Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube

Starting kindergarten is one of the biggest transitions of early childhood. Even children who have spent years in daycare or preschool often find kindergarten far more demanding than parents expect.

In this episode, Allison explains why sleep should be at the top of every parent’s back-to-school checklist. She shares how kindergarten differs from preschool, how much sleep most kindergartners actually need, and why a well-rested child is better equipped to learn, regulate emotions, handle separation at drop-off, and enjoy the school day.

Drawing from over a decade of experience as a pediatric sleep coach, Allison walks parents through practical steps for adjusting their child’s sleep schedule before school starts and what to expect during those first exhausting weeks (or months) of kindergarten.
She also discusses research linking healthy sleep habits to better academic, emotional, and social outcomes throughout the kindergarten year, along with four common signs that a child isn’t getting enough sleep.

If your child is heading to kindergarten this fall, or has already started school, this episode will help you create a sleep plan that sets them up for a smoother, happier school year.

In this episode you’ll learn:
— Why kindergarten is often a bigger adjustment than daycare or preschool
— How much sleep a 5- to 6-year-old typically needs
— Why many kindergartners benefit from a 7:00 p.m. (or earlier) bedtime
— Four signs your child isn’t getting enough sleep
— How sleep impacts learning, memory, emotional regulation, and behavior
— Why sleep deprivation can sometimes mimic ADHD symptoms
— How sleep affects separation anxiety and school drop-offs
— How to shift your child’s sleep schedule before school begins
— When to use a rescue bedtime during the first weeks of kindergarten
— Practical strategies to help your child thrive throughout the school year

Resources mentioned:
Episode 105. What Your Child’s Kindergarten Teacher Wishes You Knew with Meg Franco
Episode 236. The Rescue Bedtime: What It Is and How to Use It for Overtired Babies and Toddlers
Episode 98. 4 Signs Your Kindergartner Could Benefit From More Sleep

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

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.

Want more from Allison? Sign up here to get her weekly email with podcast updates and other helpful parenting topics.

Enjoying How Long ‘Til Bedtime?
Your rating and review help Allison reach and support more parents.
— On Apple Podcasts: Click here, scroll to the bottom, rate the show, and tap “Write a Review.”
— On Spotify: Click here to leave a rating or review.
Don’t miss an episode—subscribe so you’re always up to date!

Connect with Allison:
Instagram | Facebook | Website | YouTube

Scroll down for a full transcript of this episode.

250. Starting Kindergarten? How Sleep Can Make the Transition Easier
Allison Egidi: Before we dive in today, can we talk about the mental load and time that it takes to remember to schedule and go to all of the basic wellness visits for our kids and for us? And if you have dogs or cats, they’re visits too. I just took my daughter to her wellness visit last week. Both of my dogs had wellness visits this summer. My girls see their dentists every six months. They are both actively seeing the orthodontist right now, they see the eye doctor annually. I mean, I could go on and on. And sometimes keeping up with all the appointments feels like a full-time job in and of itself.

And even though I consider myself someone who prioritizes my own health, I did not see my primary care physician for my annual checkup last year. I saw my endocrinologist, my OBGYN, I got my mammogram, I got a breast MRI, but I did not see my primary care provider. I did schedule with my primary care provider leading up to my 45th birthday, just this recent May, because I knew it was time for me to go get a colonoscopy and I wanted that referral. But you guys, it turns out that if you don’t have an emergency situation, it can take a year to get a colonoscopy scheduled. So if I had gone for my annual when I was 44, they would have requested it then. I would have been in the queue. But now I’m in the holding pattern. So here’s your friendly reminder. As we plan for the back to school season, I just want to remind you that your health matters and you need to schedule your personal wellness visits because our kiddos need parents who are taking care of themselves. So the mental load is real with all the appointments, but don’t let yourself totally fall in the back burner.

Okay, on to today’s episode, which is all about starting kindergarten and how sleep can help make this big transition easier and smoother. If you have a child who is about to or recently started kindergarten, this episode is for you.

Hey there, Allison here. Welcome back to How Long ‘Til Bedtime. If you have a child heading into kindergarten this fall, first of all, congratulations. This is a big moment. I remember putting my oldest on the school bus for the very first day of kindergarten eight years ago, like it was yesterday. It’s actually the only year where I have this vivid memory of what she looked like and what she was wearing. She had the cutest little bob that she never let me give her again. And she was wearing this adorable navy blue polo dress, little one piece dress with the little pink polo emblem. The one my friends had sent her. She was the cutest with her very big backpack. It was too much.

I was so hoping on that day that I had done everything I could to set her up for success. And looking back, I’m so glad that sleep was already a priority in our house because I don’t think even I appreciated what a big role it would play in her school success. So today I want to make sure sleep is part of your kindergarten preparation because it is one of the most powerful things you can do right now to set your child up for a great year.

