While babies and toddlers are notoriously not the best sleepers, more and more school-aged children are struggling to get the recommended amount of sleep they need to feel well rested.
Well-rested children perform better academically and athletically and are more in control of their emotions. If you’re struggling with your young school-aged child’s sleep, then this post is for you!!
One of the best ways to help school-aged children with sleep is to hold a family meeting. Make sleep a family project.
Give your children ownership in their sleep plan. Giving your children ownership in their sleep can help alleviate anxieties and also any fear of punitive actions.
During your family meeting, you will create sleep “rules.” These rules will be created by each of you, but you can help guide your children in the right direction.
Need a little guidance? Check out my top tips for a successful family meeting!
- Discuss the importance of sleep. Let your children know that when the entire family doesn’t get sleep, the entire family suffers. Be sure not to point fingers. Pointing fingers and assigning blame can lead to more anxieties. Explain to your children how much sleep they need based on their ages.
- Create your family’s sleep rules. Need some examples? Here you go!
- Establish bedtime based on sleep needs. Learn how to calculate your child’s ideal bedtime here!
- No electronics in the bedroom and no TV/electronics within 30 minutes of bedtime.
- Follow a bedtime routine without protest. Eliminate the bedtime fights!
- Stay in bed until morning without calling for mom or dad. (It can be helpful to give your child a shirt or article of clothing that smells like you so if they do wake in the night, they have a comfort object that smells like you!)
- Complete all tasks on their responsibility chart. Get stickers to put on their charts for when they complete their tasks and come up with rewards that are truly motivating to them. They may all have different rewards. This could include a special outing, one-on-one time with mom/dad, a special TV show or movie, a special toy, an extra 30-minutes of screentime, etc.
- Discuss your children’s bedroom. What would make them more comfortable in their room(s)? Is there a special nightlight or stuffed animal they would like? Perhaps some new pillows or new sheets?
- Everyone sign the contract. Have everyone in the family sign the contract to follow the sleep rules.
Consistency is critical to your child’s success. It can be hard to enforce the rules when we are at the end of a long day, but consistency will be your best friend through the process.
