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Stimulants Dextroamphetamine make me a little tired

A

And12

Greenlighter
Joined
Mar 17, 2016
Messages
11
I take low dose dextroamphetamine for ADHD. Low dosing is all I need and works successfully. I take 2.5mg each time. I know it is very low but it works well for me, any higher and I can be a little overstimulated.

I normally take first dose 20 mins after breakfast, so first dose close to 9.00pm, sometimes I will then again mid morning (about 11.00am) but not always. Lunch happens at 1.00pm. I'll take the next dose at either 2.00pm or 2.30pm. I'll have a snack at 4.00pm then take the last one about 5.00pm.

But what bugs me is when I take my last dose which is about 5.00pm, by the time I get home which is 5:30 or 5:45pm, I can feel quite tired that I need to lie down and have a quick nap once I'm home from work.

Does anyone have an explanation as to why the last dose could be making me so tired? If I avoid it I won't get tired, but I would lose out on focus I could be using in the evenings.

I need this to change. What is making this happen and how can I remedy it?

Any ideas are appreciated.
 
Cause you are crashing from the earlier doses still, and your brain/body haven't made up for the depletion in energy levels
Circadian rhythm also is in play, I'm not at all surprised you get a little tired in the late afternoon, adderall or no, we are only human after all. Haha

Remedies: take more speed (probably a no)

boost with a coffee or other caffeine source in the afternoon

Consider adding a high protein snack before your afternoon dose, also consider snacking on some fruit or whole grains to provide you with steady healthy sugar levels.
 
Have a different late night stimulant maybe? Mazindol or methyphenidate? Perhaps it's a cumulative effect somewhat like overamping: that's just your tolerance's threshhold. Since MPH (methylphenidate) blocks amp, and still acts as a stimulant in its own right, perhaps that'd be an interesting prospect to try. Getting a prescriber to agree is another thing entirely but if I were in your position I'd give it a try.
 
FuckinAcidMan said:
Cause you are crashing from the earlier doses still, and your brain/body haven't made up for the depletion in energy levels
Circadian rhythm also is in play, I'm not at all surprised you get a little tired in the late afternoon, adderall or no, we are only human after all. Haha

Remedies: take more speed (probably a no)

boost with a coffee or other caffeine source in the afternoon

Consider adding a high protein snack before your afternoon dose, also consider snacking on some fruit or whole grains to provide you with steady healthy sugar levels.
Click to expand...


Even when I drink a Coca-Cola, an almond nut bar and an apple prior to taking the final dose of my day, I still feel the need to get into bed for a little while. I think when I take it and don't snack the fatigue hits me harder and I can even fall into a light sleep in bed. It is strange because if I don't take the final dose at all (the last time I did that was a long time ago so I might need to check this again to confirm the experience) I don't experience the fatigue. It is when I take it, it doesn't take long before I can feel the fatigue setting in. My brain feels tired and I get into bed and close my eyes for a while and relax, then get up roughly 45 minutes later. It is when i take the final dose that the fatigue starts not long after I have taken it - yet this does not happen at any other time of the day. Very strange.

I would love to avoid this if I could. I think I eat fine throughout the day so I am not sure what else I should be doing. I want to avoid this as it does cut out a good hour and a half from my evenings.

FYI I take my last dose about 17:30 when I am en route home from work.
 
You're talking about less than 10-12.5mg of amphetamine. Trivial stuff over the course of a day. You could be tired because of work or life itself and not taking enough of a stimulant to overcome that.
 
Lower doses of stimulants can be relaxing especially if your brain is wired certain ways. Many people find coffee and a cigarette in the evening quite relaxing. You mention not feeling tired if you skip the dose. Perhaps the amphetamine at that point in the day at such a small dose provides more general "feel good" than energy, especially since you are likely slightly tolerant to amps.
 
Why bother with a dose at 5:30 when you have no more work to do? What would happen if you skipped it?
 
Caffeine works great for me later in the day after the crash.

You are on such a low dose.. I think with some tolerance (which will happen naturally in time) you'd end up benefitting from taking a slightly higher dose. I know that's not appealing to you right now, but tolerance builds quick for these guys. Sometimes tolerance is nice to stimulants because the paranoia and negative stim aspects do go away. But maybe an extended release pill of the smallest adderall amount for ER that exists would work better for you than the IR. I just think your tolerance will rise a bit in general no matter what in time.

Obviously it's way more effective if you don't do adderall daily. I have a script but fully avoid taking it regularly for this reason. On days you don't have much to do you could skip the dose, and since it's such a small therapeutic dose you're taking you wouldn't experience withdrawal symptoms in my opinion. Otherwise just drink coffee during the crash if you don't mind it lol.
 
And12 said:
Does anyone have an explanation as to why the last dose could be making me so tired?
Click to expand...

A small burst of norepinephrine (NE) release in some regions of the brain caused by a stimulant - at the right time in the circadian rhythm - appears to act as a natural sleep initiator for many people (seemingly especially those with ADHD).

It often surprises people to learn that regular bursts of NE, which most assume to just be 'stimulating', are actually integral to normal sleep architecture. This is one reason you may notice some doctors prescribe a small bedtime dose of ADHD meds for those with sleeping difficulties.

For me personally (I also have ADHD), about 5mg of methylphenidate (less so d-amp) at around 10-11pm can provoke an almost irresistible urge to sleep within 20-30 mins. And that sleep often feels like some of the deepest and most restorative sleep I'm capable of having.

As a suggestion, try playing around with dose and timings. For example, you could try tapering up your daily doses but only taking 3 doses per day, eg:

9am: 2.5mg
12.30pm: 3.75mg
5pm: 5mg (or whatever you have left)

The increasing afternoon and evening doses may be just enough to keep you at the alert threshold rather than promote fatigue, as your steady dosing protocol is doing. Either way, keep playing around with dosing ideas and protocols until you find a happy medium that syncs to your particular physiology.
 
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