And something I want to stress because I know so many of my listeners have children who have been in daycare for years, is that even if your child has been in all day daycare or all day preschool f for all this time, kindergarten is a totally different beast. It is a bigger transition than most parents expect. But the good news is that sleep can play a central role in helping your kindergartner thrive throughout this big transitional year.

So let me start with why kindergarten is harder than most parents expect, because I don’t think this is discussed enough. A lot of parents send their child to kindergarten thinking they’ve been in daycare all day for years, they’re going to be fine. And in many ways, yes, they will be totally fine.

But kindergarten is noticeably different from daycare or preschool. In most kindergarten classrooms, there is no nap time and often no quiet or rest period. There is significantly less outdoor time and free play than most preschool environments provided. There is more structure, focused learning for the majority of the day, actually. And the expectation to retain what is being taught is significantly higher.

On top of that, many kids are also attending after-school programs, which adds even more hours to an already demanding day. I like to compare starting kindergarten to starting a new job at a new company. Even if you’ve been working for years, a new job and a new environment with new expectations is exhausting. And that exhaustion is real and it is significant. I work with a lot of kindergarten families who come to me because they are dealing with behavior struggles, resistance to going to school, anxiety, and children who are completely falling apart when they get home at the end of the day. And almost always more sleep resolves these struggles.

Now let’s talk numbers. How much sleep does a kindergartner actually need? For five to six year olds, I generally like to see 10 and a half to 12 hours of sleep at night. Now that’s a really wide range. And here’s why that’s important to note. Just because your child is in that range does not guarantee they are getting the sleep they need to thrive. A child who thrives with 12 hours of sleep is going to be a very different child on 10 and a half or 11 hours of sleep. And a child with naturally lower sleep needs may genuinely be fine, be their best little self on 10 and a half or 11 hours.

So how do you figure out where your child falls in that 10 and a half to 12 hour range? The most important indicator is this. Can your child wake naturally in the morning without being dragged out of bed? And be in good spirits. If you are waking your kindergartner up to get ready for school, they need more sleep. Full stop. Period. The end. That is the clearest signal I can give you.

And I want to note that many kindergartners, even kids who have been in all day programs for years, will need a bedtime of 7 p.m. or earlier during the school year or at least while they adjust to the school year. My oldest, actually both of my girls, but we’ll just talk about my oldest today, had been in all day daycare since 12 weeks. I had already been putting her to bed at 7 p.m. throughout that summer and leading up to kindergarten. And even she at five and a half often needed a 6:30 bedtime in those first few weeks of kindergarten. That is how demanding it was on her little body and her little brain. She was just noticeably overtired.

Now you may be wondering why exactly sleep plays such an impactful role in the kindergarten experience? Like what exactly are they getting from all of this sleep? So I want to spend a few minutes on the research here because I think it makes the bedtime conversation a little less arbitrary. The American Academy of Pediatrics published a study specifically looking at sleep duration and kindergarten adjustment. The study followed 221 children and found that children who slept 10 or more hours per night consistently showed more favorable outcomes across the full kindergarten year. Not just academically, but socially and emotionally as well.

And the results were especially strong for children who had established healthy sleep habits before kindergarten started. Let me break down what that actually looks like in the classroom. Improved learning and retention. A well-rested brain is primed to take in and hold on to new information. An overtired brain struggles to do both. So sleep the night before a child learns something in the classroom helps them actually take it in. And then sleep the night after they learn something helps them actually store it into their memory. Sleep matters enormously for the ease of learning.

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.

Improved emotional regulation and behavior. Kindergarten requires a remarkable amount of impulse control for a five-year-old. Sitting still, taking turns, managing frustrations, following directions. A well-rested child has so much more capacity for all of those things. An overtired child is working with a fraction of their emotional resources, and it can show up in their behavior at school and at home. I have worked with many families who were receiving calls from school about their child’s behavior in the classroom, and they had maybe also tried occupational therapy and they just weren’t seeing much improvement. And after we addressed their child’s sleep, the behavior improved dramatically.

I also think it’s worth noting that sleep deprivation in children can actually mimic the symptoms of ADHD, difficulty focusing, poor impulse control, and poor emotional regulation. And if a child actually does have ADHD, sleep deprivation will fuel their symptoms. Before any other intervention, it might be worth asking: is my child getting enough sleep?

