Kids’ sleep needs
School age kids should ideally get 10-12 hours sleep a night – and if they don’t school days can easily turn into school daze, with grades suffering as a result. The problem is exacerbated by the early start at many schools: some kids need to catch their bus well before 7am in order to make their desks on time. A heavy homework and after-school activity schedule, combined with socializing, makes early nights all but impossible as Sarasota mom Kate Scott confirms: “My daughter is involved in several after-school sports and clubs and also gets a good hours’ worth of homework four nights a week. By the time she’s done all that and eaten and showered, there’s barely any time left before she needs to go to bed so she can get enough sleep to be reasonably alert the next day. The school work is only going to get harder as she gets older and we get no quality time together as it is.”
What’s keeping your child awake?
Scott’s experience doesn’t even take into account the problems other parents have with kids who simply refuse to go to bed or suffer from insomnia, night terrors and sleepwalking. Another culprit can be sleep apnea, which is characterized by pauses in breathing that can rouse a child from sleep several times a night (snoring and unexplained tiredness during the day are giveaway signs that your child may be affected). Often caused by enlarged tonsils or adenoids, sleep apnea in kids is increasing as the rate of child obesity rockets, since obesity can cause tonsils and adenoids to grow larger than normal. Children with sleep apnea on average score 15 points lower on IQ tests and it’s not too much of a leap to assume that tiredness at school may be a factor.
Sleep tips for school-age kids
- Get your child into a bedtime routine from an early age. If he starts to act up in his tweens, emphasize that tiredness at school will affect his grades as well as robbing him of the energy he needs to do the things he enjoys.
- Make sleep easy Give your child a milky drink and encourage him to do a little quiet reading before lights out to help him wind down. Don’t let him spend the evening glued to the TV – watching the box too close to bedtime is associated with bedtime resistance, difficulty falling asleep, anxiety, nightmares and sleeping fewer hours. And your child’s bedroom needs to be conducive to sleep – dark, cool, comfortable and quiet.
- Keep the bedroom media-free No teen willingly goes to bed when there are TV reality shows to be watched, Internet sites to surf or computer games to play into the wee small hours of the morning. Statistics show that around 43% of school-age kids have a TV in their bedroom – don’t let your child be one of them.
- Ban caffeine You may be vigilant about not letting your child drink coffee but that’s not the only source of caffeine. If your child drinks soda or energy drinks in the evening, he’s likely to be getting a sizeable dose of this stimulant and it’s likely to have him fully alert when he should be drifting off to sleep.
- Cut back his schedule If afterschool activities are pushing back your child’s bedtime, you need to reach a compromise over what’s manageable – perhaps you could agree to let him pursue his hobbies or sporting interests after school on Thursdays and Fridays, close enough to the weekend so he can catch up on some extra sleep then. Are you pushing your child too hard? Try to avoid giving your child the impression that it’s OK to put up with short-term sleep deprivation if there are academic or sporting gains to be had in the future.
- Watch your child’s weight! Obesity isn’t just associated with a host of health problems – it can also affect your child’s sleep. Studies show that children who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight, and that being overweight can make sleep problems more likely: in fact, around two thirds of children diagnosed with sleep apnea are overweight. Ensure your child eats a healthy diet, cut back on snacking and junk food, and encourage him to take as much physical activity as possible.
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