Transitioning to a School-Year Sleep Cycle

Almost every student I work with has trouble with their sleep schedule during the school year. Maybe a few can go to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up in the morning with the alarm, but those are very rare creatures! Most are struggling with not only getting up at the impossibly early hours of 5-6 am but also falling asleep at the time they need to get their full 8-9 hours.

Summer then comes along and wrecks any kind of schedule they did have. Kids stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep until noon (or later!), then just laze about and take all the naps they want! This can be REALLY hard on students when they return the first week. The best thing to start doing now is to wean them off the summer schedule and work them back into the school-year schedule.

My son and I have found a strategy that helps. About one week before school, he pulls bedtime back to 11 or 12 at night with an alarm set for 8-9 am. Then a few more days later, he goes to bed around 10 pm and starts setting the alarm for 7-8 am. That way, on the first day of school, it's not so much of a shock when the alarm goes off at 6 am. And yes, parents, if you're like me, we too need to adjust to the crack-of-dawn wake-up!

Now, getting my son up earlier in the morning this last week before school isn’t an easy feat. He ignores the alarm and my nagging for a bit but will eventually get up when breakfast is ready. If your teen also fails to heed the alarm and your pleas, but food isn't their motivator, find some other dangling carrot- plan a day trip doing the things they love or coordinate an early day with friends. Worst case, you COULD schedule important (early) doctor visits that last week... whatever helps them start getting back up at a reasonable hour!

I also suggest making a rule for no electronics 30-60 minutes before bed. I have had students see a lot of success with this (even though they resisted at first!). It helps them fall asleep when all they have to do is read, write in a journal, or stare at the wall. Meditation apps are the one exception to this rule since they don't require you to look at the phone. There are great free meditations on the app Insight Timer that focus on sleep. Turning off lights and allowing our brains time away from electronics to relax about an hour before bed really seems to help.

Good luck making the shift back to the school year! And if you have some other tips that have worked with your children, I would LOVE to hear them so I can pass them on to other parents and students. It's one of the biggest struggles for teens, so we could use all the help we can get!