Sleep Regularity

Please note that this section contains my personal notes from my readings on this topic.

———————————————————————————————————

The best time for your child to fall asleep at night is when she is just starting to become drowsy, before she becomes overtired…

– Dr. Marc Weissbluth, M.D. of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (1987), page 49

In one study, regularity of the bedtime schedule was assessed in 3,119 high school students.  They discovered that a more irregular sleep schedule was associated with more daytime sleepiness.  These teenagers had lower grades, more injuries associated with alcohol or drugs, and more days missed from school.  Going to bed around 11:00 PM compared to sometimes 10:00 PM or midnight might produce the same amount of sleep, but the more regular schedule is probably better…

– Dr. Marc Weissbluth, M.D. of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (1987), page 49

A bedtime that never varies, for example, always putting your preschool child to sleep at exactly 7:00 PM does not take into account the biologic variability, from day to day, of activity levels or lengths of naps.  So it makes sense to vary the bedtime by thirty to sixty minutes based on how your child looks and behaves during the late afternoon.  On the other hand, for older children who are not napping, having bedtimes that are hours earlier or later from day to day has been shown to be unhealthy.

– Dr. Marc Weissbluth, M.D. of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (1987), pages 49 – 50