If you take a stimulant as part of a prescribed routine but have concerns about your sleep, consult your doctor to see if it might be playing a role.
If you take stimulants without a prescription or outside of prescribed doses, these can be counterproductive for sleep and related behaviors.
How do stimulants negatively affect your sleep?
- Although you may be able to stay awake a little longer to work, you risk having substantial difficulty falling asleep when you finish working.
- Like caffeine, they stay in your system: the half-life of Adderall, for example, is 10 hours. This is why individuals who are prescribed these medications are instructed to take it in the morning. But if you take it at 10pm, 50% is still in your system at 8am the next morning.
- If you try to use stimulants for this purpose and are sleep deprived over several days, this can take quite a toll (e.g., negative mood, paranoia).
- Sleep deprivation can hinder learning and memory. Taking stimulants to increase the number of hours you can work or study while simultaneously reducing your sleep puts you at risk for not being able to actually retain the information or perform effectively – so all of your hard work may be for nothing.
- Research studies have found that these medications are helpful for learning and/or cognitive abilities among individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (i.e., ADD, ADHD), but NOT individuals who do not have them.
Sources:
- External Factors that Influence Sleep, Harvard Medical School Healthy Sleep.
- Prescription Stimulants in Individuals With and Without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Misuse, Cognitive Impact, and Adverse Effects, Brain Behavior.
