Summer vacation is a haven of freedom for kids everywhere – but all those lazy afternoons and late nights can do a number on a child's sleep schedule. At 5 Little Monkeys, we've seen the impact that healthy, restful sleep can have on a child firsthand, and our mission is to help kids and families everywhere get better sleep. If you're wondering how to let your little one enjoy the freedom of summer without it harming their sleep, we can offer a few pointers to help.

How to Keep Your Child's Summer Sleep Schedule Healthy

With the schedule of the school year no longer enforced, many kids take summer as an opportunity to sleep in, and all too often, stay up late. Teens, in particular, may use summer as an opportunity to catch up on much-needed lost sleep. That's perfectly ok, but if your child gets into a routine of waking up later and going to bed later, it may defeat the purpose of paying off a sleep debt and make the transition to school harder. By all means, let your child sleep in, but try to have them up by 9 or 10 am at the latest. One good way to promote this is picking some fun activities that require them to be there in the morning.

In addition to making sure wake-up time doesn't get too far behind, it's important to enforce a consistent and reasonable bedtime. In some regions, this may mean your child has to go to sleep while the sun is still out. This will likely feel like a cosmic injustice to them, but it's the reality of life – and blackout shades in their room can help quite a lot with this.

Finally, don't expect them to transition back to a school year schedule all at once. Make sure the transition to an earlier bedtime and wakeup time is gradual, starting about 2 weeks out from the start of the school year and slowly moving bedtime up each day. This will allow your child's body to adjust to the new schedule and make it much more palatable when it is time to start the school year.

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We hope these tips make it easier to keep your child's sleep routine intact over the summertime, and if you have more questions about summer sleep hygiene, you're always welcome to reach out to us at our contact page. It's also important to remember that your child's mattress can also have a serious impact on their sleep, and if they don't have a dedicated children's mattress, it may be time for one. We've worked for years to build one of the best kids beds on the market today, and we're so confident in it that we'll let you try it for 100 nights, risk-free. So what are you waiting for? See the difference healthy sleep can make and try the best mattress for kids today!