From One Exhausted Mom to Another:
If your house is anything like mine a good night’s sleep is often elusive. It’s not just my energetic son, who somehow never seems to tire, that could use a few more hours sleep a night. It’s also his exhausted parents who get even less sleep than he does. His bedtime battles, nighttime awakenings, and morning sleep-ins are enough to make any parent want to throw in the towel. But we are clearly not alone. Research has shown that 20% of children with ADHD have trouble falling asleep. That is three times the rate of children without ADHD. But that is not the most bothersome statistic. According to a study from England involving 100 parents of children with ADHD, 57% receive less than six hours of sleep and 27% get less than five hours. More than half of those said children get up more than four times during the night and 42% of them wake up before 6:00 AM. Lack of sleep is clearly an international phenomenon when it comes to kids with ADHD and their parents. It’s no mystery that sleep is so evasive to our children. Many of the same regions of the brain that control attention also regulate sleep. So how do we help our children get the shut-eye that we all so desperately crave? As a desperately exhausted parent I have done my research and I am proud to say that I have made some substantial changes to my son’s bedtime routines that have made a big impact on our nighttime schedule. Here are some things that I have learned:
Bedtime doesn’t have mean battle time in your home anymore. If done right it could actually turn into one of your favorite times of the day. It just has to be eased into and planned well. Things need to start quieting down an hour prior to bedtime. That’s when televisions and computers screens need to be shut down for the night. You might encounter resistance to that idea at first, but it’s well worth the battle. Bedtime has become so much easier since we have instituted some of the above ideas. My son has started falling asleep faster and he’s even managed to sleep through the night. Now if only I could learn how to do the same…