Best bed times by age?
mattbeckwith
crazy, but I seem to remember going to bed when it was light outside
when I was a kid. My 6-year-old stepson occasionally actually goes
to bed at 10:00, but that's an early night.
Personally, I'd like to have an hour or more of quiet time for adults.
My parents used to eat dinner after we were in bed.
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Vicki Robinson
>Is there any consensus on the best bed times by age? I may be
>crazy, but I seem to remember going to bed when it was light outside
>when I was a kid. My 6-year-old stepson occasionally actually goes
>to bed at 10:00, but that's an early night.
>
>Personally, I'd like to have an hour or more of quiet time for adults.
>
My kids went to bed at 7:30 until about 3rd grade, when it went to 8:00.
That unofficially stretched out to 9:00 up to about 6th grade (about 12 years
old for the non-North Americans out there), and in 8th grade, they are
allowed to choose their own time, but encounter parental frowns after 10:00
on school nights.
A six year old should be getting about 11 hours of sleep a night, if I recall
correctly, so it also depends on what time he gets up.
I agree that small kids ought to be in bed in plenty of time for the adults
to have some time to themselves.
>My parents used to eat dinner after we were in bed.
>
Mine did too, but that was because my dad had odd hours and they rarely ate
before 9:30 pm.
Vicki
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Linda Neal
>
> Is there any consensus on the best bed times by age? I may be
> crazy, but I seem to remember going to bed when it was light outside
> when I was a kid. My 6-year-old stepson occasionally actually goes
> to bed at 10:00, but that's an early night.
When my stepson was your stepson's age, he went to bed at 7:30 - 8:00.
He could read in bed for a while if he wanted to. Since both his dad
and I work, he always had to get up early to go to pre-school or
before-and-after care. Last school year, he (then 12, in 7th grade)
went to bed at 9:00 on school nights, 10:00 on weekends. He still likes
to read in bed as he winds down from his day. I remember clearly that
when I was 12, I also went to bed at 9:00. Kids need their sleep and
parents need their time together!
Linda
Andrew&Posey
are in bed by 7. And we eat our meal after they've gone to bed.
Of course, this only works well for us because their mother doesn't set a
bedtime for them, and they usually stay up until 10 or so... no comment!!!
Posey
Tracey
Probably going to get alot of different answers on this one.
But, I have to say, my son will be 11 this October, and he's
just NOW getting to stay up until 10pm (on school nights.)
Last year, his bedtime was 9:30 (except on the nights 7th
Heaven was on <grin>.)
My 3 year old has a 'flexible' bedtime because I'm a SAHM.
It pretty much depends on how she's acting (as in if she's
really whiny, she can be put to bed as early as 8, if she's
in a 'good' mood <and *I* am, too!>, she might get to stay
up until we go to bed (which is rarely after 10pm ourselves,))
but she also doesn't have to be up at any specific time.
Most nights, it's 9pm and she's in bed.
I'm with you. A bedtime of 9 for my son always left me with
an hour or so of 'alone' time for me.
Don't pediatricians recommend 10-12 hours of sleep for kids?
You could work backwards from when he gets up.
Tracey
lphillips
even teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep per night. I have a 17 yo SS who
pretends to go to bed only to prowl the house and sit on the computer until
12-1 am after we have gone to bed. He has to get up by 7:15 to go to work
and I think he doesn't get enough sleep which leads to a foul temper. Not to
mention the fact that he has no business roaming the house and the internet
after we go to bed.
mattbeckwith wrote in message ...
>Is there any consensus on the best bed times by age? I may be
>crazy, but I seem to remember going to bed when it was light outside
>when I was a kid. My 6-year-old stepson occasionally actually goes
>to bed at 10:00, but that's an early night.
>
>Personally, I'd like to have an hour or more of quiet time for adults.
>
>My parents used to eat dinner after we were in bed.
>
>
Rose
weekends and summer.
My 11 year old SS has a bedtime of 9:00, but we allow him to read and
listen to his radio for about a half an hour. He's usually asleep by then
anyway.
Rose
Vicki Robinson
>Not to
>mention the fact that he has no business roaming the house and the internet
>after we go to bed.
>
When you go to bed, take the power cord to the computer with you.
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lilbl...@my-dejanews.com
"mattbeckwith" <mattbe...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Is there any consensus on the best bed times by age?
My stepson is eight.
On a school night, he's in bed between 8:30 and 9:00. When it's not a school
night, he may get away with staying up until 10:00--provided he hasn't had a
really active day or thrown one of his "I haven't been getting enough sleep
lately" tantrums.
lil
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lilbl...@my-dejanews.com
vic...@panix.com (Vicki Robinson) wrote:
> A six year old should be getting about 11 hours of sleep a night, if I recall
> correctly, so it also depends on what time he gets up.
