Back-to-School Sleep Tips for Kids: Help Your Child Get Good Sleep

By Dr. Sarah Haas 🟡 🔴 🟢 🔵. 🟣

Back-to-school season gives parents a fresh start to set new routines and boundaries. One of the most important areas to focus on is sleep—especially if your child’s sleep habits affect your own. (Access our free downloadable PDF sleep hygiene checklist at the bottom of the page ⬇️)

Why Sleep Matters 🟡 🔴 🟢 🔵. 🟣

We all know sleep is important, but it’s easy to treat it like it’s optional. In reality, good sleep supports emotional regulation, clear thinking, and a strong immune system.

Research shows that deep sleep helps reorganize brain connections, acting as a natural anxiety reducer when it happens regularly (Simon et al., 2019). Up to 85% of children with diagnosed anxiety also have significant sleep problems (Alfano et al., 2010), and 50–73% of children with ADHD experience clinically impaired sleep (Owens, 2005; Sung et al., 2008). For kids with ADHD or anxiety, improving sleep hygiene can make a major difference in daily functioning.

Common Sleep Struggles in Kids and Teens 🟡 🔴 🟢 🔵. 🟣

Many families face the same bedtime challenges:

• Inconsistent bedtime routines

• Bedtime battles (“just one more show,” “I need a drink”)

• Late summer bedtimes that clash with early school mornings

• Difficulty falling asleep alone

• Anxiety or racing thoughts about school keeping kids awake

If these sound familiar, you’re not alone—many parents notice these problems as the school year starts.

How to Tell if Your Child is Getting Enough Sleep 🟡 🔴 🟢 🔵. 🟣

Understanding both -- sleep recommendations from experts and behavioral signs possibly indicative of poor sleep -- can help guide parents to a better understanding if their child is getting enough sleep.

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ Sleep recommendations. Across agencies, recommendations for how much sleep is enough sleep are as follows:

1. Preschoolers (3 to 5 years old) - 11 to 13 hours of sleep

2. School Age Children (6 to 12 years old) - 10 to 11 hours of sleep

3. Adolescents (13 to 18 years old) - 9 to 9.5 hours of sleep

4. Adults (19+ years old) - 7 or more hours of sleep

(The American Academy of Sleep Medicine; Mindell & Owens, 2003; National Sleep Foundation)

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ Behavioral Signs of Too Little Sleep. Being aware of signs or cues can allow parents to intervene earlier if your child is experiencing sleep difficulties:

1. What is your child's mood like most mornings? If your child expresses anger or irritability, it's possible this is a sign that your child isn't getting enough sleep at night.

   
   

2. How much sleep does your child get on the weekends?  If your child sleeps for more hours on the weekends than the weekdays, this may indicate that your child needs more sleep during the weekdays! Regardless of what time your child goes to bed at night, if they are getting more sleep when they allow their bodies to wake up whenever it's ready, this may be a sign that your child needs more sleep during weekdays to function at their best.

   
   

3. Do you ever feel like your child gets a "second wind"? Some times children's activity levels ramp up significantly before bedtime. This ramp up could indicate that the child is over-tired, and therefore, getting them to bed sooner may actually be more beneficial.

   
   

4. How long does it take your child to fall asleep, once they go to bed? When I worked in a sleep clinic, appropriate sleep onset was indicated when it took a child or teen 20 minutes or less to fall asleep after getting in bed. If your child takes more than 20 minutes to fall asleep, it's possible that their body doesn't associate their bed with sleeping. If their bed is used for activating activities (scrolling on a phone, talking to friends, reading).

   
   

If you’re seeing several of these signs, it may be time to reset routines.

How to Encourage Independent Sleep & Easier Mornings 🟡 🔴 🟢 🔵. 🟣

Better sleep habits start long before bedtime. Here’s how to set your child up for success—especially during the back-to-school transition.

⛅ Morning. Allowing children to wake up by themselves, using their body's natural cueing method, can allow children to be in a good mood in the morning. It can also allow children to feel a sense of independence! One recommendation is to use a sunrise alarm clock, like the Hatch (found here). This type of alarm clock uses a natural way - the increasing light of the sun - to wake up.

