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If your preschooler is heading to school for the first time, or getting ready for another school year, there’s one thing Allison hopes you’ll add to your back-to-school checklist: sleep.

Parents often focus on backpacks, school supplies, and lunchboxes, but a well-rested child is more likely to adjust smoothly to new routines, regulate emotions, retain what they’re learning, and enjoy the preschool experience.

In this episode, Allison shares practical strategies to help parents prepare their preschooler for a successful school year. She explains how much sleep preschoolers really need, when to begin shifting bedtime before school starts, why an earlier bedtime can make all the difference, and how sleep impacts learning, behavior, and separation anxiety.

She also discusses naps at preschool, what to expect during those first exhausting weeks of school, and why a “rescue bedtime” can help children adjust to the increased demands of the school day.

Whether your child is starting preschool for the first time or returning after summer break, this episode will help you build a sleep routine that supports a happier, more confident start to the school year.

In this episode, Allison discusses:
— How much sleep preschoolers really need
— Why sleep is one of the best ways to prepare for preschool
— How to shift bedtime before school starts
— Signs your preschooler may need an earlier bedtime
— How sleep supports learning, memory, and emotional regulation
— The connection between sleep and separation anxiety
— Why the first weeks of preschool are often exhausting
— How and when to use a rescue bedtime
— What parents should know about preschool naps
— Tips for children attending half-day preschool programs

Resources mentioned:
Episode 104. What Your Child’s Preschool Teacher Wishes You Knew with Elizabeth Lane
Episode 236. The Rescue Bedtime: What It Is and How to Use It for Overtired Babies and Toddlers
Episode 81. How Much Sleep Does a Toddler or Preschooler Need?

Shopping at Cozy Earth? Use Allison’s code SLEEPCOACH for 20% off and be sure to tell them you heard about them from us!

Chapter Markers:
00:00 Summer recap and why back-to-school sleep matters
02:40 Why sleep should be part of your preschool checklist
04:20 How much sleep does a preschooler need?
07:00 When to start shifting your child’s sleep schedule
09:40 How sleep affects learning and behavior at preschool
13:00 Sleep and separation anxiety at school drop-off
14:30 Why the first weeks of preschool are so exhausting
16:15 Using a rescue bedtime after school
17:00 Preschool naps: What parents should expect
20:00 Half-day preschool schedules and nap timing
21:30 Final tips for a smooth back-to-school transition

Looking for expert guidance on your child’s sleep? Allison offers two free age-specific guides to help you discover how much sleep kids need to thrive—at any age. Get your free copy now: 0-2 Years Old or 3 to 10 years old

From baby sleep to toddler sleep, daycare naps to sleep training—How Long ’Til Bedtime? is the podcast for parents who want practical, guilt-free sleep tips they can actually use.

Hosted by pediatric sleep coach Allison Egidi, each episode delivers real solutions for every stage—from navigating newborn sleep struggles and weaning night feedings to helping your 3-year-old fall asleep independently (and stay asleep!). Whether you’re trying to make sense of daycare sleep patterns, craving your evenings back, or simply need a working mom podcast to keep you grounded, you’re in the right place.

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Scroll down for a full transcript of this episode.

249. Preschool Sleep Schedule: How to Get Ready for Back to School
Allison Egidi: Before we dive in today, I want to give a shout out to all of the parents who are summering hard out there. As I’m recording this, it’s the end of June, and I’ve gone on a girls’ trip, taken my girls to see their two favorite WNBA basketball teams play each other. I’ve gotten the girls to and from daily swim practice and weekly tennis lessons, spent hours and hours at four different swim meets, gotten my girls to and from soccer camp for a week, and I’ve been playing in my weekly USTA tennis matches.

I’ve also continued to feed my kids daily, which frankly might be the most exhausting part of it all. Now I’m starting to pack my kids for sleepaway camp because on July 4th, we’re going to drive from Virginia to Indiana, where my kids will spend a week at camp where I went to camp as a kid. And then my husband and I will spend a week in Chicago working and hanging out with old friends.

I love summer. And it’s a different type of tiring. Every day and week throughout the summer is different. No two weeks are the same. If you can relate, just know that you are not alone. I hope you are having a great summer, which we are, but I also, want to acknowledge that it’s okay for that to include the and. It can be great and exhausting, particularly when you have young kids.

Okay, on to today’s episode. If you have a child who is preparing to go to preschool for the first time or who is heading back for another year of preschool, this episode is for you.

