Back to School Sleep Tips

After the fun and relaxed pace of summer, easing back into the school year routine can be daunting. But starting and maintaining a heathy sleep schedule is crucial to your child’s ability to learn, engage, and grow. Here are five easy tips to help your child adjust to the right style of sleep needed for school:

1. Before school begins, start getting your children used to the sleep schedule they will follow during the school year. Allow about two weeks, and work incrementally with an earlier bedtime and wake up time.
2. Create a relaxing bedtime routine. This can mean a bath and bedtime stories for younger kids, or reading for older ones. Avoid strenuous, exciting, and loud activities, including television and video games.
3. Avoid larger snacks and meals close to bedtime because digesting large amounts of food can be disruptive. If your child needs a snack, look to warm milk, plain yogurt topped with real fruit, or cheese and crackers.
4. Build a relaxing bedroom. This promotes an easy and deep sleep. Try using blackout curtains, keeping the room cool, and removing as many distractions as possible that could encourage your child to stay awake instead of sleep.
5. Do you know a great way to encourage healthy sleep patterns? By modelling them yourself! You can show your child how important a healthy sleep is by doing all of the things that you tell your child to do. What’s great is that you too will get better sleep. What’s not to like?

Having to restart a schedule can signal the end of summertime fun, but it will make the transition to school easier. By following the simple tips above, you make this transition relatively seamless while ensuring your child gets the sleep they need in time for school.

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