Parents, Stop Struggling! Here’s How to Wake Up Your Kids Easily

If parents stop struggling here is on your radar, this short guide cuts through the noise. Here is what is worth knowing, and how to put it to work today.

Key Takeaways

• Share with your friends!FacebookPinterestMessengerWhatsAppEmailShareFlipboardRedditSMSX Image Credit: Mangostar Studio via Canva.com The deb...
• So we must ensure they’re up and ready for school.
• Getting teenagers up and out of bed has always been challenging, but with a few tips, maybe you could make this year your best.

Share with your friends!FacebookPinterestMessengerWhatsAppEmailShareFlipboardRedditSMSX Image Credit: Mangostar Studio via Canva.com

The debate is still out on the best time for teenagers to wake up in the morning, and though studies link later waking times with more robust academic performance, it’s not an option for most of us. So we must ensure they’re up and ready for school.

Getting teenagers up and out of bed has always been challenging, but with a few tips, maybe you could make this year your best.

California is the first state to issue a statewide mandate for schools to push start times to 8.30 am. But if you live outside the golden state, your kids will still need to get up early while maintaining enough sleep.

This three-pronged approach will turn your little night owls into sprightly morning larks.

• Optimize going to bed
• Give them back their responsibility
• Optimize waking up

Table of Contents

• Master the Art of Going to Sleep
• Personal Responsibility
• Optimize the Early Morning Wake Up With These Tools
• Final Thoughts
• Next Up From ChaChingQueen

Master the Art of Going to Sleep

Get Them to Bed Earlier

The deciding factor of wake time is the time you go to bed. It’s the same for teens; if they stay up late playing video games, reading, or talking with friends online, they will naturally want to sleep in later.

So getting to be early enough and having them fall asleep earlier is typically the key. The CDC recommends that high school students sleep 8-10 hours each night.

If your high schooler needs to wake up at 6.30 am, they must go to bed at 9.00 pm to get 9 hours of sleep (assuming it takes them 30 minutes to fall asleep.)

How do we get teenagers to go to bed earlier?

• Tire them outA sports club or physical activity after school that leaves them exhausted is perfect.
• Eat dinner earlierNutritionists recommend sleeping at least three hours after eating to reduce insomnia.
• Adjust bedtime back 15 minutes every few daysCircadian rhythms play an key role in what time we naturally fall asleep, so any drastic or sudden changes will be challenging. So instead, adjust your evening routines back by 15 minutes every few days until you arrive at your preferred time.
• Mandate no screens after 7 pmThey will sleep earlier if they can’t go online or play video games.

Improve Their Sleep Quality

Although sleep duration is key, we can’t neglect quality sleep either. Quality sleep is necessary if you want to wake up early and not feel tired.

These tips will help improve the quality of your children’s sleep. If you can get them on board to wake up early, you won’t need to enforce these rules. Instead, you can explain to them and help them make good decisions.

• No lights onSensors in the skin think light means daytime; they tell the brain to wake up when light touches them.
• No listening to music in bedWhile sleeping, noise keeps the brain from entering deep sleep and stops you from falling asleep.
• No late-night snacksThe brain’s sleep processes need the energy used for digestion.
• No screensblue light from screens has also been shown to affect sleep negatively by reducing melatonin production.

Personal Responsibility

Give Them a Reason to Get Up

Why is it that on Christmas day, birthdays, or other special events, even the sleepiest teen can emerge from their nest early without feeling groggy? It’s the excitement, the anticipation because they look forward to those days.

Do you remember high school? It was hardly a joy to go in every morning. So is it possible to make a teen’s morning more filled with meaning? There are numerous benefits to waking up early, including getting more done; you need to find one key to your kids.

Connect it to a Passion

I wasn’t a morning person when I was a teenager, but after my running group all start running at 5a, so now I’m up early.

It was the only thing that would get me up. I felt a sense of responsibility, knowing that my teacher would be expecting me.

So build on a passion your teen already shows interest in; it might be a foreign language, a sport, or a musical instrument. Can you find an early morning online lesson so they would be willing to wake up?

Connect it to a Friend

Teens are hormonal creatures, which makes them competitive and crave the latest fashion accessory or tech addon. Using these two characteristics, you can create a good reason for them to get up in the morning. Is this any different than offering them a reward for waking up? Not really, but it does work better.

Pit your child against one of their friends, create a group chat, telling them whoever messages first thing in the morning gets the point. Attach a point value to whatever reward they want. Of course, you’ll need to get the friend’s parents to agree.

Connect it to a Responsibility

Why is it that in the not-so-distant past, teenagers would get up before dawn to work in dingy factories or down coal mines, and yet now they are barely able to get out of bed to sit at the back of an air-conditioned classroom? The answer? Responsibility.

Ask yourself who is responsible for getting your teenager up in the morning; if it’s not them, or they believe it’s not, it’s a problem.

Here are the best ideas for handing responsibility back to your child to wake themselves up.

• An early morning jobPaper routes may be things of the past, but there are other early morning jobs your high schoolers could do. For example, gardening, dog walking, and snow clearing are simple to set up with a neighbor.
• TutoringGetting to school early to tutor a younger kid is an excellent way to teach your child responsibility and get them out of bed earlier.
• School dutiesIt may be running for the school council, working for the school paper, or being a school librarian; these responsibilities are precisely what a child need

  Final Thoughts

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  Originally published at chachingqueen.com.