Summer Challenge: Dial in Getting Enough Rest

Julia Grover-Barrey OTR/L
Founder of In-Tuned®

I close out the school year thinking about how hard my students worked. Whether it was transitioning between on-line and in-person learning with little faces covered or changes in how we were able to work together. ALL did their best to adjust, worked their hearts out…most looked in need of a long summer’s nap.

This time of year, parents spend a lot of time and financial resources to secure meaningful camp or skills venue experiences for their children. And with our world starting to open “quasi” post-pandemic the pressure may be more than usual. I say “RESIST”.

 2020-21 has been stressful on the human nervous system. Co-regulation between parent and child has been challenged with some parents working from home, home schooling and dealing with many unknowns. A year of breathing in your own CO2 from mask use has been enough of a stressor, but masks covering the familiar smiles of teachers and classmates has left a “something’s missing” in our social interactions.

Make time for novel experiences yes, but really make time this summer to help the nervous system recover, consolidate what WAS already learned this past school year and get wired for a great 2021-22 school year.

Sleep, or deep rest, is the best way for the nervous system to do much needed neural pruning to ensure strong connectivity and well-worn pathways for optimal functioning. Sleep, or deep rest, is when the nervous system lays down sensorimotor learning for physical activities done during the day and when neural plasticity is at work to move the nervous system forward.

Keeping a regular sleep-wake cycle, especially for our sensory challenged children is important. Dosing with regular natural light exposure by playing outdoors, especially early in the morning and in the evening to prime the circadian clocks governing this sleep-wake cycle and providing structured activities not requiring talking nor staring at screens…ALL important for nervous system recovery from what seemed like a long school year.

Achieving a state of deep rest is one of my goals for summer 2021 so I’m in a better position to teach, learn and serve.

Julia