I Slept 4 Hours… and My ADHD Got BETTER?

Last night I stayed up until 3:30am watching the Super Bowl and only got 4 hours of sleep… so I expected my ADHD to be worse than ever.

But the opposite happened.

My brain felt quieter. I could remember things. I stayed on track in lessons. I even remembered what question I was on when I turned the page — which NEVER happens.

For a few hours, it honestly felt like my ADHD had disappeared.

In this episode, I talk about what that “calm brain” feeling was actually like, why being overtired can sometimes feel like better focus, and why it’s a total trap if you try to chase it.

If you’ve ever had a random “good brain day” and thought

“Why can’t I be like this all the time?”

this episode is for you.

Real talk about ADHD, tired focus, brain noise, and learning to work with your brain instead of fighting it.

Transcript

Dan 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Danifesto. Today I need to talk about something that happened to me today. Um it was about my own brain, well because it was. And and it actually had it made me stop and go like, hold on, what is going on here? So basically last night I stayed up to watch the Super Bowl. If you don't know what the Super Bowl is, it's um an American football game. But because it's based in America, um it's six hours ahead or something. So um I have to oh no, behind, six hours behind, six hours be ahead. And oh you know, it's it's behind. So um I stayed up to watch the Super Bowl. Um and I it was a good game, it was it was okay. Um Yeah, it was okay, I'm not gonna say anything about the half time show, but you know, we'll let that go. Um and I went to bed about half three-ish-ish. I only got like um four hours, fifteen minutes sleep, any precise, but that's what I got. And um and then I woke up and I'm thinking, right, today is gonna be a write-off. Because normally if I'm tired, my ADHD is normally really, really worse. Every everything's every everything annoys me. I forget stuff and I can't focus, and my brain isn't like a chaotic group chat where everyone's typing all at once. But um today it was the opposite, really, to be honest with you. It was the opposite. Like, I'm gonna tell you now, it generally felt like my ADHD has just disappeared. Like obvious obviously that didn't happen. It didn't just disappear. So that's impossible. But it felt like it did, and that's what this episode's about. I'm gonna explain what's uh you know, because I know there's gonna be people listening to this who's had the same things where you're tired, but your brain goes weirdly quiet, and then you're like, Why do my why does my brain only behave when I'm running on fumes? So today my brain was brain fit, it was very, very brain fit. So today we're gonna talk about you know um tired focus, um, calm brain days and the trap of thinking you've found the fix when it's really just a weird brain moment. And um I'm keeping it real, I'm not gonna make it all medical, I'm not a lecture, I'm just gonna show you, you know, how it feels and what what I might be what might be going on. Um I have done a bit of research about this, only like five, ten minutes, and I've just got a little note here, so yeah. So the night before, the Super Bowl, late night, bad choices. So let's rewind. The super the Super Bowl night, I'm up laced. It's one of them nights where you were saying one more minute, and then suddenly it's half three, and you feel like, yeah, this is not normal human behaviour. And I knew at the time, like I knew that tomorrow was gonna be rough. Like, I already mentally prepared myself thinking, uh, I'll be tired, I'll be slow, I'll be cranky, and my attention will be all over the place. I normally last year, um that was on it's always on a Sunday, I think was the 9th last year, um I watched the Super Bowl and I watched it the year before as well. So this this was my third year watching it. So I've always watched it, something I've always watched and and enjoyed. But um I went to bed anyway, obviously, because what else are you gonna do at th or three in the morning? And then I woke up basically with no sleep. I had a little nap really, and here's the weird bit I wasn't buzzing with energy, I wasn't like, yeah, let's go. I w I was tired, but my brain felt just less many messy, and I wasn't tired when I wanted to go to sleep because in my taxi I was falling asleep a bit, but I I just felt a bit of peace and a bit of relax, and my brain was just calm, like it's it's a bit weird to go back and think I've only had four hours sleep, but I just feel really calm and just relaxed and composed. But yeah, that that was bonkers that I don't know why I felt all relaxed and that, but I went with it. I didn't have a Red Bull as well because I normally if I'm planning to stay up late like that, I normally have a Red Bull, and but that makes me more tired anyway, so I'm thinking what's the point of that? So I'm waking up expecting chaos. So I wake up, I'm tired, I'm thinking, right, just survive. I need to just get through school and try just try not to get shot of that, and definitely don't fall asleep because I'm not I'm not really the type of person to fall asleep in um like a taxi or school. Um but yeah, because that that that that's the thing when I'm tired, my ADHD usually feels a bit more obvious, like I'll forget what I'm doing mid-task, I'll lose tracking lessons, and I'll get distracted by everything. And you know when you're in a classroom and there's like a tiny noise, or like someone tapping a pen, and in your brain's