Why You Power Up at 10 PM (and How to Unwind with Your ADHD Brain)
Understanding your ADHD brain clock and crafting a nighttime routine that works.
You meant to have a calm night. Maybe just a little routine, some quiet time, an early sleep.
Then, out of nowhere, your brain flips a switch. Suddenly, it’s 10:42 p.m. and you’re filled with a burning urge to start a passion project, organize your finances, or finally do the one thing you spent the entire day avoiding. Meanwhile, your bed’s now a desk, and your quiet night has turned into a full-blown life audit.
That’s exactly how this newsletter came to be. I got a random surge of energy, started thinking about why this keeps happening, and ended up researching ADHD sleep patterns instead of actually... sleeping.
I guess that’s the point, though: not to guilt ourselves for these patterns, but to understand them better and gently shape routines that work with our brains, not against them. This week’s worksheet is designed with that in mind. All readers this week can download it at the end of this newsletter. It's a gentle, ADHD-friendly way to spot your sleep-sabotaging patterns and build a nighttime rhythm that actually helps you rest.
Why does this happen? (And what your ADHD brain is actually doing)
So why does your brain get motivated right when you're supposed to wind down? A few common ADHD patterns help explain it: brain chemistry, circadian rhythms, and a touch of emotional rebellion.
Here's how they work (and why understanding them helps):
1. Dopamine Disruption
ADHD brains often run low on dopamine, the neurotransmitter that drives motivation and reward. During the day, everything can feel like a drag. But at night, when pressure lifts and distractions fade, your brain finally kicks into gear.
Research shows ADHD brains have underactive dopamine reward pathways, making us crave stimulation even more. That "midnight second wind"? It's dopamine finally arriving at the party. Children and teens with ADHD often experience something similar, feeling a burst of energy at night, right when the world slows down.
2. Circadian Rhythm Shifts
Most ADHD brains don’t follow a typical 9-to-5 schedule. Many of us naturally feel more alert later in the day due to something called delayed sleep phase.
One study found that 73-78 percent of college students with ADHD have an "evening" chronotype (you can read more here). If your body isn’t producing melatonin early enough, it’s no wonder you don’t feel sleepy, even when you want to. This is especially common in teens, but it often continues into adulthood. That late-night burst of clarity isn’t a personal failure. It’s just how your brain’s clock is set.
3. Revenge Procrastination and Executive Dysfunction
Burnout also plays a role here. After a tough day, ADHD brains crave some sense of control. That’s when revenge bedtime procrastination shows up. Staying up late feels like a way to reclaim time that felt lost or unproductive.
And it’s not just a matter of poor habits or willpower. Executive dysfunction makes it genuinely harder to stop and transition to rest. This study found that adults with ADHD score higher on bedtime procrastination and lower on self-control. Children show this too, but adults often feel it as that quiet, exhausting push and pull between needing sleep and finally having energy.
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What can we actually do about it?
There’s no perfect bedtime routine for ADHD brains. But there are small things you can do to make nights a little less chaotic, and mornings a little less painful.
Below are a few ADHD-friendly strategies backed by science and built with real brains in mind. You don’t need to do all of them and you certainly don’t need to do them every night. But if one of them feels doable, it might help you shift the pattern. Or at least get one step closer to the kind of rest you're actually craving.
1. Create a Wind-Down Window
Set aside a quiet, relaxing period before bed as a buffer to unwind. Instead of working or scrolling right until lights-out, do something calming (like a warm shower, gentle stretches, or reading) for 30-60 minutes leading up to bedtime.
ADHD brains don’t naturally hit the brakes at night - we often get a “second wind” when we should be sleepy. Sleep experts note that many people with ADHD feel alert late into the evening, partly due to delayed melatonin release (your sleep hormone). A gentle wind-down routine signals your mind that it’s time to relax, helping you feel more ready to drift off.
Try picking a consistent wind-down time each night, even if it’s just 15 minutes at first, where you dim the lights and do something soothing.
2. Brain Dump Before Bed
Unload your thoughts onto paper so they don’t swirl in your head all night. Spend a few minutes before bed writing down tomorrow’s to-dos, ideas, or worries – the goal is to free your mind from that mental chatter.
ADHD minds tend to race at night (“Did I pay that bill?… Ooh, new idea!”). Getting it all out in a quick journal or list reassures your brain it won’t forget anything, so you can relax. In fact, one study shows that writing a to-do list for five minutes at bedtime helped people fall asleep faster by offloading those nagging thoughts.
