A Healthy Child Needs a Healthy Brain, A Healthy Brain Needs Healthy Sleep

New Research

A 2021 study by Professor Lisa Meltzer documented that delaying middle school start times by 40-60 minutes later and delaying high school start times by 70 minutes allowed middle schoolers to have 29 minutes extra sleep and high schoolers 45 minutes extra sleep. These students had significantly less daytime sleepiness!  An indication that they were no longer clinically sleep deprived was that “weekend oversleep dropped” dramatically because they were no longer needing to “catch-up” on sleep on weekends.

BABY AND CHILD SLEEP TIPS

For pre-school children, even babies, many studies have shown that an early bedtime produces more night sleep (even if the wake-up time is earlier) compared to a late bedtime. A late bedtime might be associated with a later wake-up time and/or longer naps, but neither a later wake-up time nor longer naps fully compensate for less night sleep. Further, the early bedtime produces better quality sleep because sleep is occurring more in synchrony with circadian sleep rhythms.  Blog Post 7 describes the benefits of early bedtimes. 

So how do you get an early bedtime?

1. Begin soothing and bedtime routines when drowsy signs (Blog Post 9) begin to appear or just start 10-20 minutes earlier than you customarily do this.

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2. Do not allow a late afternoon or early evening nap to occur. Start this on a weekend when both parents are available to help distract and soothe your child through a possible rough patch.

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3. Control the wake-up time.  Nobody wants to wake a sleeping child. But if your pre-school child is falling asleep and waking up way too late, then start waking your child in the morning around 7:00am to reset his sleep-wake cycle to be in synchrony with his circadian rhythm.