thinking like, Yes, that I will listen to that, I would think about that instead of listening to my GCSE work that I'm doing it in less than a hundred days. Oh yeah, let's listen to a pen tapping on a table. That is how annoying it is, and also when the teacher says, Um, look at me, look at me when I'm speaking to you, and I'm like, My brain is so focused on looking at you that I'm not getting a word that you're saying. Like that that that that that's what I found weird. But when I'm looking away, I can listen more because I'm not focusing, because it takes all my strength and all my might just to just look at someone, like it's bonkers. So yeah, I was expecting all of that, but then I get into the day and I'm like, wait, why do I feel like a bit calm? Because I feel like I'm on medication when I'm not. The weird calm brain day, what it felt like So let me explain it properly because it is hard to put into words really. So normally my brain is really loud, it's not literally loud, like loud, but um like mental loud, like um I've got what have I got like thoughts on top of the other and um just a bunch of random stuff that's flooding through my brain and popping up and it's always switching between things, um it's getting stuck on like one thing, and then I've tried to th focus on it to remember it, and then I just end up forgetting it anyway. But today it was like someone turned down the volume and put my concentration up to 100%, but maybe not a hundred because English didn't go very well. Well it didn't go very well, it didn't go very well for me. Um yeah, but anyway, yeah, it's like concentration was like a hundred in the morning and like it went down a bit, probably because I'm tired anyway, and I don't mean I felt like a zombie because I felt like I could hold on to longer thoughts. It's normally like I try to hold on to thoughts and they just slip away and I'm chasing it like wait, what was I just doing? Come back, but today it it just stayed. It was quite actually actually quite nice, you know. And that that's that's the best way I can put all of that into describe it, into my thoughts. It just stayed with me. So maths, I did maths today, and um this is where I've clocked because in the morning I had um two or three lessons, so I did a bit of photography work. Um photography, it's not that it's not the higher subject on my um priority list, let's put it that way. Um it's just that you know if I need I need to get maths in English like down, down, down before I can start focusing on photography and that, but I still need to do it because it I picked it and it's it's my requirements. So um, yeah, I did photography and that went really smoothly. I knew where all my fires was, I didn't get brain fogged, I just I just I literally locked, it was like 90 minutes, so I literally looked at my screen and locked in. Like I don't normally do that, like that is really big for me to do that. Like I just locked in, it was it was bonkers, like it was proper, proper cool. Like I was like, oh my god, oh my god. Um so yeah, and then after that I was maths. So this is the part that shocked me the most. So in maths, I could remember my times tables easier, if that makes sense. Yeah, um but my time I'm not I don't like my times tables. I I think I know me I know my twos, two, four, six, eight, yeah, I know that. I know I d I know a bit of my threes, but I have to I have to write them down, you see, and count with my head because I just I can't I don't know, I just I I can't remember them. I've been grown up with them and all that, but I just can't remember. And again, it does sound small that I remembered my timetables, but if you know, you know. Because normally even if I know something, my brain it can still hesitate or second guess or even go blank or it could what what can it it can get distracted midway and then I'm like wait, what was that number again? Like it's bonkers because I'm literally forgetting everything. But today I was just there, felt like I was present, you know, I was with it. It wasn't it wasn't perfect, um not like I suddenly just suddenly became Albert Einstein, but like the information wasn't just falling out of my head onto the floor and dissolving into nothing. And then this was the big one where I thought, oh my way, what am I doing? So I I'm writing questions in my book and I turned the page and I remembered what question I was on without looking back. And you're probably thinking, you you taking it, are you you know, you are you absolutely for real right now? I I do that every single day, but like I've got me me me I've got me like my worksheet with like A, B, C, D, and whatever, and then I've got my book where I write it in and then answer it. We're doing algebra as well, so that took a bit of mental mental you know power. So um yeah, I was doing that, but then I looked at I and then it was something like 2x minus 4bc D, something stupid like that. So um, yeah, I I I I remembered that and opened my book and just write it wrote it down. But I didn't look I didn't look again. Like that is what I find absolutely bonkers. I just I didn't look again, I just that that was it. So and that it never really happens that when I just do that, because normally, like I've just said, I turn a page and then my brain wipes at the previous page like it never existed, and then I'm scanning back thinking like, oh my god, where am I, where am I? There we go, and then I feel stressed because I I've got expectations, um and then I'm also losing time as well because my lessons are only 45 minutes, so