Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — After the longest vacation in the Kingdom, many parents are worried about their kids staying up late and trying to alter their unhealthy sleeping habits before going back to school.

Several mothers told Saudi Gazette that their children, since Ramadan, have been sleeping well after midnight or go to bed in early mornings, and they needed to change the sleep cycle but found it difficult.

Some housewives have explained that they too stay up late with their kids and they could not change their vacation sleeping pattern. However, few Saudi parents are happy that they do not need to make this change, as they said that their children slept early and can easily shift back to normal mode.

Salma Ahmed, a mother of one, explained that her son sleeps with her after 4 a.m. and she does not know what to do to fix their sleeping hours. She added that she and he son might take sleeping pills few days before school, so they can go back to the school schedule.

Another mother ‘Om Khalid’, who has three kids, said, “My children sleep late and that is fine. Most families in Saudi Arabia suffer from syndrome of their kids sleeping habits during vacation. I think my children will go to school at the first day without sleeping, so they can go back to their old sleeping habits.”

She added that some mothers could change this habit by making the kids sleep one hour earlier a week before school starts.

Donya Wali, a housewife and a mother of two, explained, that she makes her kids go to bed early around 8.30 p.m. and they I make sure they are not awake after 10 p.m.

“One of the tips for making children sleep early would be having different activities in the morning so they get tired and need to sleep,” she added.

Skipping nap was another mother’s advice for fixing the children sleeping habits before going back to school.

Sara Khalil, an investment manger and a mother of two children, said, “My kids wake up at 6 a.m. and sleep at 8:00 p.m. I organized my kids sleeping habits to adopt with school timings by skipping the naps in the middle of the day and providing extra activities during the day, for example swimming so they get tired and sleep early.”

She advised mothers that suffer from late sleeping and their kids to do the same things that she is doing.