348: Good Sleep for Neurodivergent Kids, with Melisa Moore, Ph.D.

About this episode

This episode discusses sleep challenges for neurodivergent children and offers practical strategies for parents.

Sleep can feel like the one thing that makes everything else harder. When our kids don’t sleep, their nervous systems are fried, their emotions are bigger, and our own capacity shrinks fast. I’ve lived it. If you’re parenting a neurodivergent child or teen who struggles to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wind down at night, you are not alone and you are not doing anything wrong. In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Melisa Moore, clinical psychologist and author of The Good Sleep Guide for Neurodivergent Kids. We talk about why sleep is often more complicated for kids with ADHD and autism, from circadian rhythm differences to anxiety, medical comorbidities, and specific sleep disorders. We unpack what “balancing the ideal with your family’s real” actually looks like at bedtime. That includes rethinking sleep hygiene, creating routines that truly calm your child’s nervous system, and letting go of guilt when something unconventional, like background audio or a favorite show, genuinely helps your child fall asleep. We also explore the powerful language shift from “go to sleep” to “wait for sleep,” why calming and occupying the mind matters, how sleep associations affect night wakings…

People in this episode

Host: Penny Williams

Guest: Melisa Moore, Ph.D.

Topics covered

• sleep
• neurodivergent kids
• ADHD
• autism
• bedtime routines
• sleep hygiene

Keywords

• sleep
• neurodivergent
• ADHD
• autism
• bedtime
• sleep hygiene
• melatonin
• magnesium

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Good Sleep Guide for Neurodivergent Kids

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