We’re going to talk about how you can transition from this summer mode to getting ready to set your child up for a smooth start to the school year and just an overall great year.

Hey there, Allison here. Welcome back to How Long ‘Til Bedtime. We are nearing the end of July, which means back to school season is right around the corner. And if you have a preschooler, you are probably thinking about a lot of things right now. Do they need a backpack, new shoes, school supplies, maybe a lunchbox? But I want to make sure that sleep is also on your back to school prep list.

Because here’s something I genuinely believe after 10 years of working with lots of families with preschoolers, back to school with a well-rested preschooler is a very different experience than sending your child back to school or to school for the first time in an overtired state with a less than full sleep tank. Well-rested children adapt more easily to new environments and new routines. Not just children, this is adults too. We all adapt easier when we are well-rested.

Well-rested children follow instructions better, they regulate their emotions more effectively, they retain what they learn more easily, and they enjoy school more. In my opinion, sleep is not just a nice to have in those preschool years. It is one of the most powerful tools you have as a parent to set your child up for a successful school year. Today I want to walk you through exactly what that looks like, practically speaking. How much sleep does your preschooler need? How can you get their schedule ready before school starts? What should you expect in those first few weeks? And I want to talk about how sleep connects to some of the biggest challenges parents face with this age group.

So let’s start with the basics. How much sleep does a preschooler need? The honest answer is that the exact amount truly does vary child to child. The right amount of sleep for your preschooler is the amount that allows them to wake naturally in the morning and I should add wake happy, move throughout their day alert and good natured, realizing preschoolers have their moments, but you want to generally feel like they’re happily moving about their day. And they should be able to come home without completely falling apart after school. That said, I do have ranges that can serve as a helpful starting point.

So for children between the ages of two and five, I generally like to see them getting 10 and a half to 12 hours of sleep at night. Now, 10 and a half to 12 is a really wide range. And part of the reason it’s so big is because we have this nap variable and it impacts that. A child who takes a solid nap during the day may need closer to 10 and a half and 11 hours of night sleep. Whereas a child who’s dropped the nap will typically benefit from being on the higher end in that 11 to 12, sometimes even more than 12 hours at night.

So the goal is pretty simple of wanting your child to be able to fall asleep easily, to wake naturally and be happy in the morning, and then also kind of being their best little self throughout the day, all the way up to lights out. If you are having to wake your child, particularly at this age, to get ready for preschool, that would be a really clear signal that they could benefit from an earlier bedtime.

Now let’s talk about schedules leading up to the school you’re starting. Here’s one of the most practical things that you can do in the next few weeks before school starts to set your child up for success. Really take into consideration what time they are going to need to get up to be ready to leave the house on school days. If they are currently sleeping two or later than that time, I really recommend that you start shifting their schedule ahead of school.

You don’t need to do it all at once if you have a a decently long runway here. So if you have a few weeks, you can move it up 10 or 15 minutes earlier every few days so that by the time school starts, they’ve been going to bed earlier, you know, five to seven days that allow them to wake up at their normal time so it doesn’t feel jarring on that first day. But also if you’re listening to this right now and school has already started, or it starts in less than a week, so you don’t have a long runway, just go ahead and wake them up tomorrow within 30 minutes of school wake time. So if they haven’t yet started school and you know you’re going to have to have them up at 6:30 in the morning, make sure they’re up no later than 7 a.m. So think about kind of 6:30 to 7:00, and then start putting them to bed earlier until they are naturally waking at that 6:30 time.

And if you are one of those parents who are listening and thinking, I wish I had this problem. My child is an early riser. It doesn’t matter what time I put them to bed, they are up bright and early, ready to start their day, or bright and early and cranky. You want to use the behavior we talked about as your benchmark for figuring out their ideal bedtime. So, what time should they go to bed and how much sleep do they need to not only wake on their own, which they already are, but wake on their own, wake happy, and stay in fairly good spirits throughout the day, not crumble at the end of the school day, and kind of plug right along to bedtime. That’s going to be your guide for how much sleep is optimal for your child. You want a bedtime that kind of allows them to be age appropriately regulated from start to finish as it relates to your whole day.

Now, I want to spend a few minutes talking about something that I don’t think parents are educated enough on. They are not typically hearing about this from their pediatrician or from the schools themselves. And that is that sleep directly affects how your child is able to show up in the preschool classroom. And I mean that in some really specific ways. Research consistently shows that the amount of sleep children get is linked to learning engagement, learning retention, emotional regulation, and impulse control. So let me break down what each of these looks like specifically as it relates to a preschooler.

