Back-To-School Sleep Routines: A Parent’s Guide to Healthy Rest

Some kids may dread the end of summer and back-to-school schedules, especially when it comes to sleep routines. But, it’s very important for kids and teens to establish healthy sleep routines to help them be successful in school.

Sleep directly affects learning, memory, social skills and normal psychological functions and the lack of sleep can lead to problems such as obesity, heart problems and high blood pressure.

Ann C. Halbower, MD, DO, director of pediatric sleep research, and Jeffrey Dolgan, Ph.D., senior psychologist in Behavioral Health at The Children’s Hospital, provide these tips for parents to use during this transitional time:

• Children in elementary and middle school should sleep 10 to 12 hours per night.
• Teens in high school should sleep about nine hours per night.
• Transition to school hours over the course of a few weeks to avoid sudden back-to-school fatigue.
• Maintain a summer sleep schedule that doesn't stray far from a school schedule.
• Healthy pre-bed activities include: quiet talk, storytelling, bathing, brushing teeth, and saying goodnight.
• Children sleep best in cool, dark rooms.
• Bedtime can double as “family time,” when parents and children quietly reflect on the day past and the day ahead.
• Use the following language to set a reasonable bedtime: “I would like you to be in bed by __ and it would make me feel happy and proud if you would do it.”
• Learn more about the Sleep Center at Children’s.
• Learn more about behavioral health services at Children's.

Some kids are more vulnerable: Sleep Phase Disorder

Children and teens with delayed sleep phase disorder are especially affected. Halbower identifies them as children and teens who “truly cannot go to sleep early and have trouble waking.”  These kids suffer more when returning to back-to-school sleep schedules after a summer of sleeping and waking when they want.

Delayed sleep phase disorder often disguises itself as a child’s “willful behavior” to resist bedtime, says Halbower. In reality, genetics disrupt children’s ability to sleep and wake, not laziness.

Kids often resist bedtime

Whether or not children and teens suffer from delayed sleep phase disorder, they are almost certain to resist a new bedtime.

“Kids are having too much fun in the summer,” observes Jeffrey Dolgan, Ph.D., senior psychologist in Behavioral Health at The Children’s Hospital. Summertime evokes certain freedoms, he explains, and if parents don’t maintain some surveillance, “things will start to tumble” as parents ready their children for stricter bedtimes.

Behaviors between children and teens may differ when resisting sleep, but the same principles apply: they want to stay up late and don’t like it when parents say “no.”

Collaborative problem solving

For a child of any age, Dolgan believes collaborative problem solving can soften this opposition.

Collaborative problem solving, rather than issuing demands, encourages compromise and active communication. Constructively voicing feelings is nearly fail-proof, Dolgan says, because children like to understand why their parents feel as they do.

When parents offer compromise, they give children a small dose of freedom that quiets their contention. On the other hand, when parents “put their foot down,” they give children no options. “Children feel they have no control, and they don’t like that.”

Creating a sleep-conducive environment

Both Dolgan and Halbower agree that to create a sleep-conducive environment parents should use light and sound delicately, with an ultimate focus on bed.

Television and computers adversely affect healthy sleep patterns. According to Halbower, nighttime light exposure lowers the body’s natural melatonin level (the body’s natural signal for sleep time).

“Kids have too many distractions,” adds Dolgan. “They have too much in their rooms to do.”

For children who continue to have problems with sleep initiation or maintenance, consider the possibility of sleep phase delay or insomnia.  The Children’s Hospital Sleep Disorder Center is a resource for parents who cannot solve their child’s sleep problems.

No matter the distraction, “The most important thing to remember is that children don’t have the cognitive ability to reason well,” says Dolgan. “So parents must do what they can for their children’s health and safety in part by helping to ensure they get a good night’s sleep.”

If that entails stricter “lights out” policies, even to the disappointment of their children, so be it. Winter vacation will arrive soon enough.