Treating ADHD Sleep Problems in Children and Teens

"I can't fall comatose!"

"I need a glass of h2o."

"But one more story?"

"Mommy, I had a bad dream."

Every parent faces bedtime-stalling tactics and slumber bug from fourth dimension to time. Only if your kid has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or Add), settling down for sleep – and getting a proficient night'due south rest – may exist a daily challenge with serious health consequences.

Many American families today struggle to get enough sleep. A poll by the National Sleep Foundation, for case, found that more than i-third of parents written report that scheduled evening activities impede a expert night's sleep for their child. What'southward more, ane in four parents report that homework made it more difficult for their child to get a good night's sleep at least once in the preceding seven days. Add in the artificial light and dissonance from media, bachelor at all hours of the day and night, and it's a wonder whatever of us get whatever slumber.

The symptoms of ADHD exacerbate all of the things that brand sleep difficult and elusive for and so many people. Children and teens with ADHD are hypersensitive to environmental stimuli and their bodies react more than strongly, making it harder to turn off their brains and settle down for slumber.

In addition, poor sleep is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just 1 nighttime of bad sleep can brand a child's inattention and opposition even worse the side by side 24-hour interval, in plough making information technology even more than difficult to get set and settled for sleep the adjacent dark. The design repeats indefinitely if not arrested.

[Click to Read: What Comes First: ADHD or Sleep Problems?]

Patients may feel a vicious cycle of poor sleep exacerbating ADHD symptoms, which in turn make sleep worse. Poor sleep can also negatively affect learning and memory. Several studies in the past decade have found that.^one,two

The reality is that kids learn as much during sleep every bit they practise when they're awake. Sleep is when learning is really consolidated.

Sleep is critical, and hard to come by — we get it. Just what can parents do to help their children and teens overcome ADHD slumber problems?

Track the Impact of ADHD Medication

Parents working through ADHD-impacted sleep issues should brainstorm past consulting their child'south physician.

[Read: Wired, Tired, & Sleep Deprived]

Some ADHD stimulants tin make sleep worse, so it'due south important to talk with your provider about the time your child is taking the medication, how long the stimulants are lasting, when they are wearing off, and how they are affecting the child's sleep. Some stimulants have actually been shown to improve sleep in patients with ADHD, so talking with your healthcare provider about this is very of import.

Evaluate ADHD Sleep Hygiene

Bold a child'southward sleep issues are non being caused by stimulant medications, parents should prefer a behavioral perspective and focus on bones sleep hygiene for children.

It's important to put both time and space boundaries around sleep, making it a special activity that we want our kids to learn to exercise. That means starting the bedtime routine early enough to ensure acceptable sleep for the child's age.

For school-age children, for instance, beginning the bedtime routine by 7:30 pm at the latest to ensure children get the recommended 10 to 12 hours of sleep their bodies require. Sticking to a regular and consistent bedtime routine – perhaps ending with some kind of positive ritual that the child enjoys —  reading a book, singing a song, saying prayers, or talking about the best part of their day — can also help create a positive association with bedtime.

"We want the child'south encephalon to learn that going to bed and sleeping are where something dainty happens and it feels good," he says.

Switch Off All Devices

ADHD teen brains need 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night. Since virtually classes begin before viii am, that means aiming for a ix pm bedtime. Teens should avoid heavy meals and vigorous practise, too as electronic screen use, an hr before bedtime. This means no texting, social media, or video games later 8 pm, which will no dubiousness be controversial in about households. The blue light from electronic screens affects the body'due south pineal gland and actually physiologically decreases our product of melatonin, the hormone that regulates the slumber-wake cycle. Popular "blue-light spectacles" filter the light, which may subtract the effects of screens on that hormone production, they tin can't have away the stimulating effects of media itself.

Fifty-fifty if blue-low-cal spectacles solve ane piece of the problem, they aren't going to assist the trunk and the brain really relax and go set for the sleep bicycle. Modeling this no-screens-after-8 policy can be one of the most effective ways that parents tin make this rule stick. Information technology's also important to make information technology clear that the kid is not in trouble and putting abroad phones at 8 is not a punishment, only rather a strategy for getting good for you and operation well tomorrow.

If working together with your kid is non helping to solve the sleeping problems, or if they do appear to be getting enough sleep and are yet showing symptoms of existence sleepy, information technology'due south time to consider a formal evaluation by a sleep specialist. This may bespeak a more serious sleep disorder such equally slumber apnea or restless legs syndrome. The good news is that, for nearly all slumber disorders, there are constructive treatments to help children and teens get the residue they need.

ADHD and Sleep: Side by side Steps

• Understand Why Yous're Always Tired
• Learn How to Become a Better Night'southward Slumber
• Read: Seriously, Why Won't My Teen Sleep?

The content for this commodity came from the webinar titled "Sleep and the ADHD Brain: Why It's Critical and How To Become More."

Sources

¹ Sandoval, Chiliad. , Leclerc, J. A. and Gómez, R. L. Words to Slumber On: Naps Facilitate Verb Generalization in Habitually and Nonhabitually Napping Preschoolers. Child Dev. (2017). doi:ten.1111/cdev.12723

² Axelsson, E. L., Swinton, J., Winiger, A. I., & Horst, J. South. Napping and toddlers' retentiveness for fast-mapped words. Starting time Language (2018). https://doi.org/x.1177/0142723718785490

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