Thoroughly ADHD
I'm Alex Delmar, a certified ADHD coach and person with ADHD. I'm here to share what I've learned so other people with ADHD can enjoy better lives!
Thoroughly ADHD
ADHD Makes Getting Out of Bed Hard; Here's How to Fix It
Your alarm goes off, your eyes open, and yet… you don’t move. That sticky space between awake and up isn’t laziness—it’s an ADHD friction zone shaped by dopamine dips, time blindness, and decision overload.
I walk through the long‑term, “set it and mostly forget it” moves that make mornings more reliable:
- cutting the phone trap—charging outside the bedroom and scheduling blocks—then replace screen‑based alarms with physical clocks to keep attention on what matters.
- designing a realistic, timed morning routine anchored with visual prompts and a few small delights that make your brain want to participate.
- creating playlists that inspire movement.
- leveraging tech like sunrise alarm clocks and programmable thermometers to make your environment conducive to getting up.
- setting up external accountability—coffee meetups, dog‑walking, carpools—because the ADHD brain moves faster when someone else is counting on us.
Sleep quality still sets the stage, so I point you to deep dives on getting to bed on time and waking up more consistently. Even with solid sleep, the ADHD hurdles remain, which is why environmental design, simple choreography, and tech‑assisted cues matter. Consider this an infrastructure approach: fewer choices, clearer signals, and repeated rhythms that carry you from eyes‑open to out‑the‑door with less effort and fewer stalls. Next week, we’ll tackle night‑before prep and first‑wake strategies you can use without even leaving bed.
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Often with ADHD, even if we manage to wake up on time, we don't get out of bed. It can be so frustrating that seemingly inexplicable time lost between when we open our eyes and when we are alert enough and motivated enough to actually get started on our day. Maybe you're mindlessly scrolling or doing literally nothing besides making yourself late. Either way, it's setting you up for a bad morning. Well, there is an explanation, and in short, it's your ADHD brain. This is actually great news because that means we know some strategies we might employ to set ourselves up for a smooth start to the day, use that time productively, increase our motivation to get out of bed, stay on track once we're up, and to leave the house as planned. In this episode, I'll tell you about long-term actions you can take, and next week I'll cover what you can do each night before bed and the things you can do when you first wake up. I'm Alex Delmar, a certified ADHD coach and person with ADHD. Welcome to Thoroughly ADHD, where I share what I've learned to help other people with ADHD enjoy better lives. Here are some long-term actions you can take to avoid languishing in bed. These are of the set it and mostly forget it variety. You can find a good place to charge your phone that is not near your bed, preferably in the bathroom or kitchen, and put a block on distracting sights from the time you're supposed to get ready for bed through to the time that you expect to be fully prepared for your day. Get an alarm clock or two so you don't need to handle your phone first thing when you wake. This reduces distractions and helps you remain present during your morning activities. Second, design a super simple timed morning routine, but be realistic about what you can accomplish on a regular basis with respect to both unpredictable energy levels and the time you have available. Post visual reminders of what the steps of your routine are and set alarms at important intervals. These steps help to combat decision fatigue and paralysis and time blindness. Include a few things that make you happy in that morning routine to combat low dopamine. And third, develop a playlist of irresistible tunes that make you want to get up and move, andor motivational speeches by people you admire. Fourth, get a sunrise lamp or sunrise alarm clock or a programmable light bulb to signal your brain that it's time to shift into the wake cycle before your alarm even rings. If none of those is an option, you can even try a regular daylight bulb and plug the lamp into a timer. Another way to leverage technology is to use a smart thermostat and set it to adjust the temperature in your room to a comfortable level for your awake time. Sleep experts say a cool room fights morning grogginess, but you don't want it so cold you won't get out from under the covers. The ADHD brain hates to let others down, so set up commitments to show up for someone else. You might meet a friend for coffee or ride together to the gym, take the elderly neighbor's dog for a walk, or carpool with a coworker or classmate. If you look for opportunities, you will find them. Obviously, if you haven't gotten enough quality sleep, it's difficult to be at your best in the morning, but there are actions you can take to get to bed as planned, to improve the quality of your sleep, and to wake up on time. And I've covered those topics in two other thoroughly ADHD episodes titled Why Can't I Get to Bed on Time? and Why Can't I Wake Up in the Morning? Even having had a good night's sleep, people with ADHD face hurdles that make us tend to hang out in bed for a long while or take a really long time to start our day. In the next episode, I'll cover the actions you can take before bed to temper this problem and what you can do when you first wake up to turn this downtime to your advantage, and you don't even have to get out of bed right away. If you'd like support implementing these ideas or want to develop a personalized plan, you can contact me, Alex Delmar, or another ADHD coach, or find an ADHD peer support group. Your time is valuable, so I hope you found this useful. If you did, please like, follow, subscribe, and come back next Tuesday for more thoroughly ADHD tips like these. Thank you.