Getting enough sleep is a major problem for kids and adults with ADHD. I’ve been a light sleeper for years, but I had no idea it was related to ADHD until I started researching symptoms.
Personally, I CANNOT go to sleep without reading first. If I try to just lie down, my mind will race with a thousand “I need to” and “I really should” thoughts, and eventually I’ll jump up and start doing stuff. Not good if I expect to be a relatively happy mom the next day.
Our kids tend to be light sleepers too. Tigger and Roo take a very long time to fall asleep, and poor Pooh has struggled with night terrors ever since he was an infant. The irony is: The less sleep kids with ADHD get, the worse their symptoms are. So we’ve had quite a few rough homeschooling days due to lack of sleep.
I’ve been reading lots of information about establishing good sleep habits, and today I’m sharing three ADHD sleep tips for kids (and adults)!
If this post is helpful, be sure to read my list of the best ADHD homeschooling tips around!
Image: Deyan Georgiev / Dollar Photo Club
ADHD Sleep Tips for Kids
1. Provide plenty of physical activity during the day.
For years, my husband has done manual work. On days that he works, he rests well at night because he’s so exhausted from the day. On weekends, though, he tends to stay up late into the night.
Turns out that’s related to ADHD! When kids and adults with ADHD exert themselves during the day, they sleep more soundly at night. Make time for your kids to get up and move vigorously during the school day and they should rest better.
2. End screen time a few hours before bed.
It’s no secret that kids tend to get excited after watching television, but that is true to an even greater degree in kids with ADHD. And it’s not just TV. Any kind of screen time, including computers, tablets, and smartphones, can be overstimulating and make it harder for kids to go to sleep at night. Of course, as I write this, it is 11:38 p.m., so this is a “Do as I say, not as I do” moment. 😉
We’ll be talking more about screen time limits later in the series, but it is critical that we minimize (and even eliminate) screen time when possible to avoid sleep problems and loss of focus. That’s where adding in physical fitness can help, because it gives kids an outlet for their energy instead of adding more stimuli.
3. Establish a bedtime routine and stick to it.
We’ve used a set bedtime in our family for years. But that’s not all that’s involved in establishing a bedtime routine. You know how doctors encourage you to create a routine of bathing, reading, and singing to help babies learn to sleep at night? We should keep that going with our kids long after babyhood.
We covered the importance of routines for ADHD yesterday, and those same points apply to the bedtime routine. That means that consistency is critical. Once you establish your bedtime routine, stick with it every night. Over time, your kids’ bodies will learn that nighttime is for winding down and resting.
Note: I’ve been hearing good things about melatonin. My daughter’s pediatrician actually recommended it to us during her last visit. But I’ve been hesitant to try it, because I’ve heard that it gives some kids nightmares. So if any of you have any thoughts or experiences with melatonin, please tell me about them! (Disclosure: I am not a medical professional. Please consult a doctor before deciding how to treat ADHD in your family.)
Have you struggled with helping your kids with ADHD go to sleep? Do you have any ADHD sleep tips for kids that work in your family? Tell us about them in the comments!
Need more help parenting and teaching kids with ADHD? Read these posts for ideas!
For more help parenting kids with ADHD, follow my ADHD Tips board on Pinterest!
Don’t miss these other great posts!
Sleep is a big issue in my house. Mainly because I am an insomiac. So is my youngest kid. Our doctor mentioned times that we both needed sleep to take a small gummy of Meletonin. I haven’t tried this method yet, but am researching it as a last resort solution. We do all the above, but my kid will out – wake us. He used to wait til we were sleep and go through the house. Even to the point where he would be sleep in different areas of the house. Now he doesn’t do that so much, but he will sneak out and try to sleep with electronics which means no sleep is getting done.
When I was single, I frequently slept with the television on. I can’t just get in the bed and go to sleep unless I am totally exhausted. If I lie down, my mind instantly starts racing. So I understand the interest in melatonin. I’ve heard of it myself, but I have yet to try it. If you do, let me know how it goes!
