Sleep is important to your kids’ development, whether it’s during the school year or the sweet months of summer. How much sleep do kids need and how can you help create a sleep-friendly environment?
According to the National Sleep Foundation, kids need different amounts of sleep at different ages:
- 1-2 year olds; 11-14 hours (including naps)
- 3-5 year olds; 10-13 hours (including naps)
- 6-13 year olds; 9-11 hours
- 14-17 year olds; 8-10 hours
Sleep needs vary among individual children, so an hour more or less would still be acceptable. Sleep is as important as nutrition and physical activity for a child's development. Adequate sleep improves and positively maintains several areas of children’s health and lifestyle including:
- Attention span
- Learning capacity
- Emotional regulation skills
- Physical and mental health
How to Establish Bedtime Routines and Healthy Sleep Habits
People who get enough sleep, but who have trouble falling asleep, wake frequently, or never achieve deep sleep will feel the effects. Kids are no different. Kids who sleep poorly may have behavior issues and trouble focusing, or lack energy.
- Establish a predictable bedtime routine: bath or shower, snack, teeth brushing, reading or talking about the day. Try to keep it to 30 minutes, no more.
- Find out what helps your child sleep: temperature, soft music, white noise from a fan, calming scents.
- Minimize late snacks. Heavy foods and high energy drinks or caffeine can make sleep harder.
- Turn off all screens an hour before bedtime. This includes parents! The blue light and dancing pixels coming from screens can actually rev up the brain instead of relaxing it for sleep.
- Minimize blue light in the bedroom. Some evidence shows blue light decreases melatonin, the naturally occurring “sleep hormone” that tells our bodies when it’s time to relax and sleep. Consider replacing white night light bulbs with red bulbs.
- Remove devices from the bedroom. This includes televisions, computers, tablets, phones or gaming devices.
- Be consistent. Weekends or holidays should not be a break from healthy sleeping habits. It can be fun to stay up slightly later when you can wake up slightly later, but make sure kids always get adequate sleep.
Set a Healthy Example
As our technology has changed our lifestyles, our sleep schedules have also been affected. This means establishing bedtimes becomes more important. Your children will follow your example. If you’re up late, then they might model that behavior and not value the importance of sleep.
Read More About Sleep Hygiene
Sleep is an important component for both mental and physical health. For ongoing issues, talk with your primary provider about additional options.
Written by Avera Family Life Educators
