Top 10 Sleep Tips for Kids, Teens & Adults
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Sleep is critical to strengthening the resilience of our kids as well as for their overall physical and mental health. This month we share 10 sleep tips for kids, teens and adults.
Thank you for listening to the Raising Resilient Kids Podcast! We are a brother-sister team who are passionate about providing parents, teachers and coaches with ideas and strategies to help kids and teens build their resilience and achieve their potential in a healthy, fulfilling way.
For more information on the podcast, or if you have a question you would like answered by one of our expert guests, please visit us at - https://www.smarthwp.com/raisingresilientkidspodcast.
A special thanks to our sponsors:
The So Happy You're Here YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@sohappyyouarehere
and
The Resilient Youth Teach-the-Teacher Program - https://www.smarthwp.com/RY4teachers
Episode Transcript
Tom: [00:00:00] Sleep is critical to strengthening the resilience of our kids, as well as their overall physical and mental health. This month, we shared 10 sleep tips for both kids and adults. I'm Tom.
Jeannie: And I'm Jeannie. We are a brother and sister team who are passionate about providing parents, teachers, and coaches with ideas and strategies to help kids and teens build their resilience.
And achieve their potential in a healthy, fulfilling way. Welcome to the Raising Resilient Kids podcast. Hi, brother.
Tom: Hello, sister.
Jeannie: Happy February, a brand new year, 2025.
Tom: Yes. 25 is my lucky number. I
Jeannie: literally was going to say, oh my gosh, you just realized it's your lucky number. Are you going to play the lotto every week?
Tom: That's a good idea. Maybe.
Jeannie: I feel like it's going to be your lucky year because 25 is your lucky number. That's like a fun fact that I know about you. That's probably my number one fact that I know about you.
Tom: Do you know why it's my lucky number?
Jeannie: Hmm, I guess I don't know you that well.
Tom: Eighth grade basketball number.
Jeannie: Really?
Tom: Mm hmm. It was my best year of basketball.
Jeannie: Oh, [00:01:00] so that you chose that number because that was when you were the best?
Tom: I reached my peak in eighth grade in my basketball career.
Jeannie: Like, I mean, all your sports career, let's be real.
Tom: Yeah, that's true. That's probably true.
Jeannie: So were you just really good at defending, shooting, rebounding?
No, I just,
Tom: I mean, I wasn't really good at any of it compared to, compared to how I was in sixth and seventh grade. I was the best.
Jeannie: Well, it's a big deal. Brand new year. We're all still trying to adjust to 2025. I feel like I'm still tired from the holidays. So that is why I love this question of the month.
It's do you have any favorite tips that can help my kid get a good night's sleep?
Tom: It is a great question. And actually I figured I take this one myself this month. The resilient youth program that I teach it's like 12 sessions There's actually a full session on sleep because it's so important for building kids resilience So I figured what I would do is I'd take the top 10 sleep tips From the resilient youth [00:02:00] program in my opinion
Jeannie: Okay for our listeners tom just took his note cards that have the top 10 and shook them
Tom: and this is from Who did this
Jeannie: from david letterman david
Tom: letterman?
Do you know that kids in like their 20s these days do not know who david letterman is?
Jeannie: He's like one of the greatest talk show hosts of all time, and your favorite, another, this is like Tom fun fact
Tom: episodes. Well, another fun fact, who was on the David Letterman show?
Jeannie: Um, my big brother, Tom.
Tom: Yes. Now, I wasn't a guest.
Jeannie: No.
Tom: But I was on it.
Jeannie: We're going to show you guys the clip. For those of you that are listening, you'll be able to hear the clip, but kind of give us just a little bit of like, pre you going to the David Letterman show. You get tickets.
Tom: Yeah. So, so I love David Letterman, like you said. So I actually saved up money all through college so that I could go take Linda, then my girlfriend, now my wife, to go see the David Letterman show.
Jeannie: And then isn't the story. So you're waiting in line and then something happened where they like redirected you, right? [00:03:00] Yes.
Tom: Yeah. So one guy that I knew actually was ahead of us and he was actually making fun of me because he was ahead of me in the line, so we figured he would be first. So they line us up and everybody goes in and then they start filling in the right side first.
Okay. Okay. Okay. And then just as we're maybe, you know, three or four people ahead of us, they turn us left and we go, we get dead center of in, in the show, front, front row. Exactly. Front row, dead center. I just lean over to the guy and just wave because I've got the better seats. And then Letterman, he had a monologue and he used to, they almost always would pick somebody out.