☀️ Daytime. First, encouraging children and teens to engage in enough physical activity that allows them to naturally become tired at bedtime can be helpful. This may mean that children with ADHD require even more physical activity during the day, given their higher energy levels. Second, quitting caffeine after 12 noon can be essential to appropriate sleep at night. This recommendation comes from the fact that half of your caffeine intake is still in your system 6 hours later (see more here)! Even if your child isn't drinking coffee, keep in mind that even chocolate contains caffeine! Third, ensuring that children are not taking naps during the day so they can consolidate their sleep for nighttime can help them fall asleep more quickly at bedtime. Fourth, making sure that your child is not in their bed during the day can help eliminate confusion for your mind-body connection that bed is a "sleep only" zone!

🌥️ After Dinner. Sometimes after dinner is a time for high energy activities. However, the more you can encourage calming activities after dinnertime, the more likely children are to cue their bodies for the winding down period that may be helpful for them to fall asleep more quickly. You may find that you have more success implementing this if you structure their time between after dinner and bed; you could ask them to play card or board games with you, do arts and crafts, or have them take a warm shower after dinner (if this is a calming activity to your child). You could also do an act of meditation or Progressive Muscle Relaxation (or, PMR - like this one), which double as great activities for children with anxiety. Of course, everyone talks about decreasing screen time 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime to facilitate helping your body relax before bed - that's not a bad recommendation, too! You may want to stay away from conversations about emotional topics or things they didn't do well during this time - if your child tends to perseverate on negative thoughts while in bed, this may set them up to do just that, and delay their ability to fall asleep.

☀︎ Bedtime. Of course, there are multiple factors that happen at bedtime that can facilitate a smooth transition to bed. First, ensuring that bedtime is happening when your child is tired can be really impactful on their sleep behavior. Second, having the same routine every night, about 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime, can help cue your body that it needs to start gettomg ready to sleep soon! If you drive to work, especially if you work at the same time each day, you may notice that you start thinking about your work day once you get into the car. Consistent routines can also create predictability (and reduce anxiety), and encourage compliance (for children with ADHD), This is the same type of cueing process that our bodies go through to fall asleep more quickly. Third, using some type of calming activity to focus your child's attention on may be beneficial for them to be able to circumvent any negative or distorted thought loops that may keep them from falling asleep. Here's one example of a sleep story on YouTube that kids like! You may want to ensure that your child can just hear the sound and not see the screen.

🌗 After Bedtime. Some kids don't give their body much of a chance to fall asleep, and other children wait too long while in bed to fall asleep! Following the recommendation of healthy sleep onset taking 15-20 minutes and the idea that we are more likely to fall asleep more quickly if our body knows that bed is just for sleeping, then having a system where your child can get out of bed to engage in a calming activity if they aren't asleep within 15-20 minutes can be helpful! The idea is for kids and teens to be able to sit somewhere with low light and comfortable in their room, do something relaxing/calming, then go back into bed once they feel tired. Working on sleep onset can be difficult in the beginning, but can be really helpful once the child's bed cues their body for sleep.

Final Thoughts 🟡 🔴 🟢 🔵. 🟣

Back-to-school season is the perfect time to reset sleep habits. By building consistent routines, reducing stimulation before bed, and encouraging independence, you help your child get the rest they need for a better mood, improved focus, and a stronger start to the school year.

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ If this feels overwhelming to you, you're not alone. Therapy services can be helpful, especially if your therapist understands sleep hygiene and behavioral strategies. The therapists at the Center for Active Minds are uniquely positioned to help parents navigate sleep difficulties in children with Anxiety and/or ADHD. Book your consult with us through here to see if we may be a good fit for your needs.

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ If you're concerned about your child having a sleep-related disorder, you may want to talk to your pediatrician to see if a referral to a sleep specialist is warranted.

Access our free downloadable PDF sleep hygiene checklist here ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

CFAM_Sleep_Hygiene_Checklist.pdf

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