Let’s start with learning and retention. When your child is well rested, their brain is primed to absorb and retain the information that they learn. So sleep before learning sets them up to actually be able to take it in. And sleep after they have learned something allows their brain to store it away and remember it. When they’re overtired, that capacity is significantly reduced. So if you want your child to get maximum benefit from what their teacher is teaching, sleep really matters.

Let’s talk about emotional regulation. Preschool involves a lot of big moments. There’s sharing, waiting your turn, navigating conflicts with other kids, managing frustration. A well-rested child has a much easier time handling all of those things. An overtired child is working with a much shorter fuse.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Cozy Earth. And I have to be honest, this one feels very on brand for us. You know I talk about sleep environments. All the time, and temperature truly matters. So when Cozy Earth sent me some of their products to try, I was genuinely excited. First, let’s talk about the bamboo sheets. You guys, I did not know sheets could feel like this. After I put them on the bed, my husband immediately noticed and commented on how soft they were. And I don’t know about your partners, but mine is rarely commenting on bedding. These sheets naturally wick away heat and moisture while you sleep so you’re staying several degrees cooler without doing anything differently. And I can vouch for that because I have not been waking up hot since we put these on the bed. Game changer.

They also sent me a bamboo pajama set, which is incredibly soft, breathable, and also temperature regulating. And I am already dying to get another set. Everything Cozy Earth makes is designed around one thing, comfort that actually delivers. And here’s what I love: they back it up.

Every purchase comes with a 100 night sleep trial. So if you don’t love it, you can return it. Hassle-free. Plus a 10-year warranty because comfort this good should last. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code SLEEPCOACH for 20% off. And if you get a post-purchase survey, let them know that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Because home isn’t just where you live, it’s how you feel. Comfort lives here, Cozy Earth.

Back in episode 104, I spoke with Elizabeth Lane, a preschool teacher, and something she said that kind of stuck with me was when she talked about how when a child arrives at school, already dysregulated, so already over, I don’t want to say overly emotional, but very emotional or already upset, that it can take 10, 15, 20 minutes for them to settle and then rejoin the group. And in a preschool classroom, 20 minutes can be a significant chunk of the morning. And so the child is is kind of missing a chunk of what they could be getting enjoyment out of and and having a good experience during.

And a well-rested child is more likely to be able to walk in the classroom calmly and just be ready to play, learn and enjoy their time at school. They get to jump right into the activity, they get to connect with their new little friends, and they get to just generally start their day on the best possible foot.

So speaking of that, let’s talk about drop-off and separation and separation anxiety. And this is one that I don’t think parents connect to sleep often enough. Research and my own experience with my own kids and with working with hundreds and hundreds of families suggests that sleep affects separation anxiety and overall anxiety in young children. And let’s be honest, it’s not just young children, it’s all of us. But an overtired preschooler is going to have a harder time at drop-off. The volume On a child’s separation anxiety is going to be turned way up if they are overtired. A well-rested child has more capacity to handle the transition, to separate from you, to trust that they are shifting into another safe environment at the school, and then to move into their day happily. That doesn’t mean A well-rested child will never cry at drop-off. That’s totally developmentally normal. But it does mean that sleep gives them a much better chance for an easy drop-off. Wouldn’t it be great if nine out of 10 drop-offs were seamless? Sleep can really increase the chance that that is what happens.

Now let’s chat a little bit about things that you can expect in the first few weeks of preschool. Even the most well-prepared, well-rested preschooler may find the first few weeks of school incredibly tiring. I mean, it can be extremely tiring for some kids. Whether your child is an extrovert who thrives on being around other kids, or an introvert who finds all of that stimulating activity really draining, being at school all day is a lot. So think of it this way: for an extroverted child, preschool is kind of like going to a party with their favorite people all day. Remember back in the day when we weren’t parents and you might daytime party? Super fun, but also exhausting.

And for those introverted children, I like to say learning to go to preschool all day is kind of like being in a busy office all day. Also exhausting, just in a different sort of way. It might feel a little bit more like work rather than partying with your friends. Either way, whether your child has gone to school feeling like they just went to a rager, or they kind of feel like it was a job, they’re going to come home more tired than usual during those first few weeks. I like to say that kids kind of need to get in shape to start going to school. And this is exactly where a rescue bedtime can come in.

If you haven’t heard my episode on rescue bedtimes, it’s episode 236. And I’d encourage you to go back and listen. But the short version is this.

