Strong Start for a Productive 2nd Semester!
ByWhether your student is starting a new semester right after the New Year’s holiday or finishing the first semester and facing final exams, it will be most helpful to take at least 3 or 4 days to taper back into the eating and sleeping patterns of the normal school day and week.
Most of us have stayed up later (sometimes a whole lot later) than the usual weekday times we are used to. The body’s Circadian (sleeping and waking) rhythms can get very off track if we vary our normal sleep patterns more than 2 hours from the usual. While a performance drop will usually not be noticable during the holidays it is still likely to be there. If you are doing very different activities from your usual ones it is easy to overlook the fact that you or your child are not your usual self. We get caught up in the holiday events and may not notice we are feeling a little tired. Or we may just be so pumped by all the excitement and festivities we are not feeling tired until the end of the day.
The important thing to remember is to ease your student back into the routine sleeping time 3 or 4 days in advance of returning to school.
Best of luck to all for a happy, productive and stress free second semester!
