Shifting kids back to schooltime sleep schedule

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

My three kids have been slacking off all summer -- on their regular bedtime that is. My 11-year-old’s bedtime shifted from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. over the past two months, while my 13-year-old heads to bed well after 10:30, instead of his usual 9 p.m. bedtime. And I don’t even know when my 15-year-old powers down her laptop since it’s well after I’m asleep.

Like many parents, I’m wondering what I should do to get my kids back to their earlier schedules during the days before the school year starts. Dr. Dennis Rosen, associate medical director of the center for pediatric sleep disorders at Children’s Hospital Boston, gave me some helpful advice.

First off, he told me, I have to progressively march back their wake-up time rather than howling at them to go to bed earlier. “Give it at least a day for every hour that their bedtime is off,” Rosen advised. “If they’ve been waking up at 9 a.m. on a regular basis and they need to wake up at 6 a.m. for school, you’ll need three days to get them back on track,” waking them an hour earlier each morning for three consecutive days.

Kids will be less cranky if you shift them even more gently, by 15- to 30-minute increments each day -- if you have the time before the school year starts. “Consistency is really important,” said Rosen. “Don’t want to fall into the trap of letting teens go to bed late and sleep in on the weekends” either or after the school year starts.

One day of sleeping in here and there won’t mess up sleep habits too much, but two or three days in a row can have a similar effect of traveling time zones leaving kids feeling jet-lagged at the beginning of the school week.

In setting an earlier wake-up time, parents need to make sure their kids are really awake -- not lying in bed in a half-groggy state or dozing in front of the TV in a darkened den. “They need bright light exposure in the morning to give their brains a wake up cue,” said Rosen. Morning light passes through the eyes and shuts down the brain’s production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin.

That means I might need to drag myself out of bed earlier as well to get my kids out for a walk or bike ride.

On the flip side, kids should be getting less light exposure closer to bedtime to help turn on the melatonin and make them feel drowsier earlier at night. That means limiting TV and computer time within two hours of bedtime and making sure kids avoid reading in bed with a lightbulb brighter than 40 watts.

Any foods they should avoid late in the day? Drinks with caffeine are the biggies, Rosen said. He doesn’t recommend kids drink them within eight to nine hours of bedtime. Coffee, Coke, and energy drinks are some obvious offenders, but check the label of all sodas they drink. Mountain Dew, I found out from a little label reading, has more caffeine that colas. Who knew?

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