By: Chrissy Meyer, Region Senior Marketing Communications Director, American Heart Associaiton-South Dakota

Getting a full 8-10 hours of sleep each night helps kids have improved attitudes, decision-making skills, appetite, attention and overall health. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that make getting a great night’s sleep difficult – stress, screen-time and packed schedules can all contribute to poor sleep habits.

Luckily, you can encourage your child to implement a few strategies for a better night’s sleep:

1. Move it. Charge your device overnight somewhere other than next to your bed. Keep it further away, or better yet, in another room. This helps reduce scrolling late into the night and upon waking.

2. Dim it. Staring into the bright light of your phone may mess with your circadian rhythm and melatonin production, which you need for a good night’s sleep. Using a red filter app for screen time that happens between dinner and bedtime may help reduce the effects.

3. Set it. Set an alarm to go to bed. Alarms don’t have to be just for waking up. Use one to remind you that it’s time to wrap it up for the night.

4. Lock it. Is the temptation just too strong to keep scrolling? Use ablocking app that makes it impossible for you to fall into the bleary-eyed scroll trap after a certain hour.

5. Block it. Do you check notifications when your phone buzzes at night? Use the “do not disturb” function to block all notifications during sleep hours.

6. Talk about it. Help kids tune in to how sleep impacts their day by discussing how rested they feel upon waking up and helping them connect difficult days to poor sleep and great days to feeling well-rested.

As we all know, it takes a village to instill healthy habits like this for our children. That’s why the American Heart Association is working in schools across the nation to teach children about being kind to ourselves. Throughout the Association’s Kids Heart Challenge and American Heart Challenge programs, schools are equipped with tools and activities to support both mental and physical well-being for students, families and staff. Parents and schools in Sioux Falls who are interested in bringing the American Heart Association’s in-school programs to their children should visit www.heart.org/getstarted.