How to adjust kids’ sleep schedules before going back to school

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) - Experts are helping families start the school year off right by slowly transitioning off of the summer sleep schedule.

Sleep is vital for children’s physical and mental health.

“All of a sudden when they have to start getting up at six in the morning when they’ve been getting up at noon, it can be really hard to unroll that,” said Dr. Craig Canapari, Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Canapari recommended children in the 6th grade and younger to have a bed time where they can get between nine and 11 hours of sleep.

However, he said the wake-up time is more of the concern for older children.

“For teenagers, we want to give them some autonomy, so it’s better to give them a wake time and let them set their sleep times accordingly,” added Dr. Canapari.

Experts recommended getting children in a routine one week before the start of school.

They suggested that kids should wake up an hour later in the morning than they would for school.

This was expected to soften the blow of the alarm and prepare students for the transition.

“My daughter is currently waking up at seven o’clock. She’s a junior. She will now have to wake up at 5:30. So that will be a change for her,” said Kylie Palladino.

Palladino is a mom of three kids. She is also a sleep lab supervisor.

“Watching children on the screen not breathing at night made me realize that the snoring that my children were having at night was not normal,” she said.

Her daughter’s sleep was so disrupted. She actually had to have her tonsils and adenoids removed.

“Now she’s more focused and she even tells me she feels more focused when she’s at school... They sleep wonderfully now,” added Palladino.

Dr. Canapari suggested limiting screen time at night as well.

He also said to bring children outside in the mornings the week before school starts. The natural light was also expected to help kids adjust.

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