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Calming/relaxing bedtime activities

ukasddad

5yo boy, ASD (PDA) and probable ADHD. We have issues transitioning from screen time to asleep (unsurprisingly). The PDA means that reducing the screen time is extremely challenging/counterproductive, and that a strict bedtime routine is also a bad idea.

Bedtimes/bedtime activities vary massively, often in long phases. We had a long period of bedtime stories, which worked well, but is rejected these days.

We had a long phase of him moving bedding around the room or even the house, and falling asleep in different places every night - but now fairly reliably falls asleep in bed.

We had a long phase of stickers - just moving them from the backing sheets to blank paper, and then filing the paper. Now no interest.

We have a Yoto for stories and quiet music, but limited success.

Can anyone think of anything new worth trying around that time that could improve things?

Parents

  • Some great advice already, thought I'd share our experiences in case it helps any.

    My girl (9) is tricky getting to bed on time, she has a routine but not good on following time so it can stretch.

    She prefers a bath in the evening, and I need to run it early enough to take into account how long it can take her to actually get in it (35 minutes today). She likes getting read to in the bath too, but this depends on how late it's got. 

    She will invariably declare she is hungry, so a quiet snack while more story read then. Then it's teeth (she's gone back to using the Pokémon smile app to help as she hates being told directly to brush her teeth but offering the app is less direct), and into bed but that's a whole other thing. (Further stories depend on how much she's had already and how late). She likes to sleep in a kids sleeping bag, plus blanket when cold, and has various things that have to be in with her. Before going to sleep, she has a sleepband with her choice of zen track (it hooks to my phone so I can set that up in a 1 hour timer from a music player), an eye mask and a little device called a calm carry, which gives little rhythmic buzzes for a short while which she holds to help her get to sleep. 

    It sounds hard if your son is potentially ADHD and getting bored, maybe if you have your bank of ideas, rotating round them every month might help it keep working?

    They can be so irritable when they don't get enough sleep, and I've tried a lot of things and currently this set up has been working well for a good 6 months for us! I hope you can find something that works!

Reply

  • Some great advice already, thought I'd share our experiences in case it helps any.

    My girl (9) is tricky getting to bed on time, she has a routine but not good on following time so it can stretch.

    She prefers a bath in the evening, and I need to run it early enough to take into account how long it can take her to actually get in it (35 minutes today). She likes getting read to in the bath too, but this depends on how late it's got. 

    She will invariably declare she is hungry, so a quiet snack while more story read then. Then it's teeth (she's gone back to using the Pokémon smile app to help as she hates being told directly to brush her teeth but offering the app is less direct), and into bed but that's a whole other thing. (Further stories depend on how much she's had already and how late). She likes to sleep in a kids sleeping bag, plus blanket when cold, and has various things that have to be in with her. Before going to sleep, she has a sleepband with her choice of zen track (it hooks to my phone so I can set that up in a 1 hour timer from a music player), an eye mask and a little device called a calm carry, which gives little rhythmic buzzes for a short while which she holds to help her get to sleep. 

    It sounds hard if your son is potentially ADHD and getting bored, maybe if you have your bank of ideas, rotating round them every month might help it keep working?

    They can be so irritable when they don't get enough sleep, and I've tried a lot of things and currently this set up has been working well for a good 6 months for us! I hope you can find something that works!

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