Back-to-School Tip #4: Reestablish your family’s sleep routine

“Back to School” are words many par­ents have been wait­ing to hear for months! As the sum­mer days pass us by though, many par­ents have noticed that this extend­ed break from school has real­ly done a num­ber on kids’ sleep sched­ules — they’re stay­ing up late or all night and sleep­ing well into the day. Clear­ly, this sched­ule is going to make the first week of school an extra sleepy chal­lenge for stu­dents, teach­ers, and par­ents! Here are some tips for get­ting your school-age child’s sleep sched­ule back on track:

• As soon as you can, start mov­ing bed­time up by 30 min­utes a day and wak­ing them up 30 min­utes ear­li­er every day.
• Dur­ing this tran­si­tion, they might be sleepy dur­ing the day but help them to stay busy and active, so they aren’t tempt­ed to take a nap.
• Reduce screen time in the evening hours, elim­i­nat­ing it com­plete­ly an hour or more before bed­time so their brains have time to relax before it’s time to go to sleep.
• Set clear lim­its and pro­vide spe­cif­ic activ­i­ties that chil­dren are allowed to do when they are hav­ing trou­ble falling asleep – watch­ing TV can rein­force prob­lems with sleep, but read­ing a book or col­or­ing before bed might help them set­tle down.
• Explain the process of shift­ing their sleep sched­ule and why you are doing so while remem­ber­ing that they prob­a­bly won’t care very much about that when you announce that it’s bed­time ear­li­er than they’d like.
• Find small ways to cel­e­brate and reward suc­cess­es dur­ing this process. ​“You went to bed last night when I asked you to! I know it was tough, but you did it!”
• Take a deep breath. Even if their sleep sched­ule is still a lit­tle wonky the week before school starts, hav­ing to stay awake all day at school will ensure that they are tired when bed­time comes around. Their sleep cycles will con­tin­ue to reg­u­late over the first month or two of school.
• If your child has sleep dif­fi­cul­ties or you need help with this process, reach out to your pedi­a­tri­cian or a ther­a­pist for assistance.