um I'm losing time and I'm thinking everyone's just looking at me, well they're not, but like you you think that like oh my god, I'm under pressure, and um yeah, it's it's it is horrible, and also when the teacher says like watch this in front of the whole class, and I just normally shout out a random number. I don't know why. I just because I don't want to work it out because I'll be slow, so I just I don't want to waste people's time, so I just shout out a random number. So we're gonna be like, What's eight times six? I'll be like, five hundred and fourteen, and they'll be like, Whoa, no, it's not, and I'll be like, Oh, yeah. But today I just turned a page and I just knew, and I do remember thinking, What is going on? So then I rushed into my form class and I I said to my teacher, I think my ADHD has been cured. And I started to scream like, Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the Lord, and all that. I got that's the only time I got a shout at that, actually. So I didn't get a shout at that, I just got told, but yeah, that that and then other people started joining in in the corridor, and then um my maths teacher was like, Why are you doing that? You know, so so that's the only tell-off I had today. So yeah, and then I had a pretty fun day today. Um I was recording some stuff for the school um for like a careers week. So I've got three people down, including me, because I've recorded myself, and then um I think we've got another two or three more to go. I wanted to do it all in one day, you know. Set up your camera, the lighting's the same, and just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and boom, they're all done. But I think the other people had other plans, but anyway, but um this is other little moments, um the wait, this is easier stuff. And it wasn't just maths, it it was other stuff as well. Like I remember what I was doing without constantly checking like um little bits where I normally like drift off, but I really I didn't, you know. It would have been bonkers, I just normally I just started writing something until I get distracted halfway and um but I stayed with it a bit more I know with like 45 minutes and it's not that long to concentrate, but for me, wow, that is hard. And don't get me wrong, I was still me, like I wasn't suddenly a different person, I still had ADHD things, but I felt reduced and at one point I generally thought wait where did my ADHD go? And that thought is dangerous because by the way, because it makes you start questioning everything the confusion bit if sleep helps ADHD why did this happen? So this is where my brain got really really confused because well this was in the middle of it English actually, because English was at the end of the day because I was thinking because we all we always get told that sleep helps attention, sleep helps memory, sleep you know h helps your mood, and it does. I I know it does. So why did I feel much better after only four hours of sleep? Like, how how does this make sense? And you're probably thinking four hours of sleep, that's quite a lot, that, but like for me, I normally average like a ten hour sleep. Like I'm I'm a pro I like me sleep. I'm gonna go to bed at ten and wake up about eight. How many how many hours is that? Eight, nine. Yeah, that yeah, that's normally about a nine, ten hours sleep. Could be wrong, but I can't be bothered doing the maths. But I can because I'm at my brain best, so it's it's ten. Yeah, about nine, ten hours sleep. And so yeah, this is where I started thinking about this idea of tired focus, like focus that isn't actually like healthy focus, it's just a different brain state. My theory, low battery mode. Alright, so imagine your phone, when you put your so so when your phone is on full battery, you've got loads of apps open, you're switching between stuff, notifications going off, music's playing, you're messaging everyone, and everything is running, and everything's just working fine. But when your phone is on like 10 or 5%, because it normally goes to low power mode on 20%, so imagine 20% or lower, it tells you an option to go to low power mode, and low power mode shuts down background apps, it reduces stuff, it limits your you know, you know how smooth it is, they're called your your refresh rate. So normally on the pro version it is 120 Hz, but it lowers it to 60, and it just makes it a bit slow, and it limits what's going on with your phone as well. And I think this can happen to your brain too. Like ADHD is basically a brain with loads of background apps running. I wish I could go to settings and turn it off, but I can't. You have thoughts, simulations, noticing literally everything, and switching loads, you know, like switching back and forth and that. But when you're really tired, your brain doesn't have the energy to keep doing all that stuff, so it some of it shuts down. You're not that tired that it all shuts down, but you're tired enough that some of it shuts down, but you don't feel tired because that's that's probably the department that shut down. And that I I I feel like calm. So instead of your brain being like, look at everything, notice everything, think about everything, it's like nah, we're tired, we're doing one thing at a time, and that can feel like ADHD has just gone, just obliterated out of nowhere. But really, it's your brain running on low power mode. But here's the important part this is not the secret hack or anything. But now listen, this is a bit where I want people to hear properly. Do not start thinking, oh I'll just