School is finally out for many kids across the U.S. and the sun is up in the sky later and later. But doctors say that shouldn’t mean there’s no bedtime.
Sleep is incredibly important for developing brains and bodies, and federal guidance says children aged 12 and below need 9-12 hours a night.
Getting enough sleep also protects from the risk of developing chronic disease, suffering from mental illness and being injured.
That’s why it’s crucial for kids participating in sports and other activities to have a bedtime even during the break, Cleveland Clinic sleep specialist Dr. Brian Chen said Friday.
This way, parents will know their kids are getting the sleep they need.
“Kids at different stages of their life may go to bed and wake up naturally at different times. Younger kids generally wake up earlier. Older kids, teenagers, generally sleep in later. We all know that,” he said. “But do they need a schedule? That really depends on what they have going on in the summertime.”
Bedtimes help to regulate our body’s internal clock, also known as its circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm affects body temperature, hormones and the sleep-wake cycle.
Children with late and irregular bedtimes are more likely to have behavioral issues than others with regular bedtimes, a 2013 survey of 10,000 U.K. children showed.
That’s been supported by recent research, as well, showing the more bedtimes vary, the worse child behavior became.
“If you change their bedtimes, say, 7 o’clock one night, 9 o’clock, the next, 8 o’clock the next, 10 o’clock the next, if we do too much of that switching, we end up inducing this kind of jet-lag effect, which makes it really, really difficult to regulate behavior,” Yvonne Kelly, a professor at University College, London, and an author of the 2013 research, told NPR.
There may be a little more wiggle room with less active kids. But beware!
Shifting too far from the school-year schedule can make it harder to get kids back on track.
“We generally recommend shifting one hour, no faster than one hour earlier per week,” said Chen.
If you do go a little off kilter, he recommends a gradually shift.
“Little by little, maybe just shifting up by like 10 minutes a day and just keep it going for every single day for a month and you’ll be perfectly fine,” he said.
Still, many U.S. kids just don’t get enough sleep, period.
Federal data shows children in the hot southern states are disproportionately impacted.
Heat disrupts sleep by preventing the body from cooling down – a key step to falling asleep – and reducing time spent in restorative deep and REM sleep, according to the University of Southern California’s Keck Medicine.
