Video: Sleeping Tips to Prepare Kids for New School Schedule

STARKVILLE, MISS. (WCBI) — Getting little tikes and teenagers to bed on time is a chore in itself, but now that the school year is starting, breaking the summer sleeping-late patterns is challenging.

“They want to stay up and play video games, they want to watch TV, they want to have fun with their friends and hang out and I have to cut some things off,” Jessica Hill, parent, said.

When her daughter, Brooklyn Brooks, gets bored, all she wants to do is play with her iPhone.

Hill is the mother of three, and recognizes that the iPhone is one enemy when it comes to getting her children to sleep, late-night snacking is another.

“One thing I’ve been working on is eating habits, like not eating certain sweets after a certain time. Another thing is going to bed a little earlier,” Jessica said.

Sleep Specialist Harry Holiday said Jessica is on the right track. Children getting enough sleep is vital to their behavior development.

“A 5- or 6-year-old needs about ten or eleven hours of sleep, a ten or eleven year old needs nine or ten hours of sleep. Even a 16- to 18-year-old needs about, at least eight hours at night,” Holiday said.

Only about 60 percent of kids in the US get enough sleep at night because of interruption to the sleep cycle. In order to get your little ones back on track for the school year, Holiday said you have to have a systematic approach.

“Start trying to ease back bedtime slowly because I know, like my children, they’ve been staying up later during the summer. Try to keep your sleep onset and the wake-up time the same everyday, and that’s hard to do when kids go back to school.”, he says.

Some good winding-down activities are reading to your children or serving a them a warm glass of milk.