The problem
Bedtime is its own war. The brain won't shut off, the lights stay on behind their eyes long after the room is dark, and then they're up at 2 a.m. and dragging by morning. You've tried the visual schedule, the reward chart, the new homework system. None of it lands, and you can't figure out why a good strategy keeps failing.
Here's why: a sleep-deprived ADHD brain can't run any of it. Sleep deprivation worsens every ADHD symptom at once, so a poorly sleeping child is working with even less attention, less regulation, and less impulse control than usual. You can't out-strategize a sleep deficit. Fix the sleep and the other interventions suddenly start working, because now there's a brain online to receive them.
Sleep is the foundation. Everything else is built on it.
The mechanism
Sleep problems are more common in children with ADHD than in other children (a 2009 meta-analysis of 16 studies, Cortese et al.). The common patterns: delayed sleep onset (the brain won't turn off), frequent night waking, restless sleep, and shortened total sleep. Part of this is circadian: the ADHD brain depends on rhythm regularity even more than a neurotypical one. Part is the dopamine system, which stimulating evening activity keeps switched on at exactly the wrong time.
The protocol works on those levers. Circadian regularity: the same bedtime every night, weekends included, because a weekend sleep-in disrupts the cycle for 2–3 days. A wind-down ramp: an identical 60-minute routine that signals the system to power down: bath, pajamas, teeth, one chapter of reading or quiet talk, lights out. Screen and light control: no screens for 60 minutes before bed, because blue light suppresses melatonin and stimulating content fires the dopamine system right when you need it to quiet. Environment: cool (65–68°F), dark (blackout curtains), quiet (white noise), and a weighted blanket only if your child's pediatrician agrees it suits your child. And medical levers: stimulant-timing adjustments, and whether melatonin fits and at what dose and time, both with physician guidance.
The operating system
Five steps. Fix sleep first; the rest follows.
Lock the bedtime, weekends included
Same bedtime every single night. The ADHD brain runs on circadian regularity, and a weekend sleep-in throws the cycle off for two to three days, long enough to wreck the school week. Consistency in the timing matters more than the exact hour.
Run a 60-minute wind-down, identical every night
Begin powering down a full hour before target sleep, with the exact same sequence each night: bath or shower, pajamas, teeth, one chapter of reading or quiet conversation, lights out. The sameness is the signal: the routine itself tells the nervous system that sleep is coming.
No screens for 60 minutes before bed
This one is non-negotiable. Blue light suppresses melatonin, and stimulating content activates the dopamine system at exactly the moment you need it to quiet down. The hour before bed is the wind-down hour, and a screen undoes it.
Engineer the room: cool, dark, quiet
Set the environment for sleep: 65–68°F, blackout curtains, and a white noise machine or fan. Some families also try a weighted blanket. It is an option, not a requirement: ask your child's pediatrician whether it suits your child and how heavy it should be.
Use the medical levers with the prescriber
If stimulant medication is causing insomnia, take it to the prescriber: timing adjustments, dose reductions, or a low-dose short-acting evening medication. Melatonin is a medication decision too: ask your child's prescriber whether it fits, and at what dose and time. And if the child can't fall asleep within 30 minutes, allow one quiet, non-screen activity in dim light until drowsy, then back to bed.
The printable: the ADHD sleep protocol
Print it. Fix sleep first; the rest of the toolkit depends on it.