I give my four year old boy melatonin gummies before bedtime. It has been a game changer. His sleep habits were so horrible that I would wake up in the morning and my first thought was dreading bedtime. The melatonin plus a predictable bedtime routine has been a true blessing. I highly suggest that you give it a try. My pediatrician said that it was ok to do, if that helps. Best of luck to everyone! 🙂
Hi! Thanks for the great suggestion! I’ll definitely look into those. 🙂
How far in advance should you give the melatonin so that it works?? Like lets says if you want you child to be asleep by 9 pm should you give it to them at 8 pm??? Just wondering. I have struggled with bedtimes with my son for many years. Thank you.
After trying every trick in the book and always sticking to a regular routine and diet I tried the Melatonin. FINALLY! My 11 year old and I are on a better track to happier, healthier lives. The melatonin is take about 7:30pm on school nights so he’s fast asleep by 9pm. This means he wakes up better in the morning and without all the fuss like before. He now feels more accomplished and doesn’t fall asleep in class. This has been working for us for about a year now, but only at 3mg, no more. Adults usually take 5mg.
Kristi
We’ve been giving our sons melatonin, and I take it as well. One has anxiety, one has severe ADHD, and I have chronic migraines, so we’re all miserable if we don’t get a good night’s sleep.
However, since the body naturally produces it, we play with dosage nightly to ‘trick’ the body to not stop making it. If there is a steady nightly dose, it will stop working because the body will come to expect it – and not make enough for that dosage.
On really bad nights, they also get half a unisom. There are some nights melatonin just doesn’t work… And unisom is an antihistamine, not a sleeping medication. But this must be cleared with your doctor – it’s not to be used more than twice a week, and not under the age of 5.
We have started melatonin with our oldest daughter. It never seemed to matter how much physical activity she had during the day, she has trouble getting to sleep at night, trouble staying asleep, and the sleep she was getting was light. We’ve always had a great bedtime routine (though it’s getting harder as they get older and have more homework and want to do activities like softball, etc) We were hesitant to do it, but so far it’s seems to be helping.
Last night we had a thunder storm pass through, and this normally would have her waking up scared and crying (even at almost 10…) but she slept through it.
This school year has been somewhat tough for her – the work has become more challenging and there is more of it. And we’ve noticed an increase in her ADHD symptoms. I’m hoping that getting some real sleep will help.
I’ve been hearing about melatonin for years, but I’ve never tried it. I hope it helps your daughter get some sleep. Let me know how it works out!
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
We have done melatonin as well, (as directed by her pediatrician) but it doesn’t always help our ADHD kid get good sleep. Part of it is a side effect from her medicine, and I think part of is also anxiety. She is worried she won’t get enough sleep and that worry keeps her awake. Does that make sense? I definitely want to implement some of these tips. My daughter is more the artistic/creative type, rather than sporty, but has agreed to try out soccer this year. I’m hoping the evening practices running around will help her to get some good rest too. Thanks for the tips!
Hi, I have a 5 yr old son, who has been on ADHD meds since he started prek last year. I was against it, but after he wasnt functioning in school the teacher made me send a paper to his doctor and said he had to be put on meds. So, he started to stay awake all night and could do this for days until finally crashing so the doctor put him on Clonidine 0.1 mg a night and that didnt work by itself so she put him on 15 mg of melatonin and his clonidine a night. We have had soooo many issues. Im looking for a solution to his non sleep habbit. We dont watch tv during the night and he runs around all day. My kid is like the energizer bunny! He wakes up anywhere from 8 to 20 times a night! Any home remedy techniques?
Have you tried classical music at night? This helped our son go to sleep and stay asleep. Also, I’ve looked into using essential oils like lavender. However you have to research this and be EXTREMELY careful to dilute correctly otherwise they can be harmful.
My son has taken Melotonin nice he was 2. He’s now 4 and still takes it. He would take 2-3 hours to fall asleep and then wake up multiple times at night and be up for the day at 6am (or earlier!). No matter how active he is he fights sleep like it’s his job. I’m just starting to look into the possibility that he may have ADHD. I never realized his sleep issues could be a sign of it. I just thought he was super energetic and hated sleep. He’s older now and his energy level has not dropped. I actually feel like it may be getting worse. School and dance class have not tired him out. We’re adding Soccer this month, so maybe that will do the trick. Lol
We homeschool our ADHD boys without meds because they are the minority where the meds backfire. We do melatonin every evening (5mg chewable strawberry flavor) and English-style tea (no sugar) in the morning. We also throw the kids outside into the backyard every chance we get. Between the three, it works. I also take the melatonin and love it!
