We work a lot with babies, toddler and pre-schoolers to help families achieve better sleep. However, we also work with school aged children up to 10 years old. Accepting that a school age child ‘just doesn’t sleep’ is not something you have to accept. Sleep is essential for this age group, as they face many demands during the week—academically, socially, and physically. Helping children to get enough sleep can significantly impact their behaviour and level of achievement.
In a 2017, Panorama documented a study, whereby school aged children slept 1 hour more per night for a week. The results were really significant. The children’s problem solving ability increased by 66%, results of a memory test showed an increase of 57%, whilst attention and focus increased by 44%.
When it comes to helping your older child with their sleep, here are our top tips:
- Know how much sleep your child should be having:
- 3 – 5-year-olds need an average of 10-13 hours sleep per 24 hours
- 6–10-year-olds need 9-11 hours.
It’s a good idea to work backwards from the time they need to wake up in the morning. For example, if your 7-year-old needs approximately 10.5 hours of sleep per night and need to get up for school at 7am, they should be in bed ready to sleep by 8.30pm. Some 7-year-olds will need more than 10.5 hours, some slightly less, each child is different.
- Make sure you have a consistent bedtime routine: we always recommend implementing a bedtime routine, whatever age child we are working with. For school aged children this could involve some quiet time for 20 minutes or so, perhaps drawing, colouring, playing cards, craft etc. Hand eye co-ordination is really good for relaxing the brain at this time of day.
Children can unwind and relax with a bath or shower so this great to include in their bedtime routine. Once they are ready for bed, reading a story with them or doing some relaxation exercises in bed is a good way to end the routine. This whole process shouldn’t last more than 1 hour (the time from getting in the bath to bed being no longer than 30 minutes).
- The room that your child sleeps in should be designed for sleep and not play. Create a good sleeping environment can be really beneficial.
- The bedroom should be as dark as possible, in order to help the production of melatonin (the ‘sleepy hormone’).
- Try to ensure that there’s not too much distraction in the bedroom, it should be a calm and relaxing place for your child to be during the night.
- Be mindful of the temperature, as being too hot/cold can impact the quality of sleep.
- Turn off screens for at least one hour, ideally 2, before bed time can help your child relax and get ready for bed. Screens are very stimulating and will not aid the process of preparing for bed.
- Time outside and physical activity each day is very important. ‘Sunlight’ helps hormones to remind the body it is awake time and fresh air and exercise always aid sleep.
- Avoid caffeine and sugary food before bedtime: caffeine and sugar are stimulants, and therefore should be avoided too close to bedtime so that hot chocolate needs to move to another part of the day.
- Be on the lookout for signs of sleep disorders: children should, on the whole, wake naturally without requiring too much parental encouragement. If after 10 hours sleep they aren’t generally able to wake naturally, or still appear very tired during the day, there may be an underlying sleep disorder which may need to be considered.
If your child is experiencing sleep difficulties, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We love working with school aged children and involve them as much as possible to help them achieve good quality sleep.
If you’re experiencing any problems with your little ones sleep, please do get in touch for a free 15 minute chat – We would love to help!