Reduced anxiety at drop-off. I spoke with kindergarten teacher Meg Franco for episode 105, and something she said stuck with me. She talked about how a child who arrives already dysregulated, already anxious or emotional, is starting their day at a deficit before the school day has even gotten going. Sleep has a significant impact on anxiety in children. I mean, let’s be honest, you guys, it has a significant impact on anxiety for all of us, it certainly does for me. But I can assure you that an overtired kindergartner is much more likely to have a harder time at drop off. The volume on their separation anxiety is turned way up when they are carrying sleep debt. A well-rested child has more in the tank to handle that transition, to be able to trust that they are safe, that they can separate from you, that you’re going to come back, and that they can just step into their day and enjoy it.

So hopefully, you’re starting to feel like you have an idea about whether your kindergartner is getting enough sleep to set them up to thrive. But let me give you four specific signs that they may not be thriving that you can look for as they start this school year.
So sign one, you have to wake them up in the morning. I know I already said it, but this is the clearest signal. If your child cannot wake up naturally close to their school wake time, they need an earlier bedtime. Or if they’re an early riser and they’re just cranky, they need an early bedtime.

Sign two, they are having a hard time falling asleep at night. Now, this one is counterintuitive, but it’s really important. Stay with me here. If your child is taking a long time to fall asleep and they aren’t actually asleep before 9 p.m. or later, you might assume that they just need a later bedtime. But the more likely explanation is that they have missed their sleep wave and caught a second wind, and it’s just much harder for them to fall asleep once that happens. Then they’re just going to plug along until they crash. A lot of kindergartners are going to hit that second wind by 7:30. If that sounds familiar, try moving lights out up to 7 p.m. and get curious. See what happens.

Sign three, they seem more anxious than usual. Overtiredness fuels anxiety. I see this consistently in my work with families. If your child seems more worried, more clingy, more easily overwhelmed than usual, more sleep is almost always worth trying first.

Sign four. They seem wired in the evenings. This one sometimes surprises parents. They actually expect an overtired child to, I don’t know, seem tired or act super grumpy. But overtiredness in children sometimes presents as being completely wired, like bouncing off the walls, can’t settle full of energy, particularly right when you think it might be time to start the bedtime routine, that energy often leads to them making it into the second wind territory, which definitely doesn’t help. The antidote is low-key activities after dinner. Think no running, no jumping, no screens, no tickling, no wrestling, and an earlier bedtime that’s ahead of that second wind.

So, what should you do if your child is about to start kindergarten? In the weeks before kindergarten starts, figure out what time your child needs to be up in the morning on a school day. If they are currently sleeping later than that time, it’s time to shift everything earlier. If you have a few weeks, move bedtime up 10 to 15 minutes earlier every few days. And if that’s just leading to more resistance, it might be time to just go ahead and shift it all the way ahead of that second wind.

If school is starting within the next week or has already started, make that full shift right now. And if it hasn’t started yet, think about forcing them to wake up within 30 minutes of their normal school wake time. So if they’re going to have to be up at 6:30, at least make sure they’re up by seven and shift that bedtime up. For most kindergartners, I recommend starting with a 7 to 7:30 bedtime window and then adjusting from there based on how quickly they’re falling asleep, how rested they seem, all the things that we’ve talked about in today’s episode.

And if you’re one of those people who has an early riser, which I had one, who would wakes at the same time no matter what time they go to bed. They could go to bed at seven or they could go to bed at 10 and they’re going to be up at 6:30, you’re going to need to use their daytime behavior as your guide for figuring out how much sleep is optimal for them. You want a bedtime that sets them up to wake and be genuinely happy in the morning and throughout the day. You want them to be fairly regulated.

Then, once school starts, watch your child closely in those first few weeks. Even the most well-rested, well-prepared kindergartner is going to find this transition tiring. And this is exactly where the rescue bedtime can come into play. If you haven’t heard episode 236 on rescue bedtimes, go on back there and listen. But the short version is a rescue bedtime is 30 to 60 minutes earlier than your child’s usual bedtime. And in those first few weeks of kindergarten, when your child is coming home really depleted, do not hesitate to use the rescue bedtime.

Until my girls were about eight years old, it was not uncommon for me to throw in a 6:30 bedtime whenever I noticed that the wheels were starting to come off the tracks. Then they would get 12 hours of sleep, and whatever the struggle was that we were dealing with, it almost immediately improved.

Now, if you stumbled upon this episode because school has already started and you were already concerned that your kindergartner isn’t getting enough sleep, don’t panic. I’m so glad that this episode found you and you can implement all of these changes right now. And remember, you are not being a lame parent for protecting your kindergartner’s bedtime. You are giving them one of the greatest advantages they can have as they transition into elementary school, and that is having a well-rested brain ready to help them do all of the things.

If this episode was helpful, please share it with another kindergarten parent. And if you’re really struggling and need some help with your little one’s sleep, we are always here to help you. You can learn more about our one-on-one consultations at sleepandwellnesscoach.com. And as always, thanks for listening. Bye for now.