sleep less then because you might be calm one day, but you will pay for it later, because getting not getting enough sleep isn't a strategy, it's basically borrowing energy from tomorrow, and eventually tomorrow collects for bills, and for me, when I don't get enough sleep properly, I might be calm for a bit, but later on I can get really snappy, I can get really emotional, I can get really more anxious, I can get really over overwhelmed, brain fogged, I can get annoyed by noises, I can everything that you know mood swings, everything, everything, like a moody, every everything, everything that is is your worst trait, it comes, it comes to life and the next day you're leaving worse. So if you're listening thinking, I wish my brain was like that every day same, I do, but we can't chase it by running sleep. It's like it's it's not a hack, it's like a glitch The trap, if I can do it today, why can't I do it every day? And this is where it gets deep because when you have a day where your brain works, you feel proud, you feel like yes, I'm capable, but then the next day you really struggle and you feel like what is wrong with me? And people do this where they say, Well, y you did it yesterday That sentence honestly that sentence messes with your head because ADHD is not inconsistent, it's not that you can't do something, it's that you can't always access it on demand, you know y y you're you're offline sometimes, and it's so hard to explain that to people who don't live in your brain who or who don't have ADHD like it's not effort, it's regulation. What ADHD feels feels like normally, well for me anyway. So on a normal day, ADHD can f for me, for me anyway, can feel like my brain is jumping between things all the time. I am constantly forgetting what I was doing, like like I could be in middle of a task, get distracted, and boom, that task is not getting done. I'll be zoning out of lessons all the time. Like if if you're listening and you're trying, trying to listen into a lesson, you won't. That's how annoying, that's how annoying it is. I go into English thinking, right, I'm gonna listen to my teacher, and I'm just gonna sit there and listen. So I'm I'm I'm looking, I'm I'm I'm I'm in the lesson, I'm looking at my teacher. I'm like, right, let's start to look at her eyes while she's talking. Right. Right, let's let's look at her lips, right? Yeah, I can see the words coming out. Well, I can't, but you know, right, what about her ear? Let's look at uh her ear. Okay, the left one's not working, let's go to the right, right? Let's look at A nose and then I start you know getting all like weird detail like um like you got a spot and I'm like why am I thinking all of this when I'm meant to be doing GCSE papers uh so yeah I'm zoning out of lessons I'm feeling restless over like over time um I I always struggle to s finish things like I will start stuff all the time like definitely new hobbies well that is that is for another episode the new hobbies wow I've been for about 500 right anyway so I'm okay to start stuff but trying to finish them who sorry I just have to take a minute trying to finish a project that I've just started is absolutely impossible like I can't finish something to save my life I'm always losing my place you know like in life as well I get really deep thoughts that don't think I should be running through yeah it's more like deep thoughts about like where do you go when you die or this and that it's horri it's not very nice but you get there and I've just accepted that and I'm being distracted by very very tiny things and people just think ADHD isn't just you can't focus but it's more like focus doesn't obey me and it comes and goes sometimes I can focus for ages on something I like like a YouTube video or a football game 90 minutes or you know an hour plus pauses for American football and because I had when I was watching it last night I thought right between the different quarters and all that I'm not going to go on my phone. What did I end up doing? Yep going on my iPad instead yes um where was I so oh what what did I just say sometimes I can yeah okay sometimes I can't focus for two minutes on something I I need to do really and sometimes like today it just goes weirdly quiet and I'm like wha random good brain days most confusing thing ever honestly random good a brain days are one of the most confusing parts of ADHD I would say if you can relate send me a message because if you get a day where everything just clicks and you're like this is it I'm fixed hallelujah and then you're not and then you start thinking was I lying before am I was I overreacting am I just lazy on the other days and no you're not it's just the ADHD inconsistency thing and I think the that oh I think the inconsistency is why people don't take ADHD seriously sometimes because they see you do well once and they think oh you can do it then and they don't see what it costs you to physically do it this is why adults get it wrong teachers parents adults they can get confused because they they see the output but not the effort they see you finished loads today you were very focused today you were calm today and then the next day you struggle and they assume attitude but the real truth is sometimes your brain isn't showing up to the party and you can be trying the same amount but getting different results that is why ADHD can feel really unfair so what do I do with this? So the question becomes what do I do with this information? If my brain went quieter then I was tired what does this tell me? It tells me that