Getting Sleep Back to School Ready
The back to school season tends to elicit a full array of emotions from parents and children alike. As much as you or they may be in the camp of "I'm not ready to think about it yet!" taking time now to ensuring your kiddo heads into the year well-rested will help them (and you!) survive and thrive. Read on for actionable steps to support your child to head back to school well rested.
What Does Ideal Sleep Look Like?
Ideal sleep refers to both quality and quantity. For a school age child that means it is uninterrupted and affords them an age appropriate total of hours by the time they need to wake each morning. Preschool-age children need 10 to 13 hours while six to thirteen year olds need 9 to 11 hours. In our experience, few children are comfortable on the lower end of those ranges.
For example, if your child needs 11 hours of sleep and wakes on their own or needs to be awake by 7:00 a.m., falling asleep at 9:00 p.m. or later the night before will chip into that total. Much like many small charges on a credit card, those losses will begin to accumulate, leaving your child with a sleep debt. More important than any sleep total chart though is your child's behavior. Are they waking on their own or do you need to wake them? Can they happily make it to bedtime or are they falling apart in the evenings? Do they fall asleep on car rides or during screen time? A well rested child should be able to make it to their next regular sleep period easily and wake naturally.
Why Does Ideal Sleep Matter?
Across all ages, behavioral and learning difficulties are often a symptom of sleeplessness. Research tells us that sleep loss leads to problems with learning, attention and concentration, hyperactivity, mood, emotional regulation and behavior. Studies also show that lower sleep totals correlate with lower test scores. So, whether your child will be learning at home or a brick & mortar, from you or from a teacher, their sleep should be the first back to school supply you stock up on.
How Can We Get Back on Track?
If summer vibes have caused slipping schedules and shrinking sleep totals, these five tips will help your family get back on track.
1. Start Adjusting their Schedule in Advance
If your child's schedule has slipped later, start shifting them back well in advance of the start of she school year. As early as two weeks before their first school day, begin to gradually shift their sleep and wake times earlier. For example, you might wake your child 10 minutes earlier each morning and then shift their bedtime routine to start and end 10 minutes earlier than usual that night. Each day (or every few days if you prefer) repeat the process until your child is waking at the time they need to wake on a school day AND getting the appropriate amount of sleep for their age group. Once you have reached this schedule be sure to stick with it even on the weekends. If daylight or neighborhood sounds are causing an issue at bedtime consider adding blackout curtains and white noise or more of them.
2. Check the Tech
The light emitted from screens interrupts the production of Melatonin, one hormone involved in the delicate dance of bringing on sleep, and tells the brain, instead, to wake up. To prevent that disruption, turn screens off at least 1-2 hours before your child's goal sleep time. You can read more about the topic of screens and bedtime here. This is true of every screen including television, video games, tablets, phones, etc. Blue blocking features may not be as effective as once thought so don't rely on them. If a cutoff isn't possible, use a screen that is as far from your kiddo's face as possible - a phone held close may have more of an impact than a television across the room. For older children with their own devices consider having a rule of charging and leaving devices outside the bedroom to avoid temptation. If it helps, set an audible and/or visual timer so they have a heads up as to when screen time will end.
3. Consider their Diet and Fluid Pattern
A heavy meal too close to bedtime can interfere with your child’s ability to fall asleep and foods high in sugar can cause night waking due to blood sugar fluctuations. Caffeine can also interrupt sleep patterns so limit your child’s caffeine intake in general and avoid caffeine altogether within 6 hours of bedtime. Soda and energy drinks are obvious culprits but remember that chocolate has caffeine too so that after dinner treat could be an issue too. Drinking a lot of fluids close to bedtime can lead to overnight bathroom trips so push fluids throughout the day and taper down to a cutoff in the evening . Keep blood sugar stable by pairing a complex carbohydrate with a protein (think whole grain toast with peanut butter) for an evening snack.
4. Create or Revisit a Wind-Down Routine
If a predictable bedtime routine has fallen by the wayside, now is the perfect time to reintroduce one. The sleep routine should take place in the room your child sleeps in and should include activities that help their brain and body to wind down such as them reading to themselves or being read to, talking about their day or listening to calming music. Kids who have trouble turning their brains "off" at the end of day may benefit from guided meditation bedtime stories for kids or, for teens, a sleep podcast. The Moshi app is also a very popular option for younger children. Be sure their environment is conducive to settling down. A room that is too stimulating or too warm can contribute to restlessness.
5. Offer a Compromise to Keep Habits on Track
If your child is anxious about what this school year will bring, this will likely manifest at bedtime or overnight. It is okay to validate those feelings while still maintaining healthy sleep habits. Avoid introducing or reintroducing any habits you won't want to do in the long term, such as letting them crash in your bed, in favor of a compromise, like returning to check on them often so long as they lay in bed quietly.
We can never know exactly what a new school year will bring but we do know that heading into it well rested will help your family cope as well as is possible.
Erica Desper is a sleep & toileting behavior consultant who is passionate about supporting families to get adequate sleep so they can enjoy life and navigate challenges with calm and confidence. She offers non-medical solutions to sleep challenges such as bedtime battles, frequent night waking, fear of sleeping independently of a parent and more. She also supports parents to implement behavioral (non-medical) strategies to address and resolve common toileting challenges such as fear, stool withholding, encopresis and enuresis.
