It’s getting close to back to school time and many people are feeling the pressure. This blog is to give a few ideas to help you and your child through this time.

It’s getting close to that time when children start thinking of going back to school, when they start to get nervous or possibly excitable. All this is passed onto parents and often in the form of stress. There are some things that can be done to help their transition moving up a year in school or even moving school itself.

Any of the disruption felt by an adult is often amplified in a child in both physical and emotional ways. These physical symptoms can be anything from stomach pains to disrupted sleep, and the emotional stress can be caused from a myriad of worries of their new schools, classmates, teachers, etc.

‘Sleep is the golden chain that binds health and our bodies together’

Sleep is very important to anyone. It is a vital part of life and this can easily be seen when our sleep patterns are disrupted. Disrupted sleep can give rise to many issues including:

Lack of Concentration

Children require at least 8 hours of sleep each night in order to learn effectively in school, any less than this and their concentration, focus and ability to learn is affected.

Poor Social Interaction

Lack of sleep makes children groggy and very sensitive to social disputes. This has a direct impact on how children make friends and whether other children want them to be friends with them. This gives rise to much more unnecessary stress.

Lower Immunity

To maintain a healthy immune system a regular sleep pattern is required. Studies show a number of physical and mental disorders can stem from lack of proper sleep.

All these though can be prevented simply by helping your child have a proper sleep pattern, so here at MAC we decided to put a few tips that may give you ideas in helping your child at this possibly stressful time in their year.

1. Bedtime and time to get up – Make sure they understand these times in the weekdays and that this is non-negotiable.
2. 1 hour prior rules – these include no food and no excitable activity within the hour prior to bedtime. Food in stomach many stop them falling asleep fast. Children also need time to ‘wind down’ before bed.
3. 20-30 minute calm down routine – relaxing activities such as reading, taking a bath or even changing into pyjamas can help relax the body and reduce heart rate, they also act as triggers for sleep to come faster once in bed.