Back-to-School Sleep Reset: Getting UAE Kids Back on Schedule
School is back, bedtimes have drifted, and suddenly that 6am alarm feels very real. We asked sleep consultant Yasmine Gaddis how to get children back into a workable sleep routine, without spending the next two weeks fighting about bedtime.
There is something about summer that makes normal bedtime rules quietly disappear.
Dinner gets later. One more episode becomes three. Children stay up because there is nowhere they urgently need to be the next morning, and parents, understandably, become a little more relaxed about the clock.
Then school starts.
Suddenly, the child who has been happily going to bed at 10pm needs to be dressed, fed and out of the door at an hour when they were barely awake a week ago.
So how do you reset things without making bedtime the most stressful part of the day?
We spoke to Yasmine Gaddis, a Certified Child Sleep Coach through the Family Sleep Institute and a member of the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants. Through her practice, The Sleep Space, Yasmine has supported more than 850 families worldwide since 2020.
And while much of her one-to-one work focuses on newborns and babies, we wanted to know what parents of school-aged children can actually do now.
First, how much sleep do children actually need?
It is easy to focus on bedtime, but the more useful question is whether your child is getting enough sleep overall.
According to the Sleep Foundation, recommended total sleep by age is:
✦ Recommended sleep by age
0–3 months: 14–17+ hours per 24 hours
4–12 months: 12–16 hours per 24 hours, including naps
1–2 years: 11–14 hours per 24 hours, including naps
3–5 years: 10–13 hours per 24 hours, including naps
6–12 years: 9–12 hours per 24 hours
13–18 years: 8–10 hours per 24 hours
Reminder: These are general guidelines, and individual sleep needs vary from child to child.
School starts next week. Have we left it too late?
Not necessarily.
Yasmine says the ideal window for shifting children back onto a school schedule is around one to two weeks.
“The earlier the better, but as a general rule, aim to give yourself one to two weeks to adjust.”
If that ship has already sailed, the important thing is not to panic and suddenly bring bedtime forward by two hours.
Instead, shift things gradually. Move bedtime earlier by around 15 minutes every few days, and move wake-up time earlier too.
That morning part matters. If children are still sleeping until late morning, asking them to suddenly fall asleep much earlier at night is unlikely to work.
Morning light can help as well. Getting outside or into bright natural light early in the day helps signal to the body that the day has begun and can gradually shift the body clock earlier.
✦ The back-to-school sleep reset
Move bedtime earlier by around 15 minutes every few days
Shift wake-up time earlier too
Keep the bedtime routine in the same order each night
Dim lights and move away from energetic play before bed
Limit screens beforehand
Get plenty of morning light
If your child is clearly wide awake, slow the adjustment down
Try to keep weekends reasonably consistent too
What if they simply aren't tired?
This is where parents can easily turn bedtime into a battle.
You have decided that 8pm is now bedtime. Your child, meanwhile, has spent the past six weeks going to sleep at 10pm and is staring at the ceiling wondering why everyone is suddenly so unreasonable.
Yasmine's advice is not to force it.
If your child is consistently wide awake at the new bedtime, the change may simply be happening too quickly. Keep nudging the routine earlier rather than expecting the body clock to change overnight.
Consistency is more useful than perfection.
A 7.30pm bedtime one night and 7.40pm the next isn't a problem. What matters is that the general timing and sequence feel familiar.
What does a good bedtime routine actually look like?
It really doesn't need to be elaborate.
For younger children, Yasmine recommends a simple sequence that happens in roughly the same order each night.
✦ A simple bedtime routine
Start winding down and dim the lights
Switch screens off, ideally about an hour before bed
Bath or wash up
Pajamas and teeth
Quiet connection. A story, cuddle, song or chat about the day
Lights out
The point isn't to create a perfect evening routine. It is to make bedtime predictable enough that a child's brain starts recognising the cues.
And what happens to naps once school starts?
This can be a difficult adjustment for younger children, particularly if they have been napping through the summer and their school day suddenly doesn't allow for it.
Yasmine's advice is not to rush into dropping a nap simply because school has started.
If your child still needs daytime sleep, protect it where you can. If an actual nap isn't possible, a quiet rest period can still help.
