A 10-year-old who cannot settle until 10 pm and wakes dragging on school mornings is not simply being difficult. A study published in Sleep Health in December 2024 found that a child’s natural sleep timing and her bedtime habits influence each other over time. When habits slip, sleep runs later. When sleep runs later, habits tend to slip further.
For parents, this changes where to start. Every child has a natural preference for morning or evening activity, and genetics plays a part. That preference cannot be reset through enforcement alone. But the light in the room at 8 pm, the phone on the nightstand, the time the house quiets down and whether the child wakes at the same time on weekends all predict how sleep timing shifts over the following year. Those are things families can change.
What the New Study Found About Children’s Body Clocks
Chronotype and sleep hygiene appear to influence each other over time
Researchers at Idaho State University followed 246 children aged 8 to 12 across three time points, each about one year apart. They used the Morningness/Eveningness Questionnaire to measure chronotype and the Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale to assess sleep habits. The scale covers eight domains, including sleep environment, bedtime routine, substances, sleep stability, daytime sleep, physiological arousal, behavioral arousal and cognitive/emotional arousal before bed.
The longitudinal study found that chronotype predicted sleep hygiene one year later (b=.38 at both the T1-to-T2 and T2-to-T3 intervals). It also found that sleep hygiene predicted chronotype one year later (b=.27 from T1 to T2 and b=.24 from T2 to T3). All four paths were statistically reliable (p<.05).
A child’s natural sleep timing held fairly steady from year to year. Bedtime habits did not. A child whose habits slipped tended to wake and sleep later the following year. A child who was already sleeping later tended to develop worse habits the year after. Each reinforced the other.
Half of parents involved in the study had a history of alcohol use disorder. That turned out not to predict either chronotype or sleep hygiene in the children. That finding does not tell the whole story of family mental health and sleep. It shows only that parental alcohol use disorder did not emerge as a predictor in this particular model.
Why eveningness can make bedtime routines harder
Children who naturally sleep late have a biological drive toward later bedtimes and later wake times. They are more likely to keep irregular schedules, use electronics near bedtime and score lower on sleep hygiene measures.
The two reinforce each other. A later natural sleep timing makes it harder to keep a steady bedtime. A broken routine then delays sleep further. The cycle continues unless something changes. School mornings do not move, so the child ends up sleeping less overall. The AASM consensus recommends 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours for children aged 6 to 12 and 8 to 10 hours for teenagers 13 to 18. Children whose sleep naturally runs late are among the least likely to hit those targets on school nights.
Why Middle Childhood Is a Sensitive Sleep Period
Children gain more control over bedtime habits
From around age 8 onward, parents become less involved in and less aware of their children’s bedtime routines. Children begin managing their own time before bed and making their own choices about devices, wind-down routines and how they spend the last hour before sleep. That is normal at this age. What children do in that hour, and whether they do it consistently, can shift their natural sleep timing later or help keep it steady.
The habits children settle into during late primary school and early secondary school can affect their sleep timing in the years that follow.
Puberty and school schedules can push sleep later
During puberty, the timing of melatonin onset shifts by roughly one to two hours, pushing the body toward later sleep. This biological shift coincides with more extracurricular activities, homework and social demands. School start times often do not accommodate it, and the result for many children is chronic short sleep on school nights and heavy catch-up sleep at weekends.
Social jetlag is the gap between a child’s natural sleep timing and the school schedule. It widens when that timing already runs late. Children caught between a late natural sleep timing and an early school start are more likely to have disrupted or insufficient sleep.
Related: more from our sleep patterns articles.
How Sleep Hygiene Works for Real Families
Sleep hygiene sounds clinical. In practice, it describes everyday household decisions about when devices go away, how bright the lights are before bed, what the child eats in the evening and how the last hour before sleep is spent. If you are not sure where to start, check wake time, screens in the bedroom, caffeine after school, bedroom light in the final hour and whether there is a consistent wind-down routine before bed.
Consistent wake times, bedtime routines and light exposure
A consistent wake time, including weekends, does more for sleep timing than an early bedtime alone. The Irish et al. review of sleep hygiene evidence found that children and adults with irregular sleep schedules tended to sleep worse, though the review also notes that not all specific sleep hygiene tips have been tested in healthy everyday families, so results vary. A simple wind-down routine before bed, even 20 to 30 minutes the child handles themselves, helps the brain recognize that sleep is coming.
Morning light advances the body’s sleep timing. Evening light delays it. Dimming the lights in the hour before bed, even without special equipment, helps move sleep timing earlier. Families sharing small apartments or single bedrooms can still dim the overhead lights without rearranging the room.
Shared mealtimes and a predictable evening, the kinds of family routines that shape child sleep schedules, give a child something reliable to attach her own wind-down routine to. This is especially useful for children who find it hard to settle toward sleep when the household is unpredictable.
Screens, gaming and social time before bed
The screen time and sleep review found that 90% of published studies reported adverse effects of screen use on at least one sleep outcome for children. Children who had a device in their bedroom at night got less sleep and reported lower sleep quality, even when they were not actively using it. Adolescents who gamed problematically slept about 20 fewer minutes per night.
Three things drive this. Screen light slows melatonin release, which is the chemical signal that tells the brain to wind down. Engaging content and online social interactions are genuinely hard to stop. And time on a screen pushes back time in bed. How screens before bed can affect behavior is a pattern that shows up in children younger than school age and continues into the teens.
Many families find that moving devices out of the bedroom entirely is less conflicted than negotiating a nightly cut-off time. Families who struggle with this can start by having devices charge outside the bedroom overnight. For older children who use devices for homework, agreeing on a handover time once study is done is easier than watching the clock each night. The goal is to protect the last hour before the target bedtime from bright screens and stimulating content.