In the audience to make fun of and it just so happens that it's me and these two Guys that were sitting next to me that I did not know at all So for those of you who are listening to us now check it out on the youtube channel I think I was pretty creative in my response to what I did when letterman was making fun [00:04:00] of us
Letterman: What do you think mommy?
I don't know Well, well, it's the
youth of america
Ladies and gentlemen, before we're finished tonight, here's my promise to you. I, right here on the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater, will fight every single one of you.
Start with those three punks right there. Won't even take, won't even take off my jacket for those guys. Boom, boom, boom! I've been
Jeannie: like, such a huge David Letterman fan, and so I love the fact that you're giving these top ten tips. Just like Letterman did. Ten tips.
Tom: Yep. All right. Just like
Jeannie: Letterman did.
Here we go.
Tom: Number ten. Now, this one is about how many hours [00:05:00] of sleep you should get a night. What do you think, Jeannie? What is the ideal number of hours you should get to sleep per night?
Jeannie: I think I'm going to get this one right.
Tom: Okay.
Jeannie: Seven to nine.
Tom: Seven to nine for adults. Correct.
Jeannie: Okay. Seven to nine for adults.
Which we were going to talk about
Tom: both anyway. You're right. You're right. Seven to nine. You know, kids is more or less.
Jeannie: I would guess more.
Tom: Yeah. It's eight to 10. Very good.
Jeannie: Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So
Tom: not dramatically more, but eight to 10, seven to nine. Very good. Wow. He used to throw them too. Yeah. He
Jeannie: used to throw them.
Oh, wow. That was really good. I'm going to split screen that
Tom: and
Jeannie: put you next to the lettering because that was really, really good. I need,
Tom: like, the skyline of New York behind you that I can just throw.
Jeannie: I don't know if I'm that good of an editor, but I'll try.
Tom: Number nine. Stick to the same sleep schedule, plus or minus one hour.
Jeannie: It makes sense because I think about my friends that have children having that sleep schedule of like, okay, well, I put my kids down at seven 30. It's like, we do that for our [00:06:00] small, small children, right? Our babies and our toddlers. Because we know that they need that sleep. It's like, why do we just let it fall off the edge and forget as we're adults?
And even as kids are growing up. So that makes sense. So, sticking to the same schedule.
Tom: Alright. Uh, next one, number eight. Give yourself quiet or calm time. How long do you think before bed? Quiet or calm time?
Jeannie: I don't know, like Fifteen minutes.
Tom: One to two hours. Wow. And this is more just not like, you know, um, not doing something that's really stressful like doing work or things like that.
Number seven. Yep. Caffeine. Oh no. How many hours should you avoid it before bedtime?
Jeannie: Five?
Tom: Very good. Four to six. Excellent work. Everyone. I don't know
Jeannie: the answers. I'm not looking at the answers that totally makes sense because
Tom: caffeine stays in your body. Yes.
Jeannie: Yes. Yes. Yes. I feel like I kind of. Try not to even drink it after noon, personally.
Yeah, I think most
Tom: people, [00:07:00] yeah,
Jeannie: that's smart.
Tom: Yep, very, very good. Um, now that's obviously for adults and kids. For the adults, what do you think about alcohol? Alcohol help you sleep?
Jeannie: Listen, if you're my husband, the answer is yes.
Tom: The answer is yes and no.
Jeannie: Oh.
Tom: So, alcohol going down is a sedative. So people always say, oh no, I fall asleep.
Yep. Yep. Much much easier when I drink alcohol,
Jeannie: right?
Tom: Then my follow up question is Do you wake up in the middle of the night?
Jeannie: Yeah, it always
Tom: is It's so because it actually turns into a stim as you're digesting it. It actually turns into a stimulant So it's gonna wake you up so you don't get as good all that deep sleep that you need
Jeannie: Yeah,
Tom: you don't get that if you're you're drinking alcohol But
Jeannie: I feel like if I do have like a glass or two of wine I do always wake up in the middle of the night.
So that's interesting to know that it's also a stimulant.
Tom: Um Number six, light, easily digestible snack, but avoid heavy stuff before heavy, you know, heavy meal before bedtime. [00:08:00] I
Jeannie: totally agree with this. I feel like I am one of the only people my age, I eat at like four 30 or five. If I can, people that eat dinner at seven 30, I'm like, how do you do that?
