ADHD Bedtime Story

During the summer, I sleep on an air mattress in my sister’s room, because her room has air-conditioning and my room doesn’t. I love the cool air, but we don’t exactly have the same sleep habits (you know how us ADHDers tend to be), so she doesn’t always love having me in her room.

Problem #1: She goes to bed early; I’m usually not tired until after midnight. Tiptoeing into her room at night shouldn’t be a problem; but don’t forget my ADHD, that’s where I get annoying. I almost never remember to move my air-mattress into her room before she goes to bed, so I end up dragging it in, letting all the cold air out while I make multiple trips to my room for blankets, pillows, and millions of other things I forgot. When I bring in the blankets to make up my bed, sometimes the blankets end up piled on top of her… while she’s sleeping.

Problem #2: Occasionally, I have a hard time getting to sleep. I lay there for what feels like forever until I eventually get fidgety and hyper and I’m sure I’m going to burst. This leads to me getting frustrated and annoyed at myself because I can’t do something as simple as sleep.

A few months ago, I found this sleep-recording thing that helps me calm down and fall asleep. It’s called Pzizz, and it plays music and soothing sounds and there’s a man’s voice talking over it. I find it relaxing… my sister doesn’t. She calls it "that creepy man thing." She says it keeps her awake because it plays for 30 minutes and I’m asleep after five. Without it, I’d be awake for hours.

Problem #3: I have alarm clock issues. I set like five alarms just in case one doesn’t work. Or (more likely) I turn it off and fall back asleep or I simply sleep through it.

My sister wakes up with the first alarm at 5:40 am. Usually, she throws something at me, yelling either "GET UP!" or "TURN IT OFF!" This process repeats itself four more times until I finally shut all the alarms off and sleep for 20 more minutes until my mom wakes me up. My poor sister, who doesn’t have to wake up for anything, gets stuck listening to my obnoxious ringtones before 6 am.

Sorry!