Learning Their A-B-Zzzzs

It seemed like a simple and visual way to teach second-graders how to make a bar graph. Why not chart their bedtimes?

Teacher Debbie Morris expected the exercise to produce a nice little arc starting about 8 p.m. or so and descending by 9 p.m.

Think again.

“The chart peaked at 10 p.m., and there were a number of kids who were going to bed at 10:30,” said Morris, who teaches at Commonwealth Elementary in Fullerton. “I was amazed.”

Teachers, school nurses and even some parents say it’s getting tougher for kids to get the sleep they need these days. They say the reasons are varied, from late dinners because of working parents to busy evenings filled with too many lessons and sporting events. But the result is pretty much the same all over--cranky, tantrum-prone, pooped-out kids.

“I am finding that a lot of first-graders and second-graders are going to bed at 9:30 and 10,” said MaryAnn Fong, a school nurse for 10 years in the ABC Unified School District, which includes Artesia, Bellflower and Cerritos. “And I think that’s getting late.”

“Oh, boy. More guilt for parents everywhere,” said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute in New York and author of “Ask the Children: What America’s Children Really Think About Working Parents” (William Morrow, 1999). “As long as I’ve known teachers, they’ve always complained about things like this. Teachers always say, ‘Oh, it’s worse than it’s ever been.’ And I used to be a teacher,” Galinsky said. “On the other hand, it can be hard for teachers if kids are really tired.”

How much sleep a schoolchild needs varies, said Dr. George Cohen, a Washington, D.C.-area pediatrician and editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics book “Guide to Your Child’s Sleep.”

Generally, primary grade students need about 10 hours of sleep, he said. Some need more. Some need less. A child may need more during a growth spurt, too.

“We do a lot of hedging in this because kids are so different,” Cohen said.

He says no matter how much sleep a child needs, the bedtime process needs to start early.

“It’s easy to forget how long it can take to get from bath and brushing to story and good night kiss,” Cohen said. A rushed child is not a relaxed child.

To calm the mind and body, Cohen said, parents should steer kids clear of television, video games, vigorous play, loud music, exciting books and homework at least half an hour before bed. Warm baths and soft music can work wonders, even for bigger kids who think they’re too old for both.

If excessive homework--a pet peeve of Cohen’s--is making a child anxious at bedtime, one can talk to the teacher about reducing the workload.

One thing’s for sure, Cohen added with a chuckle: “It’s never on the schedule that works for an adult.”

At Brywood Elementary School in Irvine, said teacher Micki Adcock, the first-grade teachers’ team felt so strongly about the sleep issue that all first-graders were asked to meet an 8:15 p.m. bedtime as part of a weeklong “life skills” homework assignment--along with shoelace tying.

“It’s amazing to see them sitting there and yawning,” Adcock said. “They’re just exhausted. I hear them say, ‘Well, we were at soccer practice until 7:30, and then I was at my brother’s game.’ Then they still have to get dinner, baths and reading time. They’re just busy, busy, busy.”

Not that she isn’t sympathetic.

Adcock reared two daughters who were also busy with sports and dance.

“It’s complicated, and I can’t say there’s an easy answer for this problem,” she said. Sometimes it may mean giving up something. “You just really have to know your child, and you have to be able to stand back and not get too invested yourself in any one of their activities. You have to be able to let go if it really becomes necessary.”

Too many lessons and enrichment activities are not the problem for Morris’ students. Most of her students’ parents work in service industry jobs, and families tend to delay dinner until the store, restaurant or shop closes and the parents get home. Morris admires that tradition, which is often rooted in cultures that tend to start their work and school days a little later. But here, where schools often start by 8 a.m., and occasionally earlier, it can be a problem.

“There’s no question that it does affect their schoolwork. They just can’t get in sync and concentrate and get their juices flowing,” Morris said.

After the bar-chart experience, Morris spent a week encouraging her kids to try for an 8:30 p.m. bedtime. Every morning they discussed the previous night’s bedtimes. Some hit the 8:30 mark, and many at least started going to bed a little earlier. The difference in classroom mood was noticeable that week, she said.

“It actually helped,” she said. “They seemed a little more alert that week and more enthusiastic, more ready to learn.”