Published: July 31, 2009 04:17 pm      

Back to School: Sleep

Schedule adjustments start now to reduce stress

The start of a new school year is fast approaching. Stores are stocked with school supplies and the back-to-school shopping is getting underway. But one of the most important tools for back to school success doesn’t cost a penny.

It’s sleep.

Sleep experts with OU Medicine stress that now is the time to start getting your children back on schedule when it comes to bed times. Kris Sekar, M.D., said ideally parents should start early to gradually return their children to a school-time sleep pattern.

“Re-establishing a regular school-time sleep schedule can take several weeks. So, it’s important to start resetting that internal clock early,” said Sekar, medical director of the pediatric sleep lab at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center. “A series of small adjustments in the sleep and wake-up times is best and should start right away.”

During their summer break from school, many children get used to staying up later at night and sleeping in the next morning. Gradually, the later bedtime and wake-up time becomes a habit, Sekar explained. If that summer-time sleep schedule continues into the days before school, your child’s first school days are likely to be drowsy ones and tired children are not the best learners.

The start of the new school year is especially difficult on teens. In adolescence, the later sleep and waking pattern is both behavioral and physiological.

“There is a significant change in the circadian rhythm in adolescence,” explained Sekar. “In adolescence, the melatonin secretion occurs later; therefore, the sleep cycle completely changes. It’s very physiologic.”

As a result, many teens may have a great deal of difficulty shifting back to the early waking times required to get to school on time, and can fall further behind on their sleep needs.

Tired teens are more likely to be irritable, to have difficulty concentrating in school and may see their performance suffer both in academics and athletics. Trying to catch up on sleep on the weekends seldom works either.

“The teenagers try to make it up by sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday, but then they have adjustment problems immediately when they have to go back to the cycle again on Monday mornings,” he said.

Here are the top tips from OU Medicine to help you re-adjust your children’s sleep-wake cycle for the start of another school year:

1) Start about three weeks before the first day of school;

2) Adjust the bedtime and wake time 15-20 minutes earlier. Then, after about three days, shift it another 20 minutes earlier;

3) Make sure the bedroom is dark and quiet at bedtime;

4) Set an alarm for the new wake-up time and make sure your child gets up whether he or she wants to or not;

5) Stick to the new schedule, even on weekends.

With adequate sleep, students of all ages will arrive at school more refreshed and ready to tackle a new school year.