At bedtime, I have to try to be patient with getting my son to be calm enough to go to sleep. With his ADHD, he’s pretty restless when it’s time to get calm. He can’t fall asleep until he does, and it doesn’t help that he’ll ask to play some more or watch a movie. Constant reminders of what needs to happen will test the patience of most parents, I think.
Tried something new recently, which I thought I’d share for any of you who face the same challenge. There’s a website that exists (currently, anyway, as of the date of this post) called Calm.com. It’s got various options for peaceful scenes with calming music. Clouds, water flowing, oceans, that kind of thing. The kids say the music is so calm, that they even noticed that before they knew what it was. I had it playing on one tab of the computer, and when I started their favorite video game time one day, my son said “What’s that calm music on top of the Mario music?”
Apparently Mario music plus calming music makes for a weird musical experience.
Anyway I decided to try letting my son watch about 5 minutes of calm.com and let him pick the scene. He was captivated in particular by what looks like a view of the sun behind the fall of raindrops, which came down toward the camera at a slow and hypnotic pace.
I told him to breathe deeply while he watched, and that I’d let him know when he had three minutes left and then one minute left, with the expectation that he’d be ready for sleep after that. Sure enough, he was practically a little zen monk sitting up in bed, still as can be.
When the time was up, we shut the computer and he laid down to sleep. He was asleep within a few minutes.
I don’t know anyone else with kids who have ADHD, so I can’t really compare experiences. With Cricket, what works today might not work tomorrow. I’m glad to add one option to the toolbox so I can help him out, and as a result preserve my own sanity.
One reply on “Snapshot: Calming at Bedtime”
I think it is a wonderful idea and a lifelong practice I hope.