Summer Sleep Schedules For Kids – Flexible or Not?
With all of the excitement of summer and activities and gatherings picking back up after over a year of not having much going on, I’m getting lots of questions about summer sleep schedules.
The most common one is along these lines…The days are longer and the kids don’t have anywhere to be in the morning. Is it okay to let them go to bed later?
The short answer: It depends.
The longer answer: It’s always best to maintain a consistent bedtime and morning wake time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make exceptions. How often you can bend the rules without consequences depends on how flexible your child is.
Kids, just like adults, are going to thrive when they consistently get their optimal amount of sleep, and they get that sleep in the optimal window. Of course some children, just like some adults, are more sensitive to their sleep rhythms than others.
If your child is sensitive to their sleep rhythm, a later bedtime:
- likely won’t result in your child waking up later the following morning
- may result in your child waking up earlier than normal
- may result in your child’s behavior being more challenging the next day because they are overtired
- may throw the super sensitive child “off” for a few days
If this is what you experience with your child, I would strongly encourage you to prioritize keeping them on their normal schedule the vast majority of the time – including weekends and over summer break.
If you have a really flexible child, they may be able to go to bed later and:
- sleep in later the following morning
- take a longer than normal nap the next day to make up for some of the missed sleep
- will still behave like they typically do when they are well-rested
If you have a flexible child, I would still encourage you to keep a consistent schedule, but during the summer months you may be able to easily shift to a bedtime that is a bit later and a morning wake time that is a bit later.
And then there are the kids in between these extremes. These children:
- may be able to stay up later from time to time without it affecting their demeanor much
- generally recover from a later bedtime within a day – unless you let them go to bed late too many times too close together
Having the knowledge of understanding where your child falls on the sensitivity scale is power. Once you understand what you’re working with, you can more easily weigh when it’s worth being more flexible with their sleep schedule.
My oldest was an extremely sensitive sleeper until she was about 7 years old. My youngest was much more flexible, even as an infant. But I will tell you that at almost 7 and 8 years old, my children go to bed at roughly the same time every night of the week, all year round. Of course as they get older we make more exceptions to the bedtime rule and we know how much is too much for each of our kids. But at the end of the day, I know keeping a consistent sleep schedule allows them to bring the best version of themselves to each day… which helps me be the best version of myself.
Side note: If your child is struggling to fall asleep when it’s still light outside or rising with the sun and that’s holding you back from maintaining your typical schedule, consider installing blackout curtains or blinds. Click here to see the inexpensive blinds I have in my girls’ rooms.
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