Adult ADHD: Excessive daytime sleepiness on Ritalin!

[Pegs11]

Hi, I’m a 44-year old female, and I’ve been on Ritalin (Concerta XL) since being diagnosed with ADHD six months ago.

When I started on the lowest dose, 18mg, it made me very relaxed and sleepy for the first few days (apparently it has a sedative effect on a small number of people with ADHD), then my body adjusted and I was no longer getting sleepy; however, I also felt like I wasn’t getting much benefit from the meds (I still had the ADHD symptoms). Same thing happened at 27mg and 36mg - felt sedated for the first few days, and not much effect thereafter.

Eventually I settled on 54mg daily, as it seemed, at first, not to make me so sleepy and also seemed to be helping me focus and feel more motivated. I thought I had finally “arrived”!

However… I have now been on the 54mg dose for a few weeks. All OK at first, but increasingly over the past couple of weeks I have been suffering from the excessive daytime sleepiness again… and it doesn’t seem to be going away this time.

I feel wonderfully, incredibly relaxed - I’ve never known anything like it! - but I can’t get anything done as I’m sooooo drowsy. I am struggling to work, and it’s got so bad that now I can’t even drive!

I only seem to start feeling more awake and alert when I go to bed (which is around the time the meds wear off)! In fact, I wondered what it would be like if I took the meds at bedtime instead of in the morning… so I tried it, and sure enough they helped me drift off and gave me deep, unbroken sleep all night, which I’ve never had before!

I’ve been doing this for four or five nights now. This might sound like a good solution, but the issue is that I am still not waking up properly the next day! Nothing seems to wake me up properly. I am so, so sleepy all day. It’s so strange that this is still happening even after a great night’s sleep on the evening dose.

I will give it another week and if the problem remains, I will go back to my ADHD psychiatrist. In the meantime, has anyone else experienced this?! If so, what helped?

Thank you!

Hi

I know this is an older post but I've just started Tranquilyn (methylphenidate) 5mg 3x day and it's making me so chilled out and sleepy. I feel a lot calmer but I'm getting nothing done. I hoped it would give me a boost and stop procrastination but if anything it's made it worse and I feel less anxious and guilty about not working so struggling to find the motivation to start.

Did you find after some time things got better?

@IdisagreeMrHochhauser my medication has undoubtedly made a huge difference to my well-being - everything just feels so much easier now - but it does tend to make me drowsy and I’m still trying to find the optimum dose and timings so as to minimise the daytime drowsiness.

The best combo I’ve found so far is taking half my dose at lunchtime and the other half before bed. This seems to keep my dopamine levels at a pretty much consistent level throughout the day, which means it’s easier for me to get through the day and feel more regulated and in control, and also much easier for me to fall asleep at night and have a really good night’s sleep. Honestly the quality of my sleep has improved hugely since I started taking the bedtime dose!

I do still feel like I could do with having a bit more energy in the daytime, but for now I’m “good enough” on this current regime. When I have my review with my consultant, I’ll see what tweaking (if any) she might suggest.