Without enough sleep, your Superstar can get cranky, and over time, can become unhealthy. We all know as adults how much this can effect our day to day life!
Studies show that not getting enough sleep can led to obesity, and even more troubling is the research that shows it can also lead to behavioural and learning problems!
Via an article at Harvard Health, we have pulled 4 tips to help your Superstar get enough sleep. Do you have any other tips you can share with us on this blog? Just comment below to start the conversation!
1. Make sleep a priority. Just like you schedule time for homework, sports, and other activities, schedule time for sleep. Literally. Start from when your child needs to get up in the morning, and then count back the number of hours your child needs to sleep… and set a non-negotiable bedtime. For tweens and teens, this may lead to some tough conversations and decisions about schedules and activities, and may mean cutting back on some activities, finding ways to get homework done earlier, and pushing some leisure activities (like video games) to weekends. If you are going to make it work you will also need to…
2. Start the bedtime routine earlier. None of us can go right from a physically or mentally intense activity right to sleep. If bedtime is 9:00 pm, that means that your child needs to start winding down between 8 and 8:30 so that they are ready to actually fall asleep at 9. A big part of winding down is to…
3. Shut off the screens. The blue light emitted from screens can wake up the brain and make it harder to fall asleep. This is particularly true for “small screens” such as phones or tablets that are held closer to the face. Shut them off an hour before you want your child to be asleep. Phones should be charged outside of the bedroom — or at the very least, put in Do Not Disturb mode. If your child tries to tell you they need their phone to wake them up in the morning, buy them an alarm clock.
Another important way to be sure your child gets enough sleep is to…
4. Keep the same sleep routines on weekends and vacations. A little leeway is okay, like staying up an hour or so later if your child can and will sleep later in the morning (if you have one of those kids who is up at dawn no matter what, staying up later may not work out so well). It throws our bodies off when our sleep schedules change; we do much better when they stay the same.
Remember, too, that children pay more attention to what we do than what we say. If you make your own sleep a priority, you will set a good example for your child — and feel better yourself.
Here's to easier bed times for you Super Parents 🤩💙
Ashley
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