Parents should also watch what happens later in the day. If a child is suddenly irritable, struggling to cope by late afternoon or practically falling asleep over dinner, they may need more sleep somewhere in their schedule.
If the nap disappears altogether, bedtime may need to move earlier.
✦ If naps suddenly disappear
Don't force a child to drop a nap before they're ready
Use quiet time if school doesn't offer daytime sleep
Watch for overtiredness rather than relying only on the clock
Move bedtime earlier if necessary
If a late nap is genuinely needed, keep it short enough that it doesn't interfere with bedtime
Avoid making several major sleep changes at the same time
Starting school is already a big adjustment. This probably isn't the week to simultaneously drop the nap, ditch the pacifier, change bedtime and introduce an entirely new routine.
Older kids are a different story
For tweens and teens, the bedtime battle is often less about bath time and storybooks and more about getting them off their phones.
A realistic starting point is a screen curfew around an hour before bed.
If possible, Yasmine suggests taking phones out of the bedroom altogether and creating a charging spot somewhere else in the house.
The replacement matters too. Simply removing a phone can feel punitive, particularly for older children. Reading, music, journaling, drawing or simply chatting can give them something else to do while they wind down.
And rather than only imposing a bedtime, Yasmine suggests involving older children in the math:
“You need roughly this many hours of sleep. What bedtime works with your wake-up time?”
Giving teenagers some ownership over their sleep and media plan can make the conversation far more productive than simply announcing that their phone disappears at 9pm.
✦ Resetting summer screen habits
Set a realistic screen curfew
Charge phones outside the bedroom
Replace screens with something they actually enjoy
Get morning light to help reset the body clock
Don't expect a huge bedtime shift overnight
Give older kids some ownership over their sleep schedule
“I can't sleep. I'm worried about school.”
Sometimes the issue isn't routine at all.
A new classroom, new teacher, friendship worries or simply the anticipation of the first day can make children surprisingly alert the moment their head hits the pillow.
If that is happening, Yasmine recommends having those conversations earlier in the day rather than allowing bedtime to become worry time.
Ask what's bothering them. Talk through practical concerns. If they are worried about finding their classroom, waking up in time or forgetting something, help them work out a plan.
Then remove as much uncertainty as possible before bed: school bag packed, clothes ready, lunch sorted.
Once bedtime arrives, keep things calm and predictable rather than reopening every worry from the day.
Sometimes children simply need reassurance:
“I know you're feeling nervous. We've prepared everything, and tomorrow we'll take it one step at a time. You're safe, and we're here for you.”
The biggest mistake? Trying to fix summer overnight
If bedtime has gradually moved later over several weeks, it is unlikely to move neatly back again in one night.
Trying to jump from a 10.30pm summer bedtime to 8pm can simply leave you with a child who is wide awake at 8pm, and increasingly frustrated by 9pm.
The same goes for trying to exhaust children into sleeping earlier. Overtired children do not necessarily fall asleep more easily; sometimes they have an even harder time settling.
And don't focus only on bedtime. Wake-up time, morning light, naps, evening screens and the overall rhythm of the day all play a part.
✦ Mistakes worth avoiding
Moving bedtime too much, too fast
Focusing on bedtime but ignoring wake-up time
Dropping naps suddenly
Trying to exhaust children so they'll sleep earlier
Changing several sleep habits at once
Letting late-night screens undo the rest of the routine
The good news is that Yasmine's advice is reassuringly straightforward: make the changes gradually, keep the routine familiar and give children's body clocks a little time to catch up.
Because after a long UAE summer, none of us switches back into school mode overnight.
Our thanks to Yasmine Gaddis for sharing her advice with Parenting Plus. Yasmine is a Certified Child Sleep Coach through the Family Sleep Institute and a member of the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants. She has supported more than 850 families worldwide since 2020 through her practice, The Sleep Space. You can find her at yasminegaddis.com or on Instagram @yasminegaddis_sleepcoaching.
This article reflects Yasmine Gaddis's professional guidance as a Certified Child Sleep Coach and is for general information only. It should not replace personalised advice from your child's paediatrician, particularly where sleep concerns persist or are affecting a child's wellbeing.
