Key Takeaways
- Spacing out is common in people with ADHD and happens even when trying to focus.
- Reading aloud or taking notes can help keep your mind from wandering.
- Take breaks and do self-care if you are struggling to focus on a task.
Spacing out, zoning out, or blanking out are all ways to describe that experience of involuntarily losing your focus on a task. While attention fluctuates from moment to moment, even in neurotypical brains, people with ADHD are prone to spacing out often.
On some days, these episodes of inattention can last so long or happen so frequently that it is impossible to get work done. If they occur during class or in conversations with friends, they can also be seen as rude or lazy.
Spacing Out With ADHD
Spacing out refers to moments when your brain stops paying attention to external surroundings or tasks. It’s an involuntary process that happens even when you are actively trying to pay attention.
If you’ve ever started reading a book only to find yourself lost in thought or staring at the page without really seeing or comprehending the words, that was spacing out. Maybe you’ve experienced sitting in class and suddenly realizing that the teacher is talking about an entirely different topic, and you have no idea how they got there—because you spaced out for a few minutes without realizing it.
Sometimes, it takes the form of daydreaming, where your mind wanders off somewhere else without you really noticing that it’s happening. Other times, your brain goes blank. It simply tunes out without tuning into anything else.
Technically, spacing out like this is a form of dissociation—a coping mechanism in which your brain checks out from the present moment. However, spacing out from ADHD is a milder case that’s not necessarily linked to trauma.
In people without ADHD, it can happen during periods of sleep deprivation or stress. When you have ADHD, though, it happens frequently, even when you are well-rested and relaxed. In all cases, it’s completely involuntary. You don’t consciously decide to stop paying attention, and your brain switches off on its own.
Spacing out can become frustrating when you’re trying to study, finish a project for work, or even give your full, conscious attention to a friend as they tell you about their day. Any task that requires your attention becomes more challenging if you’re prone to spacing out often and without warning.
While it typically lasts for a few seconds or minutes before you realize you’ve stopped paying attention, it’s enough to make you miss your exit while driving, burn those cookies you were baking, or make your friend feel like you aren’t listening to them.
What Causes Spacing Out?
The human brain has an interconnected threefold system for focusing its attention that involves the dorsal attention network, the ventral attention network, and the default mode network.
- The dorsal attention network (DAN) is responsible for goal-driven attention, which occurs when you consciously try to pay attention to a task (like reading a book) and filter out anything else unrelated to that task.
- Meanwhile, the ventral attention network (VAN) is responsible for stimulus-driven attention or keeping you passively aware of your surroundings to watch for unexpected stimuli that require you to reorient your attention (like hearing someone call your name while reading that book).
- Finally, the default mode network (DMN) activates when the brain is not focused on an external task or the outside world. It takes over when you’re resting but also during self-reflection, memory retrieval, imagining the future or a fantasy world, and other tasks that are entirely internal and don’t rely on external stimuli.
The DMN is also impacted by trauma, which can present symptoms similar to characteristics of ADHD (even though ADHD is genetic and is not caused by trauma). Trauma plays a significant role in the DMN of those with ADHD since all marginalized folks (including neurodivergent folks) are more susceptible to trauma.
In a typical brain, the three networks interact but also maintain a respectful separation from each other. When activity levels in one network increase, they decrease in the others, and the quieter networks only interrupt when necessary. VAN won’t distract your attention from the book unless it detects a stimulus that might be relevant to you. DMN won’t kick into gear until it’s time to rest or internalize the information you’ve just read.
In ADHD brains, however, these networks may not be as distinct as they should be, making it hard to switch gears as efficiently as in neurotypical brains. Specifically, the ADHD brain struggles to deactivate the DMN and switch exclusively to DAN or VAN.
So even when actively trying to focus on a task, DMN levels remain high in the ADHD brain, making it easy to slip back into that daydream or resting mode. That slippage could feel like the involuntary spacing out or zoning out that people with ADHD experience so often.
How to Deal With Spacing Out
Taking better care of your overall health to keep your brain strong and well-rested is one of the best ways to help minimize how often you space out in the long run. You can also try these short-term strategies below to prevent or cope with it.
Make the Task More Active
Engaging more senses and muscles in a task can make it easier to stay focused without spacing out. When listening to someone talk, for example, summarize what they’re saying in your head rather than just passively listening to them. You can also practice nonverbal cues like nodding in response to what they’re saying.
Fidgeting during a task is a helpful coping strategy for those with ADHD who are completing tasks. It can minimize spacing out or disassociating.
If you keep spacing out while reading, try reading out loud. If that’s not enough, try reading aloud in an accent aside from your own. I sometimes read aloud in a horrible British or Australian accent, for example.
Take Notes
Taking notes goes hand in hand with making a task more active. When you take notes, you’re giving your hands something to do while engaging more of your brain to process and record what you’re hearing or reading.
For me, taking handwritten notes works best. I’ll even do it during casual conversations with friends—although only over the phone because, admittedly, I’d feel weird doing this in person. I also write notes in the margins of books, even when I am just reading them for fun.
For work, I take notes during every meeting and call. I take notes while interviewing sources, even when I’m already recording the interview. I take notes while researching articles (which might be the only area where extensive notetaking isn’t unusual).
Ask Clarifying Questions
With books, you can simply return to the last sentence you remember before your mind wanders. With people, on the other hand, it can get awkward if you’re constantly asking them to repeat what they just said. This is true even if the person knows you have ADHD and is aware that spacing out is part of that.
Instead, ask clarifying questions that probe for more details about what they’re telling you. Their responses will give you more context to work with if you space out again and need to reorient yourself. It might also trigger them to repeat some of the information you missed.
Take Breaks
If you’re spacing out so often that you can’t even make progress on the task, take a break. Putting the task or conversation on hold is better than restarting every few minutes. During that break, do some self-care activities like:
- Take a nap
- Eat a (healthy) snack
- Go for a walk
- Take a shower
Pick an activity that lets your brain rest while you do something to improve your health or well-being. That way, when you return to the task after the break, you’re coming to it in a better state than you were when you left.
Be Upfront About Your Spacing Out
Spacing out is part of having ADHD. While you can use different hacks to minimize how often and how long you space out, it might still be inevitable. Try being proactive by explaining this tendency to friends, family, and coworkers.
It’s easier for others to be patient and understanding when they know in advance that you aren’t just ignoring them or defiantly choosing not to listen. Supportive friends, partners, and family members will be understanding of your ADHD traits, including spacing out.
Keep in mind that it is a tendency of the ADHD brain and does not indicate that a person isn’t trying hard enough.
ADHD Symptom Spotlight is a series that dives deep into a hallmark or overlooked symptom of ADHD each week. This series is written by experts who also share their tips on managing these symptoms based on firsthand experience and research-backed insights.
