Bedtime Benefits Adjust your child’s schedule before heading back to school BY VALERIE FINHOLM
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ttention, parents: It’s 8 p.m. Do you know where your children are? If they’re not in bed, you may be overlooking one of the most important things you can do to prepare your kids for school. In the summer, bedtimes can become more fluid, with youngsters staying up later and later. But before school starts, it’s important to establish a bedtime routine that will ensure they get proper rest to prepare them for busy days. Researchers have found that kids need more sleep than adults — lots more — to support their growth and development. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that preschoolers get 10 to 13 hours of sleep a day, gradeschoolers get nine to 12 hours and teens sleep eight to 10 hours. Kids who don’t get enough sleep — even an hour or so less than recommended — may have trouble paying attention, sitting still or keeping their emotions in check at school, says sleep psychologist Lisa J. Meltzer, an associate professor of pediatrics at National Jewish Health in Denver. “Sleep is just as critical as diet and exercise,” says Meltzer. “We need to make sleep a priority, and often it’s not.” CAUSE FOR ALARM “Twenty years ago, people went to bed earlier,” says Marc Weissbluth, professor emeritus of clinical pediatrics at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. Yesteryear’s children also spent more time napping. There are many reasons for this,
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including naps cut short in day care on/off switches, but our brains have and working parents who postpone dimmer switches. So, it takes quite a bedtime to spend time with their while for our brains to shut down at children, says Weissbluth, author night,” Meltzer says. of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Weissbluth says waiting until Another culprit: Many parents are the first day of school to alter sleep sleep-deprived themselves — getting patterns can leave children in a daze by on six or seven hours a night — for the first few weeks. So, don’t wait and don’t recognize the condition in until the night before school starts to their children. Research shows that adjust your child’s bedtime. Instead, regular sleep deprivation has serious gradually shift bedtime, putting your — and lasting — side effects for kids, kids to bed 15 minutes earlier each including behavioral problems, weight night, starting about two weeks before gain, hypertension, headaches and school starts, Meltzer says. With nine depression. to 12 hours needed for grade school In a study published in 2017 in students, that translates to a bedtime Academic Pediatrics, of about 7:30 or 8 parents and p.m., if children need teachers reported to be up around 6 or more problems 6:30 a.m. with 7-year-olds For grade school who didn’t get kids and younger, enough sleep a popular bedtime during their routine is a bath TOO TIRED toddler and followed by a Signs that a child isn’t preschool years, story. For older getting enough sleep, compared with children, the according to sleep those who got an American Academy psychologist Lisa J. age-appropriate of Pediatrics Meltzer, include: amount of sleep recommends that during those years. all screens be turned uFalling asleep at Insufficient sleep off at least one hour school was defined as before bedtime so less than 12 hours teens have time to uSnoozing during short trips in the car during infancy, less wind down. than 11 hours for Be aware that uFatigue during 3- and 4-year-olds sleep habits shift evening homework and less than 10 during puberty, so time hours for 5- to it’s natural for teens 7-year-olds. to stay up later. A uIrritability The study short after-school found that the nap can help sleep-deprived teens work more kids struggled with emotional control, efficiently, according to the National paying attention and making friends. Sleep Foundation. Also, they should Other research has linked poor sleep steer clear of caffeine-infused drinks and attention deficit hyperactivity late in the day. disorder. Establishing a good sleep routine early will pay off in the future. “When WINDING DOWN children very young get the sleep they Kids need to wind down before they need, it helps them for the rest of their sleep, so it’s important to establish lives because they know how it feels a sleep ritual. “Our technology has to be well-rested,” Weissbluth says.
GETTY IMAGES; ILLUSTRATIONS: AMIRA MARTIN
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