Here is why headphones can make it easier for individuals with ADHD to work or study

Experts suggest that noise-canceling headphones can be helpful for some people suffering from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Individuals with ADHD often struggle to focus in environments full of distractions, such as co-working spaces, due to various forms of disturbances including the noise of a phone ringing, chat between coworkers, or even the sound of a coffee machine nearby.

Justin Puder, PhD, a psychologist from Boca Raton, Florida, explains that many ADHD individuals have issues with disregarding unnecessary sounds.

“A person without ADHD may not even register minor background sounds like a printer working, but someone with ADHD may pay attention to it,” he said. “As a result, in an environment where a range of noises appear and disappear, maintaining focus can be challenging.”

Thus, it is suggested that trying noise-canceling headphones could prove beneficial for those with ADHD, particularly at the workplace or other locations requiring concentration.

Kendra Mathys, PsyD, a Cleveland Clinic-based psychologist, corroborates this, noting that ease of distraction due to sounds can form a part of the symptom profile for a person with ADHD.

Mathys said, “If environmental noises are causing distraction, it could be beneficial to reduce them with noise-canceling headphones.”

The article then explores why people with ADHD tend to get easily distracted, how headphones could provide help, and shares other techniques that may assist with maintaining focus in noisy settings.

Dopamine deficiency, which assists in maintaining attention, is a common feature of ADHD, causing people to struggle with the following:

ADHD sufferers often find it hard to ignore noises, even those that don’t bother most people.

Mathys described how for these individuals, distractions can easily break their concentration and it’s challenging to recall what they had been doing prior to the interruption.

As Mathys puts it, people with ADHD generally have to create strategies to maintain their focus at work, and they often require assistance to learn to manage controllable distractions. This is where headphones could be useful, she noted.

She also clarified that even though noise-canceling headphones can help block regular sounds like the noise of a vehicle passing by, which can distract ADHD individuals, conventional headphones can also be beneficial.

Mathys explained that mental health professionals can assist individuals to devise a personalized focus plan, and that mindfulness techniques can also provide help.

Lastly, she suggests an effective practice called the Pomodoro technique and Puder notes that some people with ADHD might find it easier to stay focused on one task for a much longer duration.

According to Puder, “A number of my neurodivergent clients state they perform much better when they’re engrossed for two or three hours at a time. It’s challenging for some ADHD sufferers to restart work once they’ve taken a break.”

Conclusion: Every individual with ADHD needs to try different strategies to find out what works best for them to maintain focus at their tasks.

If you’ve been diagnosed with ADHD by a licensed provider, your place of work may be legally obligated to provide accommodations that are easier to work in.

“For many people with ADHD, it’s easy for their employer to give them a private space, a place where the door is not slamming,” Puder explained. “There’s been a lot of cases for my clients [in which] once they had the formal diagnosis, their employer granted accommodations.”

These can include providing a quieter workspace in the office or allowing the employee to work from home.

While it’s important for people with ADHD to try different ways to maximize concentration at work, Puder noted that it’s just as important for managers and team leaders to help their employees when possible.

“The message to people in management should be: There’s always going to be individual differences in how people work,” he said, “and if you want to have a diverse work environment, you’re going to have to embrace [those] differences.”