I have two boys. My oldest,7 has anxiety and my youngest, 5, was diagnosed with ADHD a year ago. We have been struggling with medications and what not for my ADHD boy ever since because he is just so young. Anyway getting to Sleep is so difficult for him, it usually takes a good hour of gettin in and out of bed before he finally calms down. We have done the melatonin for both boys and was a game changer for the oldest, he fell right asleep. We usually gave is about 30 minutes prior to bed. However with the youngest with ADHD, it didn’t even touch him. So after consulting with his ADHD dr. We were told to just stop giving it because it wasn’t worth it. She did however prescribe a new medication which was similar to the one he was already taking , called clonidin, which helped him get to sleep. However we noticed that it gave him even more night terrors and bad dreams so we stopped giving it. This is not the case with all children though as we were told by the dr that it could do this with some children once it wore off in the middle of the night. Might be something to consider.
However, shutting off the electronics and having a “calm down time” has really helped us tremendously. About an hour before bedtime we shut everything off and just have a reading session or “special time” coloring or playing with toys before bed. This seems to help. Also, if he has had a very active day, playing sports or outside, he seems to go to bed quickly. And yes, enough sleep effects ADHD kids even more so than kids without ADHD. If our boy doesn’t get enough good sleep, he has a terrible day following.
So melatonin can help sometimes but sometimes not, you just have to see what works best with your child.
Hi there, my son was informally diagnosed with ADHD 3 years ago when he was 5. We have had many challenges and bedtime has always been tricky. He has so much enegry ALL the time we refer to him as the enegizer bunny! His pediatrician recommended we try melatonin before bed along with other calming methods. We found a quick disolve melatonin. The best amount for kids is 3-5mg. We’ve tried 3mg and have found 5mg to be more effective. We give it to him 30-60 mins before he should be asleep and it seems to be doing the job. We have discovered that he is less likely to wake up in the night when he takes it. We haven’t noticed any negative side effects with taking the melatonin. I was unsure at first but encouraged by the fact that it is something that your body already produces naturally only some people just don’t seem to have enough. I hope this information is helpful for those of you who are on the fence. I would recommend starting with 3mg and increase the amount if needed.
My son has been taking Melatonin for an year now and our experience has been very positive!! And the next day he wakes up fully rested because he didn’t wake up serval times or just plain wake up!! As you may know that sleeping well is extremely important for a child’s development! So, for him taking the melatonin has help him grow and he is even eating more (quantity)!! I recommend it!
PS: I take it myself too!! Started off with 5mg
So glad it’s working for you guys! 🙂
Our oldest began taking it a few years ago, when he was 5ish. He would lay in bed so quietly, yet awake, for an hour or 2 or 3. After talking with his Pediatrician we started giving him half a 3 mg on school nights. A few months later we stopped as he didn’t seem to need it, then started a few months later when he began to gave trouble again. (We also checked his iron, as he has very low levels and sleeplessness is always a sign to me that it is very low.)
Now he is going on 9 and I give 0 or 3 or 6 mg as he seems to need it. It is becoming more common for him to not need it.
It worked do well we tried giving it to our other son who was 4, but who always struggled with sleep due to anxiety and hyperactivity. (I would have to lay in bed with him for 2+ hours at night for him to fall asleep.) To our surprise it gave him night terrors. That was stopped quickly. 🙂
Over a year later we tried again with half a 3 mg pill, which worked. Just recently I have noticed 3 mg does not have much effect if he did not get a lot of outside time that day. (We home school him due to ADHD and anxiety behaviors.)
Our goal is good sleep habits. I see Melatonin as a way to train their bodies and brains (both have a past which causes them anxiety at night as well as ADHD.) My concern was them becoming dependent on it. However we have not seen that with the oldest. I am hoping the youngest, who is the more hyper of the two, will follow suit.