LOL! Sorry, Vicki...I *do* agree with what you're saying. But my stepson's
internal alarm has *always* gone off at dawn...if he were to get 11 hours
sleep, even when he was six, he'd have to go to bed right after school! :-)
Sharyn
Sometimes we let them stay up as late as 9:30 but usually it is 9:00. And
they usually are still bed until 8:00 or 8:30. Now I don't know how it will
be with school. This may be the first year we have them for school. I guess
we will have to wait and see.
Sharyn
--
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----Author Unknown
janelaw
>
> Is there any consensus on the best bed times by age? I may be
> crazy, but I seem to remember going to bed when it was light outside
> when I was a kid. My 6-year-old stepson occasionally actually goes
> to bed at 10:00, but that's an early night.
>
>
It depends so much on the circumstances. My 11 yo needs 10
hrs/night. One night with less, and she's a mess. Since her
bus leaves at 7 a.m., this means bed time is 8 p.m. Currently,
we have no bed time while school is out. She stayed up much
later at 6 yo, because we had a looser morning schedule, and she
still had the option of a nap.
OTOH, her cousin, who is now 13 yo, can stay up too late for
days, then sleep all weekend. So his parents let him self
regulate. But they have a huge house.
We resolve the parent time issue by imposing a bed time whether
the kids are tired or not. They can go to their rooms and read,
listen to music (with headphones), write letters, etc. Six is
probably too young for that, but again, it depends on your kid.
Once, when my work schedule changed, my daughter's had to adjust
with it. I did this by waking her up 5 minutes earlier every
few days and gradually moving up her bed time.
Also, your wife may really enjoy her evening ritual with her
son.
Ed Lazarowitz
depending upon the next days' activities.
Although we do try and make it a uniform "lights-out" by 9:30pm during
the week, she has occasionally stayed up as late as 11:00pm on the
weekend if there's something exceptional going on.
The reason for the earliest bedtime is she is an ice dancer and we
occasionally have to get up in the pre-dawn hours to get to the rink
for ice time.
Of course, this is all predicated on her; if she needs more sleep, she
gets to bed earlier.
Lazer
Merrie
teeth, put on PJ's and be read to. After that if he's not sleepy he can
read by himself til he turns out the light and goes to sleep, not past 9
pm. If bath required, start a half hour earlier.
The indirect question: "Get the kid in bed by 9 o'clock and get a
life!" I'm quoting a behavioral pediatrician in regards to my
hyperactive then 11 year old stepson. You need to have a talk with your
wife about getting some private time together each evening. Please,
please, please be willing to help out and hopefully she can be flexible
in making it happen. Maybe you make dinner while she bathes the child
so you can all eat right after and then she puts him to bed while you do
dishes; then you are both have time together.
Merrie
mattbeckwith wrote:
>
> Is there any consensus on the best bed times by age? I may be
> crazy, but I seem to remember going to bed when it was light outside
> when I was a kid. My 6-year-old stepson occasionally actually goes
> to bed at 10:00, but that's an early night.
>
Neuminosum
reading. During the summer, the kids go to bed at dark (usually). When school
is in, the kids, who are now 8, 9 and 11, go to bed at 8:15, 8:45 and 9:00
respectively. They all know that they can stay up reading as late as they want
to, but bed time is set. We've done this since the kids were very small and
could hold their own books - they love reading in bed and it takes the edge off
bedtime.
Vicki Robinson
I did this too. My kids have reading lights attached to the
headboards of their beds and may read as late as they wish. This has
always been the case. They had to go to bed on time and the room
lights needed to be out, but I usually ended up turning off the light,
taking off their glasses and putting their books on the floor before I
went to bed. I've done this since my 14 yo was two; she had a tape
recorder and taped books and would "read" through the book as the tape
played. There was a chime or musical note that signaled her to turn
the page. She learned to read at three, so we could retire the
recorder, which was costing a fortune in batteries!
Reading is a nice segue into sleep for kids.
Vicki
lbdcre...@juno.com
vjr...@canoe.xcski.com (Vicki Robinson) wrote:
> I did this too. My kids have reading lights attached to the
> headboards of their beds and may read as late as they wish.
LOL! This reminds me of my own childhood and I sure wish *we* had lights on
our headboards (or headboards, now that I think about it!).
We had the same rule in our house, but we didn't have lamps or any luxury
like that. My mom would leave the back hall light on and our door open a few
inches, so that we could see to read but still have enough darkness to fall
asleep when we wanted to.
It had a serious drawback, though! As a child, I was terrified of the night.
We had a fairly old home and the back door wasn't very secure--if you
rattled it rapidly between your two palms, the lock would slip back and you
could get in. This was great if we forgot our keys, but awful when we were
lying awake at night after everybody'd gone to bed! And if Mom and Dad
decided to go to bed while I was still reading, I was pretty much awake and
terrified for the rest of the night.
Dad finally put a huge deadbolt on it when I was about thirteen or fourteen
and he discovered I wasn't getting any sleep, but things were pretty scary up
until then!