Finding a rhythm with summer sleep

Summer days can mean fun in the sun, swimming, camps, playing sports, vacations and other activities. There can also be summer days filled with inconsistent routines, staying up late, sleeping in and more screen time than normal. Even with all the changes to the schedule, making sure kids get enough rest during the summer months is essential to their health.

While it might be difficult to ensure proper sleep during the summer, it can be accomplished with a few considerations.

“Even though it’s summer, kids still benefit from a consistent sleep schedule,” says Kevin Smith, PhD, pediatric psychologist with Children’s Mercy Kansas City. “Healthy sleep patterns help improve memory, mood and more.”

Smith says preschoolers ages 3 to 5 need 10 to 13 hours of sleep, school-age children 6 to 13 need 9 to 11 hours of sleep, and teenagers 14 to 17 need 8 to 10 hours.

One of the first things to consider when ensuring adequate rest, according to Smith, is the child’s sleep environment. He says the sleep environment needs to be generally quiet, although some white noise can be helpful. It also needs to be dark, but it does not have to be completely dark as a night-light can help foster sleep.

Additionally, making sure the bed is comfortable is especially important. Smith says sometimes parents buy their children a bed but never test it out themselves to see what it feels like for their kids, so he encourages parents to test it out. He also says studies have shown having a relatively clean room is more conducive to sleep than a highly cluttered environment. Although the room does not have to be especially organized, having it generally picked up is helpful.

Once you’ve established a healthy sleep environment, take a look at behaviors throughout the day that can lead to healthy sleep. Smith says activity during the day helps with sleep at night. To this end, consider making sure the kids get plenty of physical activity, even on those lazy summer days. One approach is to have the kids pick at least one physical activity—swimming, going for a bike ride, jumping on the trampoline, hiking or whatever else interests them—to complete each day.

Also consider limiting screen time, especially right before bed, to help the body become ready for sleep at the proper time. Not only does too much screen time tend to suppress physical activity, but too much can have significant negative impacts on mental health, which can impact proper sleep.

Timing of the physical activity throughout the day is also important. Smith warns activity right before bed can have the opposite effect and prevent kids from going to sleep on time. “Sleep is more like a dimmer switch than an on/off switch,” he says. “We have to help our body ease from awake to sleep. Sudden transitions are not what our body wants.” Because of this, Smith advises parents to have a solid cut-off time for physical activity and for there to be a transition time between activity and sleep.

The difficulty in this is the simple fact the summer has more daylight hours. And with the additional daylight, kids often do not want to go to sleep at their usual bedtime. After all, it’s still light outside. They might see other kids still playing outside in the neighborhood and naturally want to join. Youth sports games might run later into the evening as well.

Blackout curtains can be helpful in blocking out the additional sunlight and ensuring a proper bedtime, but it’s important for everyone in the household to be on the same page when it comes to expectations of when to quit activity for the evening. Perhaps the kids might need to skip an evening activity if there is a day camp starting early in the morning.

Try creating fun and relaxing activities to do before bed, whether that be reading, listening to calming music or having discussions about the day. Think of simple things you can do while sitting or relaxing that will help children gradually ease into sleep mode.

Overall, pay attention for signs your child might not getting enough sleep. These include excessive irritability and lack of attentiveness, in addition to the more obvious signs of yawning and discoloring around their eyes, according to Smith.

Though carefree summer fun may entice your family to stay up until all hours, setting some slumber parameters is a must because sleep is so important. As Smith says, “Sleep effects almost every aspect of our lives—it can affect mood, learning, family relations, health and weight.”

Resting up for the school year

It’s never too soon to consider preparing for the transition back into a school schedule

One difficult aspect of going back to school in the fall is returning to a normal sleep routine, so consider now how children’s summer schedule will impact their return to the classroom.

Kevin Smith, PhD, pediatric psychologist with Children’s Mercy Kansas City, says summer schedules should not change much for a child under the age of 6 or 7. For older children, he says a summer routine ideally would vary no more than 30 to 60 minutes from what their school routine would require.

“The key to a smooth transition is to do it gradually,” he says. “The body and brain would much prefer that, but it involves advance planning.”

He recommends about three days of adjusting for every 15 minutes kids need to change their schedule. Consider noting in your family calendar when you need to start that transition and plan activities around the date to help set up a successful start to the school year.

Allison Gibeson is a Lee’s Summit writer and mom whose son loves to read to wind down before bed.