AMARILLO, TX -- As the final days of summer are approaching, the school year is just about to take off.
Many parents have been trying to prepare their children as much as possible. Starting at the source, a healthy sleeping schedule is what children need to have a fulfilling day.
Mother of five, Missy McCullough said, "I am trying so hard to get them on a schedule and make sure that they're not exhausted when school starts. So we've just been going to bed a little earlier, more like on time and getting them up and making sure that they can get their activities done before we would have to be going to school."
E veryone needs plenty of rest to function properly throughout the day but children and young adults need at least a couple more hours a day.
Nurse Deanah Alexander mentioned that younger children need anywhere from ten to fourteen hours of sleep a day. Alexander also said, “Adolescents all the way to middle age people are going to bed with technology which includes cell phones, laptops all those technical devices. They're going to be with those and the study has shown that if that's used within an hour, even texting, are going to sleep, it greatly reduces the amount of refreshed sleep a person has." Everything from what one may eat to what they do can tremendously affect their rest.
Without adequate sleep, judgment, mood and the ability to learn eventually become weaker. By not getting sufficient rest some children may have to deal with the consequences in and out of the classroom.
Some children struggle with falling asleep and Nurse Deanah has some advice. "You can teach children to do some relaxation to kind of clear their minds, think happy thoughts, not to be agonizing or thinking over and over about a test or homework or something like that. Those things that can be learned early on even school age children can learn to soothe themselves and that's a skill they can take with them the rest of their lives."
If children are showing several signs of distraction or difficulty sleeping, seeing a sleep specialist may help. You can also visit the National Sleep Foundation’s website for more information. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/
