How to get kids to go to bed again and get up early for school

It’s a month of melancholy. The last week of February is the Sunday of the year and March is Monday. With that, for those with the divine blessing of having offspring, a thousand things come out: school fees, uniforms, school shoes, and the difficult task of returning to the routine of going to bed and wake up early.

Taking care of the rest and food cycles of the whole family, but especially the girls and boys at home, is essential to keep the domestic system running as smoothly as possible.

In an article on the importance of adolescent sleep, psychologist Karla Donoso explains the fundamentals of good sleep: “The ability to reason, to calculate, to pay attention, to concentrate and even to manage one’s emotions; it’s all totally related to good sleep,” he said.

Pablo Brockmann, pediatrician and director of the UC Christus Health Network Sleep Center, explained to us that hormonal and growth processes largely occur during sleep.

But all of this could get out of whack if overnight, after two months of staying up late and getting up around noon, children started to be woken up at half past six in the morning, when it was still dark and their bodies weren’t only think of sleeping four more hours.

Just as football teams do a pre-season before starting a new championship, a family must also go through a period of schedule adjustment before getting back to routine with everything.

How to make this end of vacation as peaceful as possible? What mistakes should be avoided during the start of the school year? We consulted a psychologist, a pediatrician, a nutritionist and a physical education teacher and influencers to form a multidisciplinary body of advice.

The old adage speaks of leading by example: in this sentence, you can sum up almost all the dilemmas of parenting and parenting. Including this one: that of routine and discipline. This is what Natalia Perez Astudillo, psychotherapist and coach of psy-alive : The biggest mistake parents make, he says, is not managing their own return to routine well.

“The vast majority experience it badly, without programming, and sometimes as stressed as before going on vacation. This is transmitted directly to the children, who reflect and act on our way of feeling. So if your son or daughter is not coping well with the start of the school year, ask yourself if you are doing it well.

Cristina Caamaño, pediatrician from dreams , identifies as a very common problem that parents want their children to adapt to the school routine overnight, without notice. “It is very important to explain and anticipate this change,” he explains. “Adults tend to make decisions without involving them, and this is no exception.”

A person in their 30s or 40s already knows how to handle these sudden changes in routine, and the experience has surely given them the tools to endure a sleepy morning. but as it says Andrea Aninat physical education teacher and influencers, “getting back into the routine takes a lot of effort, patience and time. For this reason, it is essential to designate a time to settle in, hopefully a few days before the first day of class.

An approach in which the whole family should participate, since it works much better “when we live together”, adds Aninat.

The key, as Natalia Pérez points out, is for adults to ensure that children’s adaptation is “gradual and caring”. In other words, this means that it must be planned a few days in advance. Because? Children’s brains, after more than two months of vacation, may have ceased to be exposed to daily stress. On the contrary, what he experienced most was relaxation, fun and tranquility. Suddenly interrupting this celestial brain state with alarms, waking up in the dark and rushing around isn’t the best idea.

If we anticipate, and on the previous days we get up —and go to bed— each time a little earlier, when the big day arrives, not only will it be easier but also the boys and girls will be less stressed and more rested.

In any case, Pérez always suggests paying attention to possible changes in the behavior of our children. “It is essential to maintain a fluid communication regarding what they are experiencing and feeling. The most important thing is up to us and how we handle our own return to routine. Are we upset, stressed, complicated, or are we taking it positively? he says.

This is particularly relevant, he points out, in the case of adolescents, who on the one hand are subject to more pressure and also have greater autonomy regarding the use of screens, which directly affects their hours of sleep. and rest.

A good coping strategy, according to Caamaño, is to adjust meal times. “It’s good that the children don’t have dinner so late, so they can go to bed earlier,” she says. “Food influences sleep, how we think, how we perform and how we feel,” he explains.

“A well-balanced and well-balanced diet brings benefits in all areas of life,” says María Jesús Zepeda, Examedi nutritionist. “Included in sleep and rest. Why? Several processes occur during sleep: digestion slows down, muscles rest and regenerate, the body begins to store and save energy, and memory organizes itself and get ready, because she will receive new information the day after class.

“During the holidays, in general, you eat more bric-a-brac and more messy,” adds Caamaño, something that does not benefit much from rest or school routines. “It is important to reorganize and return to a diet based on fruits, vegetables, legumes and water, so that they fall asleep better and have more energy.”

Zepeda advises reducing ultra-processed foods, rich in simple sugars and colorings, such as cola drinks: being stimulating, they can increase the feeling of anxiety. “It’s always important to remember that we go to school to study, play and have fun, but not to eat. It is not necessary to bring a snack at each recess: with a few servings of fruit and water it is more than enough, ”he assures.

Natalia Pérez explains in list form a series of essential recommendations:

• Begin to gradually adjust your own schedules, maintaining an activity that generates entertainment or relaxation.
• A few days before the first day of school, wake your children up earlier. You can schedule breakfast or a fun activity in the morning to make getting up easier.
• Gradually limit screen consumption: this will make it easier to integrate new activities into these free times. The goal is to establish a routine early on, incorporating study times little by little and without pressure.
• Add group or outdoor activities. It will help boys and girls expend more energy, regulate their emotions better and fall asleep more easily at night.
• Try not to wake them up too quickly or stress them too much on the way to school. Ditto at bedtime: they don’t have to go to sleep scolded or sad. If you are anxious, they will be too.

Andrea Aninat adds three more tips:

• The goal is that on the first day of school, it is not difficult to wake them up, but rather that they have enough energy to have a good day. This is why it is essential that they get used to their routine a little earlier, and that the first day of school only generates excitement and joy, and is not stressful and traumatic.
• At bedtime, make sure the temperature is neither too high nor too low. I also use a night light and white noise to help my kids fall asleep.
• A good idea for dealing with stress and anxiety is to look for motivations to return to school, such as reconnecting with classmates and/or resuming extracurricular activities that he enjoyed.