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Back to school: Getting kids back to a normal sleep routine

Dubai - Success at school requires kids to control impulses and manage their behaviour, which depends on healthy, consistent sleep

It's time to get the kids back into the school routine. But after months of late nights and late rises, parents across the UAE often find it hard to re-establish a good sleep routine, but with good preparation, it can be easy.
Like most children during the long summer break, play and relaxation have taken a front seat, with rules and regularity a distant memory.
However, Dr Sherif Fayed, pulmonologist and sleep specialist at Al Zahra Hospital Dubai, told Khaleej Times a change in your child's routine is necessary to get the most out of the upcoming school day.
"Sleep is essential for a person's health and well-being. It is so important to adjust your child's sleeping pattern gradually a couple of weeks ahead of the start of school, so as their biological clock adjusts gradually."
To thrive academically, he said kids need to have energy, the ability to focus, concentrate, retain information, and be creative problem solvers.
"Success at school also requires kids to control impulses and manage emotions and behaviour to keep on track. All of these skills depend heavily on healthy, consistent sleep."
And when it comes to the right amount of sleep, this varies for different age groups. The normal person should sleep 8-13 hours/day, with the sleep hours decreasing gradually from preschool children up to teenagers.
"Night, regular and routine sleep is the healthy sleep. Children can have a nap but it has to be regular as well. Finally, you are the role model for your kids; so start with yourself and then they will follow."
For mother-of-two Iram Rizvi, the summer vacation has meant her children have been sleeping a little later than usual, doing things which they don't usually get to do on school days.
"Sometimes they'll watch a movie after dinner or have an extra game on the XBox. But now that the vacation is coming to a close, they will be sleeping earlier."
At the moment, she said they sleep at around 10pm. But gradually over the coming week Rizvi will be moving the bedtime by 15 mins earlier, to establish an easy adjustment period.
"I want them to be ready to go to bed by 8-8.30pm by the time school starts. Going to bed early and waking up early is important and this will help set the right cycle in motion."
Although many parents may agree that getting everything ready for the new school session can be stressful, Rizvi said it's vital that parents don't communicate that stress to their children.
"Children observe their parents' words, actions and expressions, more than we can ever imagine so we must ensure that the message we are conveying to them about the onset of a new year is an optimistic one.
School parent Deepa said getting children back into the school sleep routine is the toughest challenge for parents.
"This is the biggest problem of getting children back on track for school as they don't like to go to bed early. As a parent, I try to make it a point to change the sleeping time by reading a story to mine."
Speaking openly to her children, and explaining the importance of 'early to bed, early to rise' is also essential she said.
kelly@khaleejtimes.com