How do you do that? I wouldn't be able to sleep,
Tom: but the idea is you also don't want to go to bed really hungry because then you'll wake up being hungry. So a nice light snack is okay.
Jeannie: Got it.
Tom: Yeah. Avoid some, some big meal. All right. Good. All right. So that's number six, five more to go.
Jeannie: Okay.
Tom: Exercise. What do you think is a good for sleep or bad for sleep?
Jeannie: Well, my guess is bad for sleep based on the previous one where it was like no rigorous exercise So maybe like a walk would be okay or something? Or no?
Tom: So exercise is very good for sleep as long as it's not close to sleep time.
Jeannie: Ah,
Tom: that totally makes sense. Yeah, people who exercise in the morning or even the afternoon, they're usually going to sleep better than somebody who doesn't exercise.
But if you're going out and running like a [00:09:00] 10k at night, 9 o'clock at night and you want to get to bed by 10. 30, it's probably not going to work.
Jeannie: Totally. So avoid that
Tom: rigorous exercise.
Jeannie: Totally makes sense. Yeah.
Tom: Alright.
Jeannie: Okay.
Tom: So here's the one. TV and smartphone.
Jeannie: Oh no.
Tom: How long should you avoid it before bed?
Jeannie: Well, if it, ugh, I don't know, 30 minutes?
Tom: Very good.
Jeannie: Really?
Tom: Yeah, exactly right.
Jeannie: I legitimately, I want Tom to know. I have the answers. I'm not looking at them. No, that's
Tom: good. Yeah, no.
Jeannie: Okay, I feel like that's good to know because I usually take the dogs for a short walk before bed. And then I'm like washing my face and everything.
So I feel like I am doing that. Exactly.
Tom: Perfect. Good. So it's 30 minutes.
Jeannie: Okay.
Tom: Alright. Excellent. Uh, number three. Set up an ideal sleep environment. Right.
Jeannie: So what are some things? So what would that, like mood, lighting? Why don't you take some guesses? Not mood. I keep saying mood. That sounds creepy. I don't mean like, hi, that's really gross.
I don't mean it that way. Like, like [00:10:00] dim lighting.
Tom: Exactly. So, yes. So you want dark. I mean, you want So like when you're, I'm talking about your room, like when you're sleeping. Oh, when you're actually sleeping, exactly. Yeah. Okay. So you want
Jeannie: very
Tom: dark. So if you have like blackout shades, those would be, those would be great.
Usually cool environment. I know you probably disagree with that.
Jeannie: No. No, a fun fact about me is I do like a cold. I am always cold. I do like a cold environment to go to sleep in, but it's so that, uh, it makes more sense for me to have my heating pad on because I do sleep with a heating pad every night.
Tom: Okay. Yeah. I knew you did. Yeah.
Jeannie: Yeah. So, but, but I think I like that because I want it to be cold and I want to feel warm and toasty underneath.
Tom: Okay. So that does make
Jeannie: sense.
Tom: Yeah. Yeah. Typically you mind cooler than hotter. You're
Jeannie: going to sleep
Tom: better. Another one would just be like. Making your bedroom only for, like, don't be on your computer and be working in your bedroom.
Totally. You want to kind of avoid any kind of stressful things happening in your bedroom. [00:11:00] Keep those outside the bedroom because then your brain starts to associate those stressful things with being in the bedroom and that's not a good combination for sleeping. This next
Jeannie: one, it
Tom: sounds like you have.
Oh, okay. Develop a regular relaxing bedtime
Jeannie: routine. I think, oh man. I think I could be better with this, but I do try to lean into it in the sense of like, when I'm washing my face, like, just trying to have the light sort of dim and having, like, Having a routine, I think, is important because it's sort of like my body kicks in and it's like, okay, we're making our way there.
Tom: Last one, and this is, uh, the one that helped me the most. That's why I, this was one I didn't know, um, but I started doing it and it helped me the most. Okay. So if you're awake and in bed
Jeannie: for
Tom: 20 minutes.
Jeannie: Okay.
Tom: Get up and go do a relaxing. Something relaxing, maybe read a book or something like that,
Jeannie: but up and out of bed in and out of it in a different get out of
Tom: the room.
