Go to sleep
The shift from awake to asleep is hard to feel when thoughts keep spinning long after the light goes out. The visual support below breaks the wind-down into calm steps the body can follow.
♂Go to sleep
A boy sleeping peacefully in bed with Zzz symbols above him and a lamp on the nightstand.
About this visual support
The body needs to move from the speed of the day into stillness, but that gear change is invisible from the outside. A child can lie perfectly still and still be wide awake inside, because the thoughts keep going and have nowhere to settle.
This is why it helps to make the wind-down visible. When every small step has its own picture — turning off the ceiling light, lowering the blind, lying down, breathing slowly — the child gets something to rest their eyes on instead of chasing sleep. The pictures say the same thing every night, and that repetition is calming in itself. For children with ADHD, whose minds often struggle to slow down in the evening, a fixed picture order gives an outside rhythm to lean on.
One concrete tip: place the last picture, the one where the child lies down with closed eyes, closest to the pillow or on the wall by the bed. Then the last thing seen is also the last step, and the gaze never has to wander back to the start.
If you want to follow the bedtime routine on your phone, there is Routined, where these pictures can pair with a gentle timer counting down to lights out. The images here are free to download and print.