Should you read in bed if you have ADHD?

Why bedtime reading goes both ways with ADHD

For many people, a few pages in bed are the easiest reading of the day: no other demands, a quiet room, and a body ready to stop. For ADHD readers, the same quiet can switch a book from calming to gripping, and interest-driven attention does not check the clock. Add a light-emitting screen and the evening gets longer still.

In a 2015 sleep-lab study, adults who read on a light-emitting tablet for four hours before bed took longer to fall asleep, felt less sleepy in the evening, released less melatonin and were less alert the next morning than when they read a printed book. (Chang and others, 2015) Four hours is longer than most bedtime reading, but the direction is clear: the device you read on matters at night.

Set it up to wind you down

Choose the right book for bed

The book that is best at keeping you reading is the worst book for bedtime. A thriller that ends every chapter on a cliffhanger is built to defeat your stopping point. For bed, try:

• A reread of something you love: comfort without the pull of not knowing.
• Short pieces: essays, short stories, poems, a novella in small chapters. Our short books shelf has some.
• A slower book you are also reading by day, so bedtime pages are a bonus, not the only progress.
• Keep the gripping book for daytime, the weekend or the commute.

Decide the stop before you start

Choose the stopping point when you open the book: the end of this chapter, ten pages, or a sleep timer. Put a slip of paper at that page. Stopping at a mark you chose is easier than stopping at a cliffhanger you just reached. If the book is too good to stop, that is a sign it belongs to the daytime.

Keep the phone out of arm's reach

If your phone is your alarm, plug it in across the room. If it is your e-reader, use a bedtime Focus or schedule so that only the reading app can reach you after a set time. (Apple: set up a Focus; Android: Digital Wellbeing and Focus mode) Our distraction-off checklist walks through both.

What about falling asleep mid-chapter?

That is fine, and it is the goal. The cost is the next night, when you open the book and cannot remember the last few pages. Leave the bookmark where your eyes last had a clear memory, not where the book fell. If you lose more than that, a recap tool that stops at your page will catch you up: Kindle's Story So Far for Kindle ebooks, or Magic Bookmark for its supported titles in print, ebook or audio.