Expert talks sleep schedules as kids, parents prepare for new school year

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Back to school isn’t for another couple of weeks yet, but now is the time to start getting your kids back into their fall routine.

That’s coming from at least one expert who highlights the importance of bedtimes.

“You want to try and get them as close to their former routines when they were at school as you can,” Wendy Hall, a professor at UBC’s School of Nursing, says.

She says one way to do that is by shifting your child’s bedtime gradually starting in mid-August.

“One way of framing it is that this is helping them to get ready to go back to school, they’re going to be meeting new teachers, they’re going to be seeing old friends, and you want it to be the best experience for them.”

So how different can a summer sleep routine really be from a school sleep routine? Hall says they can vary widely.

“The light is longer during the summer and often families are away so their children may be sleeping in different places,” she explains. “Not in B.C. right now, but normally, if you’re camping there’s a campfire and people tend to sit around the campfire until quite late in the dark because they enjoy that. So that really puts a spanner into all the routines that children are used to having before they go to bed.”

In preparation for back-to-school, Hall recommends children go to be 10 or 15 minutes earlier and wake up about 10 minutes earlier as well. This gradual shift is supposed to be easier than trying to switch back into their school routine in one fell swoop.

She understands families may be trying to make the most of the rest of the summer, especially with a long weekend quickly approaching. However, she highlights the importance of children getting enough sleep as it could affect performance.

“For children, sleep routines are so familiar. It’s something that they have in their lives that they recognize when they start up again right away, and children get a lot of comfort out of familiarity. It makes them feel more secure, it makes them feel like they know what’s going on.”

As fun as the summer may be, Hall adds children may often start to crave getting back to the way things “normally are.” Children thrive on routine, she says.

If kids don’t get enough sleep, Hall warns their attention span is reduced and their performance in the classroom starts to suffer.

Hall also suggests reducing screen-time, not just in the evening, but over the course of the day.