A rescue bedtime is simply a bedtime that is 30 to 60 minutes earlier than your child’s usual bedtime. And in those first weeks of school, when your child appears to be running on empty by 5, 5:30 p.m., a rescue bedtime can make an enormous difference. So don’t be surprised if your preschooler actually might benefit from going to bed at 6.30 during the first week or two of school. That is not a sign that something is wrong. It is a sign that their body is doing a lot of work adjusting to this new routine, and sleep is going to help them recover and to kind of build up their stamina for school.

Now let’s talk about naps. Big topic for preschoolers. If your preschooler is going to a program that includes a nap, or quiet rest time, I want to give you some reassurance. I know a lot of parents worry about whether their child will actually sleep on a mat or cot at preschool, particularly if they do not have a history of going to daycare and already doing this. And in my experience, I want to reassure you that the vast majority of children adjust to napping at school remarkably well. There is something about the structure, the expectations, and the peer pressure, everyone else is doing it. All of that seems to make naps on the cot or the mat work. So if you have a child who’s never napped in a group setting and they’re hopefully still in their crib, do not worry about this in advance. Keep doing whatever is working for naps at home. And then let school handle school naps.

Now, if your child ends up having a short nap at school or skipping the nap altogether, that is just another great moment to implement using a rescue bedtime. A bedtime 30 minutes earlier than usual can help your child make up for some or all of their missed daytime sleep, and it’s going to set them up for a better night of sleep and better next day.

If you’re one of those parents who is worried that your child is going to be napping too long at school, and you might have a school that is not willing to or is reluctant to cap the nap, the key to shortening your child’s school nap naturally is to send them into school Monday super well rested. If they got adequate sleep over the weekend and they go into school well rested on Monday, then that would mean they don’t quote need a longer nap, which means their body will self-regulate 95% of the time and they won’t take a longer nap. So if you feel like your child is napping too long at preschool and it’s impacting their ability to go to bed at night, you have to prioritize completely refilling their sleep tank over the weekend. So they go into Monday at the top of their game so that they will shorten that nap on their own.

What if you have a child who’s in a half day preschool program that gets out around noon, which is fairly common, and that’s kind of your child’s typical nap time? That means that nap time is going to have to shift because you are most likely going to have to pick them up at noon, get them home, feed them lunch, and then put them down for a nap. In these scenarios, I say to just keep things simple, plan for an easy, quick lunch on school days, and then get them right down for their nap as soon as you can after they eat lunch. And then on the non-school days, stick to the regular nap time that has been working prior to school so that they kind of stick to getting adequate sleep.

That’s particularly important if you find that this later nap that they’re having to take on school days sets them up to not sleep as well as they would on non-school days. So you can use their ideal nap time on non-school days and then just do your best the best that you can on school days. And if it’s not going well, rescue bedtime again.

Before I wrap up, I want to leave you with a few simple practical things that you can keep in mind and start doing now leading up to school starting. And these are things that I really think are going to help your child have a smooth transition into the school year. Start shifting that schedule. If your child’s current wake time is later than their school day wake time is going to be, start moving bedtime earlier so we can get them waking on their own closer, if not at the time they need to be up once school starts. A well-rested child going into the first day of school is going to have a completely different experience than an overtired one that is still in summer hard mode. Don’t hesitate to use the rescue bedtime if the school year does get off to a bumpy start.

Once school starts, watch your child closely in the first few weeks, you might not even have to watch them closely. It might actually just feel like it’s in your face. If they’re coming home exhausted, if they’re seeming more emotional than normal, or they’re falling apart in the evening, use the rescue bedtime. You will likely be amazed what one or two 6:30 p.m. bedtimes can do for a preschool child.

So to wrap up, if you have a preschooler heading to school in the coming weeks or just starting, remind yourself that sleep is one of the most important things that you can invest in right now. A well-rested preschooler is going to adapt more easily, they’re going to regulate their emotions better, they’re going to learn more effectively, they’re going to have an easier time at drop-off, and they’re going to come home with more left in the tank. They’re not going to be completely defeated.

So start to shift that schedule ahead of the first day or right away if school has already started. Don’t be afraid of the nap. We don’t want to cut it too early. Use a rescue bedtime if your child is getting overtired. And I hope they have an amazing school year with lots of new friends.

If this episode was helpful, please share it with another preschool parent who is starting to think about back to school or has been telling you about the bumpy start that they’re off to because this may help them as well. As always, thanks for listening and I hope you’ll come back next week. Bye for now.