I like the feeling of calm it tells me the noise is the you know is the hardest parts and it tells me there might be ways to turn the noise down that isn't you know it doesn't stay up till half three in the morning so the goal the field goal wasn't meant to be a pun but anyway so the goal isn't how do I become you know proper tired the goal is how do I get a calm brain in a healthy way how to get a calm brain without destroying sleep alright so these are some things that help some people with ADHD it's not magic or anything it's not perfect or whatever so the first is movement sometimes my brain doesn't need motivation it needs movement like a like ten minutes either a walk you know going upstairs stretching running anything anything really that moves second is water and food if if you don't eat properly my brain is worse I feel dehydrated my brain is worse protein in the morning can help some people but not always it i but it it can third make your memories external if you keep losing your place don't rely on your brain to hold it use bookmarks sticky notes finger on the line circle the question number highlight you know where you are people think it's cheating it's not it's just you're supporting yourself number four is timers so I don't tell myself do an hour because it feels impossible impossible to do it to do an hour of full of work so I tell myself right do 10 minutes or 15 minutes it's like American football again going back to my I don't know why I'm going oh super bowl there we go so um yeah I have quarters so do one fifteen minute quarter and another fifteen minute quarter then another fifteen minute quarter and then another fifteen minute quarter there you go you got an hour sick and fifth is reduce choices ADHD gets worse when there are too many options so instead of I need to revise I go I need to open the book one step and yeah there's other stuff like background noise music silence and whatever works for you but the main thing is you're trying to reduce the load on your brain because the more your brain has to hold and manage the noisier it gets the real lesson my brain can work it just needs the right conditions this is the part that actually makes me feel hopeful because if the right conditions made my brain feel calmer today then the point is not that I'm broken the point is conditions matter some days my brain will naturally be more regulated and other days it won't but I can help learn what helps me and what doesn't instead of blaming myself I can get curious not furious yeah re kit spoke it's very very good so you can be curious like what time did did I sleep? What did I eat? Was I stressed? Was I excited? Was the classroom quieter? Was I moving more? Was I more relaxed because I expected the day to be bad and that last one is the big by the way because sometimes when you expect yourself to fail you stop putting pressure on yourself and that can make you feel much calmer and pressure makes ADHD worse for me anyway. Might do for you but it definitely does for me pressure perfection and beating yourself up I think lots of people with ADHD don't just struggle with attention they struggle with shame because you've been told off so many times you've been misunderstood so many times you've had people say just concentrate so many times so when you have a day where your brain just works and you you just feel a bit of relief and when it doesn't you feel kind of guilty and you just want to say you're not lazy if you're constantly battering your own brain that is effort even if other people can't see it if you relate to this if you are listening and you've had the same things where you're tired but weirdly focused I want you to know that you're not the only one. It's the most confusing ADHD experiences because it feels like you found the secret but it's not the secret. It's just a weird brain state and the real secret is learning what helps your brain feel calmer without burning yourself out the day my ADHD went quiet so yeah that's the story really that's my day. I slept four hours and fourteen minutes to be precise don't know the seconds and to stay up watching the Super Bowl I expected absolute chaos and my brain went quiet it felt really good felt really easier it felt like I could actually hold on to thoughts and not lose my place every two seconds but I'm not taking that as getting really tired and not having enough sleep is good. I'm taking it as proof that my brain changes depending on conditions and instead of blaming myself on the hard days I want to understand my conditions a bit more because I'm not trying to delete my ADHD because ADHD is part of me and it makes me me. I'm trying to work with it alright everyone I appreciate for listening if you want message me or comment whatever you whatever you're listening on and tell me if you've ever had a calm day you know like a calm brain day like that especially after a bad sleep because I swear it is more common than people realise. Don't forget to like and subscribe and share it to someone who might find it useful you know that'll be up to you. You might even give them a good thing to listen to and a bit of news on that secret podcast I'm going on I'm going on it very very soon in next month I'm going so um yeah that is very very very exciting I'm still not gonna tell you you'll have to wait for it to come out it'll be all on my socials when it does come out because I will be absolutely buzzin' so yeah that is it remember like and subscribe and all that and um yeah I will catch you in the next one bye bye have a good day