Three moments on one curve
ADHDose draws each dose as a curve that rises, tops out and falls away. The height is measured against that dose's own highest point, so 100% is the top of today's curve. It's a model, not a measurement of your blood.
Three times come off that curve, and they sit on the Levels screen beside the time you took your dose. Kicks in is free, and the Wears off time comes with Pro.
When the curve climbs into its top band, at 70% of that dose's highest level, which is when the dose arrives.
The top of the curve. On Levels it sits under the kick-in time as "highest around" a time.
When the curve falls back out of that top band, adjusted for the size of your dose. It's when the app expects you to feel it start to fade.
Why the peak tile says highest around
People use peak for two different things. Some mean the moment a dose arrives, others mean the moment it's strongest. On a long-acting medicine those can be a couple of hours apart, so ADHDose keeps them separate. Kicks in is the arrival and highest around is the top.
The gap depends on what you take. Elvanse's SmPC puts its active medicine at its highest about 3.8 hours after a dose on an empty stomach. Ritalin tablets reach their highest level on average 1 to 2 hours after a dose. Medikinet XL rises twice, the second time about three hours after the first, then stays above 75% of its highest for 3 to 4 hours.
So if your peak lands well before the time on the screen, it may be the kick-in you're feeling. Around the time your curve tops out, the Doses screen asks "You should be near peak. Are you feeling it?" and you can answer Yes, feeling it, Already happened or Not quite yet. Already happened lets you set the time.
Why your wear-off might not match the curve
Your curve starts from published figures for your medicine, adjusted for your dose, the time you took it, what you ate and the metabolism setting you picked. That tells you where an average person on your prescription would be, and a few things move your own day away from it.
Feeling it fade isn't the same as it being gone. Elvanse's active medicine has a half-life of 11 hours, so some of it is still in your system in the evening after the focus has eased off. That's why ADHDose works out your sleep window separately from your wear-off time.
What you eat. A high-fat meal moves Elvanse's highest level about an hour later, from 3.8 to 4.7 hours after the dose. Some medicines move with food and some don't, which our guide to food, vitamin C and antacids goes through medicine by medicine.
How acidic your urine is. For amphetamines such as Elvanse and dexamfetamine, acidic urine clears the medicine faster and alkaline urine clears it more slowly. Vitamin C is one of the things that acidifies it, and sodium bicarbonate is one of the things that does the opposite.
What your afternoon asks of you. A demanding stretch of work tends to show a fading dose sooner than an easy one.
When you log it. The app asks when it started to wear off. If you log the moment you noticed, an hour or so later, the curve learns the later time.
How ADHDose learns your own times
There's a question for each moment. The log sheet asks "When did it kick in?" and "When did it start to wear off?", each with Just now or Set a time, and the wear-off question also has Not sure. The Doses screen asks about the peak when you're near it.
Every time you answer, that moment moves towards what you felt. Your first log moves it part of the way and each one after moves it further. Logs that agree with each other count for more than a scattered week, and it's your most recent ones that decide where it sits.
Only the timing changes. ADHDose re-times the curve through your kick-in, highest and wear-off, and keeps its shape and height. Each medication learns on its own, so a top-up of something different never pulls on your main curve.
A wear-off counts when it's a time you chose, between 2 and 20 hours after the day's first dose. The time the app happened to be opened doesn't count, and nor do days thrown out by a time zone change. Not sure still counts towards your day, it just doesn't give the curve a time to learn from.
LEARNING and TUNED TO YOU
On Levels, the badge above the chart reads LEARNING from your first wear-off time. With Pro, the Wears off tile says learning under its time too. Before your first log it says typically, because the time is still the published one.
The badge changes to TUNED TO YOU once you've logged at least five wear-off times for that medication and the curve has been getting them right. For each of your last three, ADHDose compares the time it predicted before you logged with the time you then logged, and the middle of those three gaps has to be 45 minutes or less. From then the Wears off tile says your logs. If the curve stops matching, the badge goes until it matches again.
A change of dose is handled in two ways. A step up to double or down to half keeps every log, and Levels tells you "Curve adjusted for your new dose." Anything bigger and logs at the old strength say little about the new one, so the badge goes back to LEARNING. Once you've logged three wear-off times at the new strength, your wear-off is learned from those. Your kick-in and peak answers are kept either way.
Insights runs on its own clock
Insights looks for patterns across your days, like how sleep or dose timing lines up with your focus. It opens once you've had 7 complete days in the last 14 and had the app for at least 7 days. A complete day on medication has focus, sleep and a wear-off logged, and Not sure counts for the wear-off.
On the free plan you see your own headline numbers there, and the pattern cards come with Pro.
See your own kick-in and wear-off
ADHDose draws your dose from the published figures for your medication, then moves its kick-in, highest and wear-off towards the times you log.
Download free →Written by Matt, founder of ADHDose. Last updated October 2026.
Every medical figure on this page comes from a medicine's Summary of Product Characteristics, listed below. How ADHDose works out and learns its times is described from the app itself. The page has not been through clinical review, so use it to prepare for a conversation with your prescriber or pharmacist, never in place of one.
- Elvanse Summary of Product Characteristics, section 5.2, for the highest level at about 3.8 hours on an empty stomach and 4.7 hours after a high-fat meal, and the 11 hour half-life. Section 4.5, for urine acidity and alkalinity changing how fast amfetamine is excreted. medicines.org.uk/emc/product/14091/smpc
- Ritalin Summary of Product Characteristics, section 5.2, for the highest level on average 1 to 2 hours after a dose. medicines.org.uk/emc/product/15987/smpc
- Medikinet XL Summary of Product Characteristics, section 5.2, for the two rises about three hours apart and the 3 to 4 hour plateau above 75% of the highest level. medicines.org.uk/emc/product/8238/smpc