What is Meditation?

Meditation is a practice that helps you clear your mind from racing thoughts and achieve a state of mental calmness. The practice could include any number of meditation techniques to help you relax and clear your head.

Some examples of meditation techniques include:

• Body scans: This involves mentally focusing on each one of your body parts from head to toe, acknowledging any tension, and releasing it before moving to the next body part.
• Deep breathing: This technique involves deep belly breaths to soothe your mind and direct your thoughts to the breath. Other breathing techniques include box breathing and alternative nostril breathing.
• Mindfulness: Mindfulness training involves focusing on a specific scent, object, or feeling in the present moment to improve mental clarity and calmness.
• Mantras: Mantra meditation is the repetition of a sound, word, or phrase while meditating. This could be an affirmation like “I am enough” or “The world opens itself to me.” It could also be a primordial sound like “Om,” where all other sounds originate from, according to Ancient Indian scriptures.

These techniques help people with ADHD soothe their symptoms. Specifically, meditation is meant to reduce mental clutter, the worst offender for sleep issues.

What is Mental Clutter?

Some say a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind. But you don’t need a cluttered space to get there if you have ADHD.

Mental clutter is an overload of thoughts, tasks, to-do lists, worries, and memories that run through your mind. People with ADHD may experience mental clutter because they have trouble concentrating on one thing.

“Mental clutter doesn’t always look the same. Sometimes it’s emotional noise. Sometimes it’s creative idea overload. Sometimes it’s just a brain that won’t stop spinning long enough to sleep. Whatever it looks like for you, the first step is identifying it and then figuring out how to manage it in a way that actually works for your ADHD brain.”

— Tara McGillicuddy, ADHD expert and Co-Host of ADHD Support Talk Radio Show

If mental clutter keeps you from your beauty sleep, you might consider trying meditation.

How Can Meditation Improve Sleep?

Meditation has been proven to make it easier to fall asleep and reduce the number of times you wake up in the night. Specifically, one study showed that meditation improved the following elements of sleep:

• Reduces the time it takes to fall asleep
• Increases total sleep time
• Reduces total wake time

But what is it about meditation that improves sleep? First and foremost, the practice helps quiet your racing thoughts. But we can look deeper into a few of meditation’s physical effects and see how they lead to better sleep.

• Deep breathing exercises improve your body’s production of melatonin, which helps you relax and fall asleep faster.
• Mantra exercises have been proven to reduce stress and promote relaxation, which can aid in better sleep.
• Mindfulness shows “moderate” evidence of reducing sleep disturbances and improving overall sleep quality.

I’ve recommended meditation as part of a treatment plan for many of my clients with insomnia.

Are Sleep and Meditation Linked for People with ADHD?

I’ve supported hundreds of women who struggle with ADHD, and quite a few of them struggle with insomnia. Studies support this: 67% of people with ADHD struggle with insomnia, compared to only 29% of the rest of the population.

Meditation has been recently shown to improve the brain’s functions for emotional regulation, which is an area people with ADHD struggle with.

In particular, women with ADHD may experience heightened risk factors for insomnia. They’re more likely to have inattentive ADHD instead of hyperactive ADHD, which may cause them to internalize anxious thoughts.

Women also have hormonal changes that can exacerbate irritability and worsen sleep — specifically, low estrogen dips at various points of their menstrual cycles.

How Do I Meditate with ADHD?

I’ve heard this question from many of my clients: “With racing thoughts before bedtime, how do I achieve meditation?”

The prep is just as important as the practice. Here’s what I’d recommend for a quick meditation before going to sleep:

1. Find out if you have ADHD: It’s hard to create a health plan if you’re in the dark. If you suspect you’re experiencing ADHD symptoms, talk to a mental health practitioner for a diagnosis. You can get started with our free ADHD test!
2. Manage your expectations: Meditation is a practice, so it takes practice. And with a racing mind, you won’t get the hang of it immediately. Give yourself the grace to learn how to meditate, and plan for at least half an hour for your first time.
3. Turn off your phone: Or at least put it on silent. Notifications might distract you from your meditation.
4. Get comfortable: Change into your coziest sweat pants or PJs. Play around with different positions, sitting or lying down, on your bed or couch. While sitting cross-legged might make you feel grounded, you can definitely meditate in a laid-out position, too.
5. Start with your breath: Take a long deep breath and fill your body with air. Whoosh it out and feel the release. You can adjust your breathing method to deep belly breaths, or try out the 4–4-4 method, where you inhale, hold your breath, and exhale, all for four seconds each.
6. Notice your thoughts: Let them pass you by, and don’t judge yourself for having them.
7. Repeat: Keep breathing and witnessing your thoughts pass you by.