Sleepy school children

My teenage sons are in for a rude awakening on the first day of school: they are definitely going to be sleep deprived. When they were younger – and those days are long gone - I was able to get them into a back-to-school bedtime routine about a week before classes began. With a little preparation, you may be able to do the same thing with your children. We spoke with sleep specialist Dr. David Schulman of the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, about the best ways to get children ready to meet new teachers and see old classmates with a spring in their step - not sleep in their eyes.

1) Night, Night. School-age children need different amounts of sleep depending on age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, kids from kindergarten to about the 7th grade need from nine to 11 hours of sleep; most adolescents can get by on 8.5 to 9.5 hours per night.

2) Early lights out.  Schulman suggests getting your children back into their regular bedtime routine no later than one week before school. He says to allow no fewer than two to three days for each hour you're going to shift the schedule. If your 8-year-old’s bedtime has somehow climbed to 10 p.m. and you know 8 p.m. is the ideal time for him, get him settled in at 9 p.m. and then, a few days later, shift it to 8 p.m. There may be lots of grumbling, especially if he has older siblings, but the results will be worth the effort in the long run.

3) Low tech bedroom.  Winding down before bedtime can often help kids get ready for sleep. This means keeping distractions to a minimum. Keep the radio, TV and video games out of the bedroom, or at least turned off long before it's time to turn in.

And a bit of advice for first-time parents: If you have a little one just beginning kindergarten, remember that she is going to be extra tired those first few weeks of school. And for the parents of older teens, try to resist the urge to say ‘I told you so’ as your kids stumble, sleepy eyed, to the breakfast table on their first day of school.

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