![]() Praise your child for successful quiet nights. Drinking these beverages past the afternoon may make it more difficult for your child to settle down to sleep. Avoid drinks with caffeineĬaffeine is present in a wide range of beverages, such as tea, soda, cocoa, and coffee. Letting young kids cry themselves to sleep is not recommended. The goal is to make the child’s bed a place for sleeping only. Hours spent awake in bed interfere with good sleep patterns. One or two comforting stuffed animals are ideal. Remove exciting toys, games, televisions, computers, and radios from your child’s bedroom if your child is having trouble falling asleep or is often up at night. Background noises, sleep partners, bedding, favorite toys, and lighting can all affect a child’s ability to fall asleep. Pay attention to the sleep environmentĪ cool, dark, quiet room is best. Teach them to soothe themselves, such as giving the child a special blanket, a picture of their parent, or a stuffed animal to hold while falling asleep. Encourage self-soothing during or after bedtimeĪvoid activities that depend on a parent’s presence, including rocking or holding the child until they fall asleep. Parents can set the light to turn green when it’s time to get up and out of bed at the same time every morning. For young kids in need of more structure, it might be helpful to try a color-changing nightlight with a timer. It is easier to enforce a waking time than a bedtime. Regular mealtimes and activity times, including playtime with parents, also help set sleep times. ![]() Keep bedtime and wake-up times consistentīedtimes and waking times should be the same seven days a week. Social contact with parents, feeding, and easy access to interesting toys can encourage children to be up late, so try to set limits on attention-getting behaviors at night. Avoid activities that are exciting or energizing. For older kids, it could be reading quietly to themselves in their room. For young kids, this might be reading a book with a parent. Try writing out the bedtime ritual to make it consistent. It needs to be simple so the child can “re-create” the ritual even if the parent is not present. Develop rituals/routinesĪ bedtime ritual is a powerful sign that it is time to sleep. No matter the cause, there are some simple strategies that may help kids of all ages with ADHD get to sleep more easily. Some children on medication may have difficulty falling asleep because the stimulants affect them the same way that caffeine affects adults. If a child is on stimulant medication, parents may see more challenging behaviors at night as the medication starts to wear off. ADHD can cause hyperactivity in some kids, making it seem like they are “on the go” until nighttime. ![]() Many children with ADHD have difficulty sleeping at night, whether or not they are on medication.
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