North Star Sleep Routine
Many of you know that those with ADHD tend to have a more difficult time with going to sleep, maintaining sleep and being able to stay asleep all night long. There are lots of different things that we can do to help foster a really good sleep routine and hygiene, but also to help our kids get good quality sleep. To help with this, our family has created what we call our North Star routine.
The North Star routine is 100% driven around sleep, the amount of sleep and the consistency of the sleep. The North Star sleep routine is focused on consistency. The first thing we do is we have a consistent bedtime. This bedtime pretty much holds true every day of the week. To help decide on a bedtime, identify how many hours of sleep each individual needs. Determine what your routine is each night that leads to bedtime. Does your child shower or take a bath? Do you read a book or sing a song? With each piece of your routine, make sure you account for the amount of time it will take so those things don’t go past your determined bedtime.
Now there are situations that come up where maybe we have an event, or maybe we went out on the weekend, or we did certain things that didn't allow for us to be in bed at that consistent time. If we make that choice, that we're going to stay up as a family and that bedtime is going to be pushed, we make sure that we are really on point the next couple of days with bedtime, or even seeing if there's an opportunity to potentially sleep in the next day. Either way, make sure you have a plan on how to deal with the side effects of less sleep the next day.
With the North Star routine you also need to make sure that you have a consistent wake up time each morning. Did you know that too much sleep can have the same effects of not enough sleep?
As you follow the North Star sleep routine, make consistency a priority! It takes a lot of intentional activities to be able to drive to that end goal.
We’ve created a worksheet to help you create a better sleep routine for you and your family. You can find it here: Sleep Routines Worksheet 8.5x11 (squarespace.com)
