Back-to-School: Sleep Edition
Prepare. Prepare. Prepare.
Many of us parents are currently preparing ourselves for our kiddos to go back to school. We are shopping for supplies, clothes, and the many other things that go along with back to school. We are scheduling carpool dates, figuring out afterschool care, and making sure our kids are enrolled properly. Sound familiar?
Preparing to send our kids back to school comes with a lot of tasks and we often forget about simple essentials for our children’s learning success. One of those essentials is their sleep! We’ve been on a summer schedule for the last couple of months and maybe slacked a little bit (ok, a lot a bit) on getting the kiddos to bed at a decent hour. School is starting in just a few weeks and now is the time to get them back to the school routine and schedule.
Why Start So Early?
You may be thinking to yourself “Tracy, why do we need to start weeks before school starts? Can’t we just wait for the weekend before?” Well, yes you can, but you are more likely to be successful at following the schedule once school starts if you have plenty of practice beforehand! Starting early will also give you plenty of time to work out the kinks and issues you may not foresee coming ahead of time.
When our kiddos start school, we want them to be successful. Sleep plays a huge part in academic success because it is a building block for forming memories and retaining them, also known as learning! When our children are getting the sleep they need, their daytime drowsiness and fatigue drop significantly. This means they can stay alert and focus in school without the distraction of trying to stay awake.
Where Do I Start?
So, let’s talk about how we can set our children up for success in school. First, we will determine how much sleep our children need. Next, we will discuss setting a most beneficial bedtime. Then, we will talk about creating a bedtime routine with your child that will help them wind down from the day’s activities. Finally, we will discuss how you can start to implement this routine before the start of school with plenty of time to spare.
How Much Sleep Does My Child Need?
According to the National Sleep Foundation, children need quite a bit more sleep than they typically get! But, many parents are not even sure how much sleep their children need. Let’s break it down simply here.
Preschoolers Age 3 to 5 need between 10 and 13 hours of sleep per day.
School-Aged Children Age 6 to 13 need between 9 and 11 hours of sleep per day.
Teenagers Age 14 to 17 need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep per day.
Does your child’s sleep fall within the appropriate range? If so, great! If not, that’s ok, now is your chance to change that and create improvement!
Setting a Bedtime
It is important to remember that when our children start back to school, they will more than likely be waking up much earlier than they have during the summer. So, this means bringing bedtime earlier will be crucial! We must consider what time they need to be awake each morning and how much sleep they need. We will use these two factors to create a “no later than” bedtime. For example, a 5-year-old who needs to wake up at 6 AM should be going to bed no later than 8 PM to get the minimum amount (10 hours) of sleep that they need.
There are a few other factors to consider when determining your child’s bedtime.
These ranges are ranges for a reason. Every child is different and some require more sleep than others. However, we mustn't assume that our children can handle the minimum recommendation. More than likely they will show improvement we didn’t know was there with more sleep and an earlier bedtime.
Most children will naturally hit a second wind around 8 PM. This second wind can give them the energy to stay up even later. However, this is not ideal. When this second wind comes on, they hit a “fight or flight” point and their body is releasing the stress hormone cortisol to keep them awake. This will decrease the melatonin in their body and make it even harder to fall asleep.
The more sleep our children get before midnight, the more restorative sleep they will get. Children get more deep and restorative non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep before midnight. After the clock strikes 12, their brains move to the lighter REM stage of sleep. This is all based on their natural circadian rhythm.
As a sleep consultant, I urge all parents to ensure their children are not just getting the minimum recommended amount of sleep. Sleep is a period of restoration and memory consolidation for us all, and our children need as much of this as they can get considering how much they are developing and learning throughout the day!
Creating a Bedtime Routine
Now that we have determined what time our children’s bedtime should be, let’s talk about the hour to an hour and a half leading up to it. This is the time where our children will be working through their bedtime routine. Their bedtime routine needs to be soothing, relaxing, and calming for them. This routine may include a bath or shower, brushing teeth, reading alone or with a parent, cuddling with a parent, etc.
When establishing a bedtime routine there are a few factors to consider.
Avoid electronics such as phones, tablets, and television for at least one hour before bedtime. Screen usage exposes children to blue light which suppresses melatonin production. Melatonin is the hormone that tells us to go to sleep. Instead of screen time before bed, encourage your child to read or journal.
Once the bedtime routine starts, dim the lights in the house and cool the house down. The dimmed lights will encourage melatonin production. As the house cools down, your child’s body will see that as a cue for sleep.
Avoid having excitement in other parts of the house and keep the noise to a minimum. If exciting things are going on in other parts of the house, your child will experience a fear of missing out and will fight to stay up. This excitement can trigger the production of cortisol and cause that second wind to come earlier. You may also consider turning on a sound machine to help drown out the noise from the house during the bedtime routine.
Avoid using the bed for activities other than sleep. Some older children may want to do homework, read, or journal in their beds. Instead, find a designated area for those activities and use the bed for sleep only.
Regular exercise during the day (not right before bedtime) also promotes sleep, but it is just as important that we avoid overwhelming our children with too many extracurricular activities as this could lead to stress and less sleep.
For older children, naps are junk sleep (comparable to eating junk food) and lead to less nighttime sleep. These junk naps will also lead to poorer quality nighttime sleep. So, you should avoid allowing your older children to nap. Instead, if they are showing signs of overtiredness, consider moving their bedtime even earlier.
Avoid giving your child caffeinated drinks. Caffeine will keep your child awake and alert, but will often affect their abilities to wind down in the evening before bedtime.
When establishing a bedtime routine, it must be consistently the same every night. It should also be completed in generally the same order every night. This will help send cues to the brain that it is time for bed. By preparing early for back to school, you are giving yourself and your children plenty of time to play around with the bedtime routine and find what works best before school starts!
Implementing Back to School Sleep Routines
So, we’ve determined how much sleep our children need, what time they will get up every morning, what time they will go to bed every night, and what their bedtime routine will be. Now, we need to decide how to get them from their summer schedule to their back-to-school schedule. Have a family meeting and talk about how you and your children want to make the switch to their back-to-school schedule. There are two ways you can make the switch. You can rip the band-aid off and just jump right into the new schedule now, or you can take a few days and ease back into it.
If you choose to jump right to the back-to-school schedule, be sure you have a few weeks to get used to it before school starts. It is best to start at bedtime so that they aren’t staying up late, waking up super early the next morning, and inadvertently going into a bit of a sleep debt. So, if you choose to do this, be sure you start with the new bedtime rather than the new wake time.
If you choose to ease into the back-to-school schedule, start by adjusting their new schedule 15 minutes at a time. They will wake up 15 minutes earlier every few days and go to bed 15 minutes earlier every few days. If easing into the new schedule, be sure you have reached the new timing at least a week before school starts. This allows time to work out any issues that may arise.
No matter what option you choose to switch the schedule, remember to start with a family meeting, decide together on how to make the switch, and be patient with one another. It is also a great idea to discuss the importance of sleep with your children so that they understand why their schedule has to change.
No More Dreading the Change
If you were dreading the change to the back-to-school schedule, I hope this blog helped to relieve some of that stress. If you have any further questions about how to make adjustments, please do not hesitate to reach out. And, as always, if your child does not have well-established sleep hygiene, we can set them on the path to good sleep and success together. Just book and Evaluation Call with me to get started! Until then…
With Love,
