The end of the school year is in sight, and the lingering light is already messing with my kids' bedtimes, even before the joyous anarchy of vacation has set in. These past few bright evenings, I’ve had to field protests of “but it’s not time to go to sleep–it’s still day!” And despite my strongest efforts to maintain order, I feel a healthy bedtime slipping through our fingers.

Jane Brody, in the New York Times last week, reminds us of the all-too-frequent disconnect between how many hours our kids need vs. how many they are actually getting. She suggests using the last few weeks of school and then summer vacation to record a “sleep diary,” to compare how much sleep they get on school days, to how much they will settle into without a schedule. The article also cautions that sleep deprivation poses “three strikes against learning,” because “what is learned during the day is consolidated during sleep.”

As a parent of a child with sleep problems and learning difficulties, such an article is always a special kind of torture, a reproach that my six-year-old Night Owl is being starved for the very nocturnal nourishment that might ease her challenges. Ditto the research suggesting that inadequate sleep may actually worsen attention disorders.<!--more-->

Many children with sensory integration or attention difficulties, and also some children on the Autism spectrum, struggle with quieting their minds and bodies at night and falling asleep on their own–but it took us a while to figure this out. I wish someone had written a book for us when she was a baby, because the battalion of sleep manuals on my nightstand those first couple of years were all but useless. Ditto the well-meaning doctors and therapists we asked. None of the rocking, crying it out, "gradual extinction," or chamomile tea put her any closer to dreamland.

It wasn’t until we entered the realm of occupational therapists and special education teachers (and talked to other parents in the same boat) that we started getting somewhere. It has taken some doing, but we’ve consolidated some of the helpful suggestions we’ve collected into a routine that, with effort and consistency, works for us.

Sleep coach Brooke Nalle, of Sleepy On Hudson, confirms that children with sensory processing issues, or “highly alert” children, often need something extra at bedtime. Drawing from O.T.s' toolboxes, she recommends heavy blankets and massages at bedtime to help organize the nervous system–but more than anything stresses the importance of a nighttime routine that is “100% consistent,” one that has a definite, predictable beginning and end.

As far as summer hours go, this translates as sticking to the schedule as much as possible. She also suggests keeping children out in the daylight during vacation time and, as difficult as it may be, wake them up in the morning at a regular time. These suggestions are especially valuable for children like Night Owl, but can apply to any youngster who is not a dream sleeper.

Usually, my family casts aside thoughts of school during the summer, but this year, reminded of how important sleep is for learning, and knowing the price we pay every fall for our summer freedom, our "work" will be to keep our daughter on track for a smooth September.