Back to school: Sleep expert gives tips on preparing kids for early wake ups
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) — The back-to-school countdown is on and with that comes the bedtime struggle. But Fort Worth-based sleep expert Dr. Brandy Roane says there are things you can be doing right now to make the transition a little easier.
Brooke Katz: When should parents start prepping their kids to get ready for those good sleep habits?
Dr. Brandy Roane: Now... The reason I say that is it actually works better for the kids and the parents if they start now. It's hard because it's still summer and we're still wanting to do these things. However, to shift somebody's sleep schedule, even a kid's sleep schedule, it works best if it's done in increments... We can typically accommodate about a 15-minute shift in our circadian clock, meaning a 15-minute shift in our wake time every three days. So since we're so close to school, if that schedule is pretty far off, starting to shift every three days by 15 minutes gives not only the kiddo a chance to adjust to the new schedule, but also parents to adjust to the new schedule.
Katz: So what sorts of things can you be doing at bedtime to help increase the likelihood that you'll fall asleep and sleep better?
Dr. Roane: A lot of it is how you prepare yourself—things you do during the days, so it even starts before bedtime. Some of that is light exposure for sure, because that impacts our melatonin. However, the other thing is stimulation, so some of the things that can help for parents, as well as for kids, is setting an alarm that says, "Hey, it's an hour before our intended bedtime, we're going to start doing some low key activities."
Katz: When we're talking about the different age groups, how much sleep do kids need it at night?
Dr. Roane: Some quick guide posts are 12 hours at five, 10 hours at 10, nine and a half hours as teens and about eight and a half hours as adults.
Katz: When it comes to those wind down routines, what are some of the should and shouldn't dos before bed?
Dr. Roane: Devices are definitely a shouldn't do. And a lot of what we focus on or what has previously been focused on is actually the light source of it and the light is a factor but it's actually stimulation that can keep us awake even longer than a light source. So things that can work in that instance are more boring books like textbooks, like I love learning, I love books, but textbooks—may I be honest, even as an instructor—textbooks are not always entertaining. Coloring... some will do crossword puzzles because they can put them down... some will count cards.
Katz: How much does sleep play a role in a kid's academic success and overall success?
Dr. Roane: Huge. So we learn that sleep is important not only for mood and cognition attention concentration during the day, but sleep is also important in terms of our memory consolidation and transfers. So when we're in deep sleep, we transfer information we have gathered in our short-term memory to our long-term memory. When we're in REM sleep, we then consolidate those memories that help us with storage and retrieval later on. So part of what promotes academic success is good sleep, because we have transferred what we've learned... cleared out the clutter... we're prepared to learn again the next day, we also can retrieve it because we've stored it in long-term.