I have found that the RX at night does not make me sleepy by when I do choose to go to bed it “quiets the voices” in my head allowing me to not be distracted and fall asleep normally.

Is your experience different?

I can’t imagine it makes you sleepy. If so maybe try Ritalin. That’s what my son uses Frosh (UMD)

Augie
http://addsherpa.com

i’m a mature age student and have experienced similar issues.

i take concerta and find i have a significant dip as it wears off and i become very sleepy for about 45mins to an hour. in my case this is at about 10.5 hours. This may be what you’re experiencing too. 

The key is to work toward maintaining consistent levels in your system throughout your day.  play around with meds offering u different coverage.  maybe 2x8 hour meds could be an option or some other combination.

you may benefit from supplementing with short acting ritalin just prior to this. or dexamphetamine maybe. (i’m in australia - i think elsewhere its called something else)  so try and tune into when you start to feel effect wearing off.  keep records until you can predict.  i did this and found it pretty easy to pick very quickly!

another option that may be useful to consider is exercising at the time you start to slump thus giving your body a burst of natural energy that may just be enough to get you by. 

or perhaps exercising first thing in the morning and delaying the intake of your vyanse and potentially not needing the adderall top up.

i used to take dex and it worked well for me, but remembering to take it was a major challenge - hence my shift to concerta.  (which i’m not as keen on)  taking the dex before bed didn’t effect my sleep negatively at all, like augie it ‘quiets’ my mind.

its important to sort this out well in advance of your exams too, so you can time your meds to give you the peak effect at the right time.  for example i’ve been advised that the peak effect is 2hrs after taking concerta 54 12 hr extended release.

a pharmacist may be the best person to assist you with this, their better knowledge of the finer points of the drugs effects is really useful.

good luck!

Kaylene

Kaylene and Augie are probably right in that you should keep experimenting. As part of the process you could also try the old long-haul truckers trick of taking a 20 min. nap. If the nap goes much longer it will interfere with your sleep so I usually do it in a propped up position in bed with a timer set at 45 min. to give me time to fall asleep and make sure that the nap doesn’t go too long.
You could start by finding the earliest possible time in your day for it and then try right before you need to study. You can also experiment with bright light in the room where you are studying which tricks your circadian clock.
Our reward for replying to you would be if you gave us a running account of your experiments and how they work for you so that others can benefit.
Bob Hathcock ACG, JST Inc.
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PS, I read your profile and I was impressed with your ability to continually work on accepting who you are and your philosophy. I wish I could put it in a bottle and send it to all of my clients.

Bob Hathcock
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- I shake it out, preferably listening to an energetic song or several (for me that’s a playlist from Legally Blonde, but I acknowledge that’d be too perky for most people late in the day!)
- Also pop my daily multivitamin (for the placebo effect mostly) and an extra vitamin B supplement….
- Then I crack open a RedBull and use this thing called a “SADs light”... It’s for seasonal effective disorder, which I definitely don’t have, but the bright light shone in my face for 20 minutes tricks my body clock… Most of the time.

Have you found anything (meds or otherwise) that works Hypersilious?
I could really do with some tips, studying for Law finals at one of the best universities in the UK, and finding powering through increasingly difficult.

I take one in the evening as well. I found that taking it at 6pm is perfect then 5 hrs i can whine down.