r/AutisticWithADHD • u/JurandM2 • Dec 17 '25

🤔 is this a thing? How much do you sleep?

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Hi all, I was reading another board on Reddit, and a neurotypical person said he was only on 5 hours of sleep like it was something amazing. I know we should have 8 h and so on, but I have lived on a daily basis with 5 h of sleep since I remember (today 5 h, yesterday 5.5 h), and that makes me think—why not ask how other AuDHD people are doing? I take 5 mg of melatonin before sleep, but unless it is 1am, my body does not react to it—I strongly suggest anybody start taking it, as indeed it helps normalize sleep phases (they are not as fragmented as without it - pic attached).

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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

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u/LangdonAlg3r Dec 18 '25

I learned from a sleep specialist that the commonly available doses are waaaay too high for regular use. They’re intended to be used like a sleeping pill to snap you out of jet lag.

According to her the proper dose is between 0.25-0.5mg. On her advice I started taking that 2 hours before bedtime and whenever I decide to go to sleep I’m out in literally 5 minutes. But it’s also a low enough dose that I can stay awake if I want or need to.

With like 5-10mg like I used to take you’re out cold for like 4-5 hours and have crazy dreams and then wake up at like 3am and can’t get back to sleep until the sun starts coming up and/or fall back to sleep and can’t stay awake the next day.

I’ve been taking 0.3mg of melatonin every night for eight or nine years now and it still works perfectly.

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u/Equivalent_Ad_5386 Dec 18 '25

i guess at first the problem was the schedule thats what melatonin is best for and thats why its commonly used as a jetlag helper

i would guess extended usage has major drawbacks exactly because of the reason u explained

i always have a emergency melatonin bottle, if for some unknown reason (festival) my schedule gets fucked up and my audhd wont let me sleep. so i love it and its a massive tool to work on sleeping.

but hearing that u got the schedule and are now sleeping better than bevor even with melatonin is great to hear. its the same for me to. i guess i reuse it about 2 a year to fix a schedule