Getting ready for bed

Sensory integration

﻿In today's lesson, we're going to look at bedtimes and how our visual sense can make it hard to go to sleep. You will need two blankets and a torch for today's lesson. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. Each lesson will have ideas and activities that can be carried out at home or in school. This information is to be used alongside any specific strategies or resources which have been given by your child's school or therapist. If you have any questions or would like help tailoring this to your child's needs, then please contact your local therapy service. Going to bed can be really, really tricky. And we're going to learn today why our eyes may struggle to sleep. So let's see what we going to need for today's lesson. I want you to pause this lesson to collate all your resources. For today's lesson, you will need two blankets and a small torch. So get all of those things ready and then play again to resume the lesson. Sometimes our eyes can be over responsive when we've got too many things to look at or when there's too much light. That can make it hard for us to sleep as well. Other things that can make it hard to go to bed and for our eyes to be over responsive is that we don't like bright lights. We don't like a busy, cluttered bedroom. We prefer calm colours. We may prefer to keep our blinds closed and sleeping with the door closed as well. Sometimes our eyes can be under responsive and that is that we can struggle to see in the dark. And that can make us sometimes feel a little bit scared. When we go to bed and our eyes are under responsive, It may be that we actually like to have a look around our busy bedroom with lots of things stashed around. It may be that we like to sleep with a little light on and with door open so that we can see without being worried. What's going on at nighttime. In a previous lesson, we've looked at calm bedrooms and busier bedrooms. Calm bedrooms will be helpful when you are over responsive to visual information. It could be that you prefer to have calm painted walls and matching flooring and similar coloured bedding. You may like lots of storage with doors and lids to keep things tidy. And blinds can be really helpful to keep a lot of the light out. Busier bedrooms are really helpful when our eyes are under responsive and we may enjoy having lots of different colours or patterned wallpaper in our bedroom. A night light is something that's really helpful. It's not too bright, but it gives just a little enough light so that it makes it easy to see when you do wake up or at that time just before you go to bed. Having pictures on the walls or your favourite toys on display can be comforting and that can help you as well at night time. As you can open cupboards and bookshelves, help you to kind of know where you are and know what you're looking at. Here are two examples of a bedroom, which is if you are easily overwhelmed. You might prefer a really calm, quiet bedroom. And at other times when your eyes are overwhelmed, you might prefer to have a bedroom that is a little bit busier like this one. Let's pause the video now to complete our task for today. We are going to build a den. So ask your parents or carer to help you do this. You are going to need your blankets too and position them in such a way that they can let a little bit of light or a lot of light into your den. Lie inside your den and then see what works best for you. Have a chat to your carer about little bit of light or a lot of light. What is it that makes you feel more comfortable? And then once you are inside your den, you can ask your parent or carer to slowly move the torch around and see if you can track it with your eyes, just as a little silly game to do together. Enjoy making this and once you're finished, press play again and we can carry on with this lesson. Building a den is one of my favourite activities. So I hope you enjoyed doing it too. Before we move onto the next part of the lesson, I just wanted to remind you that it's really important to speak to your parent or your carer about what helps you to fall asleep at night. And to do this, we are now going to make a plan together about what are those things that help you fall asleep. So it could be that you really need to have a tidy bedroom and you need to have very little light at nighttime. It could also be that you need to have a few favourite things that you can look at at nighttime which makes you feel more comfortable. And maybe that you are someone who likes to have a night light on and you don't actually like to be in total darkness. So let's move on to the next bit of the lesson and we go to make a plan together. We're going to pause the video now to complete your next task. Agree a bedtime plan with your parent and carer. Make a plan together for tonight. Talk about the things that makes it helpful to fall asleep. How much light do you like? All of those things. And write it down, draw a picture of it so that it will remind you when it comes to bedtime what you've agreed. So, once you finish that, presume the lesson and we are nearly done for today. Well done! That has been amazing. I really look forward to seeing some of your things and some of the plans that you've made with your parents in the carer. I hope you have a lovely evening tonight and that bedtime is going to go well. Share your work with Oak National. If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Getting ready for bed

Getting ready for bed

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