LAWRENCE, Kan. – As school starts back up in a way that’s anything but normal and consistently changing, how do you make sure your kids are getting the proper amount of sleep?
The first step is to find out how many hours of sleep your kid actually needs a night, according to Dr. Waco Goodnight with Panda Pediatrics in Lawrence.
This can be done by having them go to sleep on a weekend at whatever time they typically do, and counting how many hours it is until they wake up.
To be sure they are actually going to sleep, Dr. Goodnight recommends keeping their electronics out of their bedroom at night.
“If your kid is used to going to bed at midnight and having a device in the room, and then you have them get up at six in the morning for school, that kid’s definitely going to be grumpy and it’s going to be hard to wake up,” Goodnight said. “Even more importantly they’re prone to poor learning, they can’t focus, they’re going to have behavior problems. It’s going to be harder for you to deal with them in a virtual setting or at school.”
From there, make sure your kids are getting however much sleep they need every night, even on the weekend, Goodnight said.
A good way to tell if your kids are getting an adequate amount of sleep is if they are waking up on their own, Goodnight said.