Preparing Children’s Sleep Schedules Before Kindergarten
What is more important for focus, learning, and mood than a great night’s sleep? Not much. That’s why parents with school-age children, especially when they’re starting school for the first time, like kindergartners, should help set good sleeping habits early. Preparing children’s sleep schedules before Kindergarten can make a huge impact and set the course for the remainder of their school years.
Benefits of Quality Sleep for Children
A new study from Penn State University found that children who sleep at least 10 hours during the night on a regular basis demonstrated more success in emotional development, learning engagement, and academic performance across the kindergarten year than students that didn’t. Each of these wins marks an essential part of early schooling.
Emotional development, learning engagement, and academic performance make up the cornerstones of early learning especially for children leaving home for regular schooling for the first time. It’s where they develop social skills, make a lot of their early friends, and learn to focus and pay attention for long periods of time, something crucial to K-12 education.
How Can Parents Promote Healthier Sleep Habits?
Getting children to sleep at night is different for everyone. Maybe a car ride or a bedtime story is enough for some kids but others are more resilient and require a little finesse to get off to sleep every night. What do we recommend?
- Organized and consistent bedtime routines
- Limited screen access
- Bedtime before or at 9 PM
Organized and Consistent Bedtime Routines
Being more engaged and intentional in your child’s wind-down period before bed can make a huge difference. This is often the key ingredient to calming them down before bed. By establishing a routine, the process will get easier and easier over time so if it’s a struggle at first don’t give up hope. Map out a wind-down routine and stick to it.
What might that calming routine look like? Think bath time, bedtime stories, reading, and quiet talking.
Limited Screen Access
At least 30 minutes before bed close up shop on-screen access. That includes TV, tablet, and video game time. The blue light from those screen sources disrupts our circadian rhythm and can keep them up longer than they should be for a healthy relationship to sleep.
Bedtime Before or At 9 PM
Why 9 o’clock? The magic number here is 10 hours of sleep. Asleep by nine puts the end of their 10-hour window at 7 AM. Depending on what time their school starts this will give them time to fall asleep and time to get ready for school in the morning.
Importance of Good Sleep Hygiene
One of our primary focuses is the treatment of sleep apnea and by creating a healthy sleep routine and promoting good sleep hygiene, you can reduce the chance of being affected by sleep apnea and increase the chance of catching it early and starting treatment early because you’ll be more dialed into their sleep patterns.
For more information on child sleep hygiene or more information about sleep apnea contact our office at 425-361-7499 to schedule a consultation.
