It’s not particularly revolutionary to say that rest is important for people with ADHD, but beyond the usual platitudes, why is rest so vital to us and yet so hard to actually do? Especially with the holidays approaching and with them all the extra demands on our attention (hello travel plans and family visits and awkward conversations with people you haven’t seen in decades), resting our ADHD brains is mission critical.

For starters, let’s define what we mean by rest. For this blog, rest means purposeful time spent either sleeping or performing non-productive activities such as meditating, taking a walk, or even simply reading a book you’ve been neglecting on your nightstand. All of this sounds pretty pleasant, so why is it so challenging for those of us with ADHD and what can we do about it?

We are often “time blind” - this means that we perceive time as either NOW or NOT NOW, which poses a challenge when it comes to carving out time to rest. We may fear that if we take a pause, that means we will never actually get to the thing we want to do, but conversely, we are unable to actually do the thing because we are exhausted. This results in us sitting staring off into space because we are paralyzed by our lack of time awareness and our fatigue. Talking to a therapist or ADHD coach about navigating time blindness can help you to understand how to manage your time in a way that suits you instead of getting in the way.
We often have difficulty with transitions - this means that we may struggle to both wake up AND fall asleep, as we get stuck in one mode or the other. This means that we are less likely to take a break when we actually need to as we are in task mode or we may experience difficulty starting tasks again after taking time to rest. Your ADHD coach or therapist can help you strategize how to make transitions smoother and process any past shame that can come up around this issue.
We “rest” in different ways - this means we may need a nap some days while others we need to take a walk. Our ADHD brains need both active rest like movement and passive rest like sleeping in order to recover but it can be challenging to tune in and know which we need. On top of that, we may feel guilty for taking breaks at all thanks to the time blindness and issues with transitions so we end up only resting when we absolutely crash from exhaustion. An ADHD coach or therapist can help you come up with a list of ways to get rest and also give you the tools you need to listen to your body to know which one to choose.

In conclusion, resting is essential if you want to feel more present and vibrant and less like you’ve been run over by a bus, but resting can pose a unique challenge when you have ADHD. If you are interested in discovering more about how to navigate resting as an ADHD-er, get in touch with one of our therapists or coaches to schedule a free consultation now.

Why is it so hard to rest when you have ADHD?