I have used melatonin before due to horrible sleep habits. I went through a faze of not being able to sleep so melatonin worked for me. I just have to say you can over dose on it add it helps to relax the body so keep out of reach of the children.
I totally thought melatonin would be the answer for my six year old with ADHD. I spoke to our pediatrician about melatonin and she was hesitant to give a go ahead for daily use. The longer you are on melatonin the less your body can regulate it’s own sleep cycle – her words. I may agree with it based on MY experience myself, but she did say to go ahead and use melatonin for vacations, before a big event, kind of an as you need it basis like cold medicine would be used for a cold.
This sounds a little crazy, but in the last month or so we started diffusing Peace and Calming essential oil from Young Living in my six year old’s room. He seems to sleep more peaceful and not wake up at night. I’m not great at the all organic diet, etc. but I can drop a few drops of oil into water at night lol.
Our pediatrician recommended melatonin, but no more than 10 mg . Start with 1-3mg about an hour before bedtime . I like the Nature Valley brand . It works most nights , she said the body does get use to it so he is on 6mg now. His ADHD meds keep him up so unfortunately he needs something to go to sleep. She did say once 10mg do not work we might have to look at other options . I am also removing certain foods from his diet to see what triggers his symptoms . I do hate having to give him anything at all , but they do need a good nights rest.
I know this is a suuuuuper old post, but I just found it on Pinterest and the part about melatonin piqued my interest. My daughter will be five this summer, I started giving her melatonin about a year ago. She almost literally was not sleeping before it. But when she did sleep, she would have night terrors. Once I started giving her melatonin, the night terrors instantly stopped. If I tried to ease away from relying on melatonin, the night terrors came back. This is just our experience, but I figured I would throw it in there!
Thank you for sharing! I’m always interested to hear how it’s working for parents! My oldest boy had night terrors for YEARS, but I never thought to give him melatonin. I always worried it would make them worse. Glad it’s helping your little one!
I had the opposite happen. My daughter was prescribed melatonin by her doctor. She began having night terrors and developed a rash from head to toe. I immediately took her off the melatonin without adverse effects. As long as I tire her out throughout the day and keep to her bedtime she is ok. We are one of the cases that melatonin made it worse.
Hi! Thanks for visiting! I’ve heard that from a handful of other parents, so you are definitely not alone. One of our children suffered from sleep terrors for YEARS and I would never consider giving him something that could possibly result in that. So melatonin is definitely out for him. It might work for the others, but I’m still undecided. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.
Every once in a while I give my sons Melatonin to help them sleep at night. There are times when they can’t wind down and after numerous nights and days with huge sleep deprivation, we give it to them. It takes effect within 30 minutes and they have a beautiful night of uninterrupted sleep. I use the gummie variety and they can even be cut in half if you want to start slow. It doesn’t knock them right out but rather relaxes their body and mind and they ease into sleep. I completely agree that a bedroom routine and physical activity throughout the day are key, but sometimes this isn’t enough.
Melatonin has been a lifesaver for us getting our son to fall asleep. But, we are still having trouble with him being exhausted during the day. He has such a hard time focusing on his school work. We’ve started Omega 3 supplements and hope those work.
Has anyone ever tried a weighted blanket to help their ADHD child fall asleep? My daughter hasn’t been diagnosed with anxiety, but she definitley has an extremely anxious personality and I’m wondering if the blanket could help with all of it.
Daily routine is incredibly important!
My children have a very troubled sleep, restless. I used to neglect the daily routine and we didn’t have a strict sleep and wake-up routine. And during these periods, many of the symptoms worsened and the days were really hard. But I consulted with specialists in time to understand how to act properly.
Our sleep schedule: 10:00 p.m. Wake up at 7:00 a.m. No exceptions for weekends and holidays (of course not all 365 days a year we can follow this schedule but we are trying). As you correctly said – no electronics two hours before sleep, as well as compulsory physical activity during the day – children love dancing or gymnastics. Also, while they were little, we had an optional fairy tale before bed. But now the older one falls asleep without it. So that’s the secret.
The main thing is that not only children go to bed at the same time, but we parents also try to go to bed at least 10:30 or 11 to set an example for them. And you know, for some time now we have no discussions or arguments about sleep and children are used to it as a natural course of events.