Try scribbling down a quick to-do list or diary entry each night. No need to be neat or thorough - just a short brain dump to park your thoughts.
3. Keep Evenings Low-Key
Avoid late-night activities that ramp you up. That means no diving into intense work projects, heavy conversations, video games, or even super exciting TV episodes right before bed. Keeping your evenings calm and boring (in a good way!) gives your brain a chance to settle.
ADHD brains crave stimulation, so starting something interesting at midnight can spark a wide-awake feeling when you least want it. Many of us also fall into “revenge bedtime procrastination” - staying up late for me-time because the day was all work. The problem is, exciting activities and screen light trick your brain into wake-up mode by suppressing melatonin (read more here). Sticking to mellow, quiet activities at night helps your mind power down naturally.
Try setting a gentle “screens-off” rule about 30 minutes before bed (even 10 minutes is a win!) and use that time to do something relaxing or nothing at all. Your brain will thank you in the morning.
4. Soak Up Morning Sunlight
Use your morning to set up better sleep at night. As early as possible after waking, get some daylight into your eyes – for example, have your coffee by a sunny window or take a brief walk outside. Bright morning light helps regulate your body’s internal clock for the day.
Morning light basically hits the reset button on your sleep cycle. That’s extra helpful because ADHD folks often have a natural night-owl body clock (we tend to feel alert later and struggle with early mornings). One scientific review found that regular morning bright light therapy improved sleep and next-day alertness in adults with ADHD. In short, exposing yourself to sunlight first thing tells your brain it’s daytime, so you’ll feel sleepier when night comes.
Try to soak up a few minutes of morning sun tomorrow. Even just opening the window or stepping outside for a breath of fresh air can gently nudge your sleep cycle back on track.
5. Take a Warm Bath, Then Cool the Room
A warm bath or shower about an hour before bed raises skin temperature, which then drops once you step out. That drop signals to your body that it’s time to sleep.
A meta-analysis found that a 10-minute warm bath 60–90 minutes before bed helped people fall asleep faster and improved sleep depth. Lowering your bedroom temperature afterward (around 18°C / 65°F) boosts the effect.
Try a quick 10-minute soak or shower tonight, then keep your bedroom slightly cool.
Final Thoughts (and Your Sleep Reset Worksheet)
You don’t need to fix your entire sleep routine tonight. This isn’t about becoming a morning person or building the perfect wind-down checklist.
It’s about noticing the patterns, getting curious about what helps, and trying one small shift that feels doable. Something soft. Something that works with your brain.
To make that easier, we’ve put together a gentle worksheet to help you reset your nights. It includes a check-in to spot what’s been throwing off your sleep, a calm space to plan a wind-down routine that actually fits you, and a flexible reset you can try whenever things go off track.
As you may already know, we make one worksheet free each month. This is the one for June.
Want full access to everything we’ve made? That includes all 9 worksheets, 18+ past issues, and our ADHD-friendly meal planner, Feed My ADHD.
It’s the best way to support our work and get tools actually built for brains like yours. With the yearly plan, you’ll get 52 ADHD-friendly worksheets over the next year for less than $1.55 per week.
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The morning sunlight thing really works. I discovered this sort of accidentally, during a period in my life when my only possible window for going to the gym was at 5:30 AM. Being someone who needs a rather lengthy coffee-drinking period of time before I can function, this meant I had to get up at 4:30 AM. This seemed like an impossible feat for someone who had been a night-owl her entire life.
Now, I also tend to suffer from seasonal-affective disorder (SAD), and in an effort to combat my winter blues I had asked for a "Happy Light" for Christmas.
I was rather shocked to discover that after a few weeks waking at 4:30 and sitting by my Happy Light while I drank my coffee, I seemed to have re-set my circadian rhythm. I found myself waking up a minute or two before my alarm, and my brain seemed to be ... turning on and functioning of its own accord? It was bizarre.
Twelve years later and I'm still an early riser. Now I feel "off" and out-of-sorts on the rare occasions I sleep late ("late" now being 7 AM).
I loved this! Unfortunately, I'm on a fixed income and I need to figure out which subscription or subscriptions I should drop in order to afford subscribing to this “newsletter." I have ADHD and this incredibly informative and helpful. Thank you for presenting this.