Families are gearing up for the beginning of the school year. Famveldman/Dreamstime.com

By Jesse Gill

WHAT TO KNOW

Here is how to get kids back into a regular sleep pattern as school begins, from an expert

Aug 26, 2024 | 11:57 AM

During the summer a number of kids and teens will get out of their regular sleeping patterns.

The first day of classes for grade school students in the three school divisions in and around Medicine Hat is Sept. 3.

Psychologist Vanessa Steeves, of Steeves Counseling Psychology, said starting to adjust the sleep schedule slowly works best.

“You want to start a couple of weeks early and really cutting bedtime back about 15 minutes every couple of days,” Steeves said.

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“The kids are going to have a hard time going to bed like that, but what matters most is the morning. You want to also get them up about 15 minutes earlier as well,” she added.

“That will slowly kind of work its way backwards to a more appropriate time for the beginning of the school year.”

Steeves adds there’s plenty of research that indicates sleep is very important for a persons concentration, memory, focus and mood.

She recommended that kids get between eight and 10 hours of sleep, with teenagers needing typically a bit more than that.

Something she said teens don’t generally get.

Registered psychologist Vanessa Steeves spoke with CHAT TV News about getting kids back into a sleep routine after the summer. Bob Schneider/CHAT News

Steeves said, teenagers like to be on phones and devices, something she recommends cutting back on before bed.

“You want to have some good sleep hygiene habits,” Steeves said.

“About an hour before bedtime, you want to just start kind of slowing things down, calming things down, and everyone does that in their own way,” she added.

“It could be having a bath, having a relaxing shower, reading a book for the younger kids, maybe having some cuddle time with parents.”

Steeves said keeping your room cool and dark for sleeping is ideal.

She also has a recommendation for parents dealing with with adolescents.

“As they hit puberty and their hormones are fluctuating, that does tend to put them into a later sleep cycle,” Steeves said.

“Their clock is kind of working against them when we want them to go to bed at a certain time and they just don’t feel tired,” she added.

“Be kind to them and know that they’re really working against their biology in order to get to bed on time, and with that comes the morning of wanting to stay into bed.”

Steeves adds a persons body likes consistency.

“Our body likes to be kind of in a homeostatic state. It likes things to be the same and regular as much as it can,” Steeves said.

“When the kids hit the summertime, it’s not very realistic to be going to bed at the same time you would during school because there’s family vacations, there’s all sorts of events and fireworks and those sort of things,” she added.

“So you can be proactive and try to maintain a sleep schedule through the summer. But if you can’t, then give your kids enough time to readjust their baseline back to what you would want it to be at for school.”