asleep. Progesterone aside, we need to talk about your blood sugar. You know, I said a protein rich snack before bed.

I also, wanna talk to you about upgraded golden milk in my book Beyond the Pill. I have a recipe in there for, it's a, it is golden milk, but you're gonna

add some cream or some kind of. Fat. You are gonna add collagen, which has the glycine to stay, keep you asleep, and some honey, which can

help you stay asleep through the night. We need to also avoid high histamine foods for some people like fermented [00:29:00] foods, aids,

cheese,

processed meats right before bed, so that can't be part of dinner for some people. And then we wanna calm the cortisol spikes by doing some vagus nerve activation before bed. I'll link to a resource on that for you, doing some deep breathing or those little dopamine fixes that we talked about before where we're doing calm things that make us feel good. Okay. this is a lot of information. So let me give you an action

step. If you wake up at 3:00 AM every night, you're going to eat a high protein snack before bed, and you might wanna keep one next to your bed as well.

I also want you to

try deep breathing exercises before going back to

sleep, and sometimes just can be a body scan or 10 deep breaths before your back to sleep. Now,

as I mentioned in my book, beyond the Pill, there's a recipe in there. I broke it down for you, but you can do this with other things as well. Um, having some herbal tea, like some passion flour tea and adding some [00:30:00] honey and adding a little bit of collagen to it. But the reason why I like the upgraded Golden milk is because as the turmeric as well,

which helps with inflammation.

Let's talk sleep supplements for A DHD brains. Now melatonin might be the obvious

one to jump to, and in truth, we use melatonin for a lot of reasons, not just sleep. It's protective of the brain, it is protective of the ovaries.

It's got great antioxidant potential.

But while melatonin can help you fall asleep, it doesn't necessarily help you stay asleep. And if you're someone who's like, I'm not ready to jump on HRT, and the diet stuff is not working, then it might be time to consider some supplements. Now, if you are going to use melatonin, more is not better.

Typically one to three milligrams is all it takes for someone to get. To sleep. And I will say that typically in my practice, I'm only using this in people prior to their period because that's when sleep is really the hardest. Another nutrient to consider is phosphatidyl searing [00:31:00] roughly 50 to a hundred milligrams, and couple that with

ashwagandha, like a hundred to 200 milligrams, about one to two hours

before bed. And that can help with dampening the evening cortisol, uh, you're gonna need to use it on top of sleep hygiene practices. Please don't think you can just take these supplements and that's gonna be enough. You have to dim your lights, you have to get off social media. That has to happen. So I'm not gonna get that disclaimer anymore, but it's always my fear that people will just think they can just take supplements and then they don't have to do any nutrition and lifestyle, and then they're gonna be let down.

I don't want that for you. Okay. I. So two others that I really like. Passion flour, which I mentioned you can drink as a tea, otherwise you're taking one to 200 milligrams and L-theanine, one to 200

milligrams with that one as well.

That makes it easy to remember. These can help with gaba, that calming neurotransmitter and help you sleep through the night.

Magnesium glycinate, which I already mentioned, but I didn't give you a dose. It's about 150 to 300 milligrams nightly [00:32:00] that can help promote a state of calm and restfulness, and it can also help with your periods.

So we love that. Another nutrient, and I mentioned it before, was anatol, but what we're looking for specifically is 2000 milligrams

of Myo-Inositol. So. With that, that can help with blood sugar, st stabilization as well, so that's another way it can help you sleep through

the night. Now, there's a coupon code in the show notes for Dr. Brighton Essentials that you can use to purchase any of the supplements that I formulated and mentioned. Here. I'll list the particular ones that go with this episode if that's

helpful. You do not have to use my supplements though. Um, instead you can just use the information that I shared and you can go somewhere local if that works better for you. But if this is helpful, I do wanna give you the supplements that I use to help manage my perimenopause, A DHD sleep struggles that, um, I actually have under wraps. I [00:33:00] feel pretty good

about

that. Alright, so when it comes to supplements, you always wanna check with your doctor and see what works best for you, given what medications you might be on or what health conditions you might have. So always check with your doctor on that.

And you may need to experiment with things.

because what works for one A DHD brain may not work for another, and it can sometimes be trial and error, , Especially figuring out what works for you throughout your

menstrual cycle. A good bed is magnesium. That helps most people overall. But outside of that, you really wanna figure out what is true for you.

Alright, to wrap

this up, I'm gonna give you just a few more sleep hacks. Some are gonna be a little bit of a repeat, but some of us need the repeat, so that's okay. All right. I want you to think of the 3, 2, 1 sleep rule for A DHD Brains, three hours before bed. No caffeine, no big meals, no stressful work, no stressful show. Social media, no politics. Two hours before [00:34:00] bed, dim the lights. Your screens must have blue light filters on them. Or you're wearing your amber glasses one hour before bed.

Magnesium

audiobook, essential oils, journaling, whatever it takes to wind you down, but also feels pleasurable for

you. The A DHD nighttime routine is so,

So crucial, and I think about how we do nighttime routines for babies, but then we think just because we're adults, we don't need to do it anymore. Wrong.

So you wanna find what I call that gentle dopamine anchor for bedtime routine, which is something enjoyable that is going to really help your brain associate nighttime is sleep time

without surging it, right, without getting that big dopamine hit looking at you artists. Because this is usually when artists are

like, I'm gonna paint, I'm [00:35:00] gonna sew, I'm gonna do all of the things.

Or you know, you might be a college kid and it is.

The night before a term paper is due or something. So as often as possible, we want to have that

gentle routine going so that we can really promote healthy sleep, use a weighted blanket if you struggle with restlessness at night. If you're somebody who has restless like syndrome, you might wanna get your iron levels checked and get that investigated.

'cause it might be something else. And another thing that might be helpful is doing a brain

dump or like a journal where you just dump your mental clutter before you go to sleep. So get a journal. You don't have to write what you're grateful for. You don't have to have it structured at all. You can literally just word vomit the things everyone tells us not to do when we're out with other people.

You can do this in your journal to help you get sleep.

Thank you so much for being here with me. I hope you found this helpful. If you want [00:36:00] further support, you can go to dr brighton.com/sync. That's D-R-B-R-I-G-H-T-E-N slash SYNC, and

I've got a short little five day mini course. Everything is Everything very digestible in there. I even highlight the actionable things for you to do, and I encourage you If you sign up for that, to actually put it on your to-do list, just to open my email to receive my email.

Um,

and that's a nice little dopamine hit too, to check off those boxes

if you try some of these strategies, I wanna know, did it help you? Uh, did you?

have to tweak it in any way? Was there something that you found if you combine things, it was more helpful. I'm always really curious to learn from you. Women's research is grossly lacking. We do not have enough research in women's medicine when it comes to women with a DHD. It's abysmal. It is sad, and so where doctors and other people can learn is from others who have a DHD [00:37:00] who are trying things out and experimenting and sharing what they find is useful.

 

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