Caffeine, activity and emotional wind-down
Caffeine is easy to overlook in children. Energy drinks, colas, some iced teas and some flavored coffees are now common in the diets of children as young as 10. The Irish et al. review confirms that caffeine delays sleep onset and reduces sleep duration. The study’s sleep hygiene scale includes a substances subscale for this reason.
Physical activity helps most children sleep. The Irish et al. review found that current evidence does not reliably support the idea that exercising late in the evening disrupts sleep. Families can plan sport, play or a walk at whatever time of day works, without worrying it will cost the child sleep.
Emotional and cognitive arousal before bed can delay sleep onset even when the body is tired. Worry, conflict and stimulating content all contribute. For some children, food choices that can complicate sleep routines add to the picture. Large late meals, sugary snacks or stimulating drinks can compound the difficulty falling asleep.
How Parents Can Support a Child Who Seems Like a Night Owl
Shift schedules gradually instead of forcing abrupt changes
The researchers found that a child’s natural sleep timing can shift with the right conditions. Brighter morning light and earlier routines can move a late sleeper toward earlier sleep. But sleep timing drifts back when those conditions stop. Gradual, consistent changes work better than abrupt ones, and the new schedule needs to hold, because sleep timing will drift later again if the pressure lifts during summer, illness or exam weeks.
A practical approach is to move the target bedtime and wake time earlier by 15 minutes every few days, rather than jumping to a new schedule overnight. Keeping weekend wake times within an hour of school-night wake times stops sleep timing from drifting back at weekends.
Protect sleep opportunity before focusing on discipline
Before treating late sleep as a discipline problem, check whether the child has enough time in bed to reach the AASM-recommended hours. A secondary school student who needs to be at school by 8 am and whose bus leaves at 7:15 am needs to be asleep by 10 pm for eight hours of sleep. If that student is finishing homework at 9:30 pm, the problem is a packed schedule, not willpower. Looking at which children may benefit from an earlier bedtime can help families work out whether the issue is structural (not enough hours available) or behavioral (hours available but not used well).
Understanding why more time in bed may not mean better sleep is also useful. A child who lies awake for an hour before sleeping is not getting eight hours of sleep from eight hours in bed. A child needs both enough time in bed and actual sleep during that time.
Give older children autonomy inside clear sleep boundaries
Children in this age range are gaining real control over what they do before bed. Treating a 12-year-old’s sleep problem as something to enforce rather than something to understand often makes the conflict worse without improving the sleep.
A child this age choosing to stay up does not always know why she cannot sleep earlier. Her natural sleep timing runs late, her phone is in the room and her homework finished at 9:30 pm. Recognizing that she is not choosing all of that makes it easier to address the pieces that are actually changeable.
Agreeing together on when devices go away, when the lights dim and when the target sleep time is gives the child ownership of the routine. When it slips, and it will, the conversation is about returning to an agreed plan, not breaking a parent’s rule.
That might involve reducing late activities, ending games earlier, preparing school items before dinner or moving homework out of the bedroom. Families in shared spaces or with shift-working parents will need to adapt these to their own setup. The structure can be flexible. Keeping the wind-down signal consistent at the end of the day is what counts.
When Sleep Patterns Need More Than Routine Changes
Daytime sleepiness, snoring, anxiety or persistent insomnia
Good routines alone cannot fix every sleep problem in children. Daytime sleepiness that does not improve after a week or two of consistent early sleep is worth examining. Snoring, gasping or restless sleep at night can point to breathing problems during sleep that routine changes do not address. Anxiety that prevents sleep may need different support. This includes genuine difficulty quieting the mind, distressing thoughts at bedtime or fears that a child cannot control on their own.
Children who sleep too little are more likely to struggle with attention, behavior, learning, memory and managing their emotions. They also face higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure and depression. Persistent sleep difficulty in children, even when it does not meet clinical criteria for a disorder, deserves attention.
When to speak with a pediatrician or sleep specialist
If a family keeps a consistent routine for several weeks and the child is still struggling, if a child falls asleep regularly in school or cannot function in the afternoons, or if there are any signs of breathing disturbances at night, a pediatrician is the right next step. AAP guidance on sleep and whole child health can help families prepare for that conversation.
Child sleep specialists and pediatric psychologists are also an option if the child’s sleep has not improved with good routines and there is no clear medical reason. Qualified sleep consultants can help families put behavioral strategies in place without a clinical referral.
Sleep habits shift more easily than natural sleep timing does. The work parents put into earlier bedtimes, consistent wake times and calmer evenings has a real effect on when the child’s body settles into sleep in the years that follow.
References
Gomes, K., & Goldman, R. D. (2024). Screen time and sleep in children. Canadian Family Physician, 70(6), 388-392. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11280700/
Irish, L. A., Kline, C. E., Gunn, H. E., Buysse, D. J., & Hall, M. H. (2015). The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: A review of empirical evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 22, 23-36. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4400203/
Paruthi, S., Brooks, L. J., D’Ambrosio, C., Hall, W. A., Kotagal, S., Lloyd, R. M., Malow, B. A., Maski, K., Nichols, C., Quan, S. F., Rosen, C. L., Troester, M. M., & Wise, M. S. (2016). Consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine on the recommended amount of sleep for healthy children: Methodology and discussion. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(11), 1549-1561. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5078711/
Tussey, E. J., Hillebrant-Openshaw, M., & Wong, M. M. (2024). Bidirectional relationships between chronotype and sleep hygiene in children with and without parental history of alcohol use disorder. Sleep Health, 10(6), 658-664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2024.09.007