Who doesn’t look forward to summer holidays relaxed, carefree and fun? Returning to school takes some adjustment as children have to focus on their studies.Sleep is critical to them being well rested and prepared for the challenges of school. It’s likely they’re bedtime curfews have been relaxed during the summer.According to psychologist Stephanie Guthman of The Family Centre, one way to help ease the stress of going back to school is to ease your children back into set bedtimes.The Family Centre offers the following advice:lExplain that sleep is NOT a punishment. Sleep is something that is good for you, and something that you GET to do. It might help to say you also wish that you could go to sleep earlier but you have boring chores to do. This way your child doesn’t feel like they are missing out.lCalculate a bedtime. Work out the hour that your child needs to get up in order to get to school on time (allowing a generous cushion for chaos) and count backward nine hours. Bedtime should be ten or 20 minutes before that.lStart to shift bed and wake-up time in August. Two weeks before school starts, begin to move bedtime 20 minutes earlier every three days. It is difficult for a child or adult who is used to staying up until 11pm to go to bed at 9pm. From the very first day you start shifting their bedtime, start waking your child up earlier.lMake getting up worth it. It can be hard for any of us to get up on time. Make it as easy and enjoyable for your child as possible. For a few days make a breakfast they like or let your child play a video game or watch TV first thing in the morning. These incentives help your child’s body get into the habit of waking up earlier.lDon’t force It. You can’t force yourself to go to sleep. On the night before school starts, your child might be excited or nervous at bedtime. That can make it hard to sleep but one night is not a big deal. Excitement will get him/her through the first day.