Yeah, get out of the [00:12:00] get out of the room. Yeah, because if your brain starts to associate you being in bed, rolling around not being able to sleep
Jeannie: 100 percent brain
Tom: might start to associate you not sleeping with you being in bed. So you want to get up and get out. Do something again. You don't want to you know, pull out your smartphone and start getting really anxious and stressed by Doom scrolling.
Yeah, but doing something that's a little more relaxing, you know, you could yeah read an actual book Maybe take a bath take a shower something like that. Sure relaxing or just sit, you know and relax Yeah,
Jeannie: that totally that totally makes sense.
Tom: Hey, so there is the top 10 sleep tips for Kids and adults.
Yay! How does it
Jeannie: feel? Do you feel like David Letterman?
Tom: No.
Jeannie: No. I don't think so. I'm nowhere
Tom: near as funny. I don't have a long beard.
Jeannie: Those were so good though, and it's like all things that, they all feed into [00:13:00] each other. Like once you can kind of like start with one, like they really do. They all sort of work together.
Tom: And I think that's important what you just mentioned is for anybody listening to this just start with one of those Don't try to do all ten. So just start with one. There's one podcast I listen to that I've really started to like it's live long and well with dr Bobby and he in almost every episode he talks about an end of one study basically just You try yourself because everybody's different.
So yeah, the average person, one of these tips might work for the average person, but it might not work for you. So just pick one, you know, kind of track how well you're sleeping. Pick one of these things that we mentioned, try that for two, three weeks and track, are you able to sleep longer? Do you feel more refreshed when you wake up?
And if it's no, all right, throw that one out and try the next one.
Jeannie: Prioritizing your sleep and starting off small, taking one of these tips and utilizing it is, is so good for all of us. [00:14:00]
Tom: Yeah. And one thing that I've heard a lot is, you know, if I wake up early and I want to exercise, but I didn't get a lot of sleep, what should I do?
And everything that I've always heard is get the sleep because you can always make up the exercise later, later in the week. Yeah. And another one, one, one of my favorite. Uh, probably my favorite author is Daniel Pink. He's got a book called When and he talks about how he used to be like jealous of all these people that would come to him and say, yeah, I was up all night and I got all this work done and all this stuff.
And he was like, all right, I'm, I must be a wimp because I can't do this. And then he said, when he dove into the research, he realized, right, all these people are fools. They're not getting as much done because they're not refreshed. They're not focused. They don't, they don't have the mental clarity that you have.
If you get yours, you know, seven to nine hours or eight to 10 hours, if you're a kid sleep
Jeannie: a hundred percent. And I know, I mean, I can only imagine as a parent, particularly if young kids, how difficult it has to be for you to get your sleep after you put your kids down, you're trying to get all those things done.
But I think [00:15:00] that's why to reiterate what you said. One at a time, just do one of them and, and watch it improve.
Tom: I hope everybody enjoyed that episode and are going to try out some of those tips. And I'd say if you like this episode where, you know, Jeannie and I just kind of gave some tips in an interview, somebody, and you'd like more of these, let us know, leave some comments either on Spotify or on YouTube and let us know, and maybe we can do some more of these in future months.
Thanks so much for joining us and we'll see you in March.
Jeannie: Thanks for listening.
Tom: The Raising Resilient Kids Podcast is sponsored by Happy You're Here, educational, safe, and joyful videos for kids. Through music, visuals, and sound, your baby, toddler, and preschooler will learn about letters, numbers, and so much more.
Happy You're Here is quality screen time that both kiddos and their adults can feel good about. Head to www.youtube.com/sohappyyouarehere today. To check it out, or click on the link in the show notes.
Jeannie: The Raising Resilient Kids podcast is also sponsored by the [00:16:00] Resilient Youth Program.
If you're a parent, teacher, or school administrator who wants to incorporate a proven resiliency building program into your school's curriculum, then the Resilient Youth Teach the Teacher Program is exactly what you need. This curriculum brings coping skills and life management tools into the school environment to help students better manage daily stress and positively impact their academic performance, mental health, and well being.
For more information, visit the Resilient Youth Teach-the-Teacher website in the show notes, or at www.smarthwp.com/RY4Teachers. That's www.smarthwp.com/RY4Teachers.
The Raising Resilient Kids podcast is produced, hosted, and edited by brother and sister team Tom and Jeannie Klisiewicz.
Do you have a question you would like answered by one of our expert guests? If so, visit www. smarthwp.com/raisingresilientkidspodcast [00:17:00]. Thanks for listening.