Sleep - how much does your teen need? (And when is bedtime?)

[mirabillis]

My ds is almost 15 - and wanting a yet later bedtime. But he needs his sleep. Wondering what other hschoolers do for school day bedtime/weekend &or summer bedtime. And how much sleep they need?

 

My ds sleeps about 10-10.5 hours a day at present. I'd love to see what others do about bedtimes. :-) I feel the Hive kids are probably more in keeping with reality - than what you get when you Google teen bedtimes...

 

((bit of an offshoot from the " 

Edited May 31, 2017 by mirabillis

[Hilltopmom]

My 17 year old gets about 9 hours, because he likes to stay up late but can't sleep all day anymore due to commitments.

On his own, he sleeps 12 hours.

 

My 14 year old sleeps 10-12 hours every night.she stays up till about 10. Naps a few days a week too.

 

Before we had DE classes & internships going on, Ds went to bed when he wanted (2-3 AM for awhile) & then slept all day.

 

I go to bed before them.

Oldest stays up till 1-2 if I don't set a timer to remind him to head to bed. But he's almost an adult,I figure he's gotta start handling this on his own.

[Saddlemomma]

My DD is almost 15 and has a 9:30 PM bedtime.  School starts anywhere from 8 AM to 8:30 AM.  The interesting thing is that we told her a year ago that she could stay up till 10 PM, but she quickly abandoned that plan on her own and returned to 9:30 PM.

[Selkie]

My teens are 15, 16, and 18. They are free to stay up as late as they want, but they do have a mandatory weekday wakeup time of 7:30 AM because they have animals to feed and a long school day. They're asleep before midnight most weeknights. On weekends, they often stay up until around 2 AM. 

 

My oldest has always needed little sleep and is an early riser even on the weekends. My other two will happily sleep until noon or so if given the opportunity. 

[Heather in OK]

My kids do not have a set bedtime and have not for several years (their ages are in my signature).  I am of the opinion that they know their body and they need to learn to listen to and tune into what their body is telling them....not what Google says. 

 

We don't have a set school start time but they know what assignments they need to get done, what their chores are, what our schedule is (ie. classes or events outside the home), etc.  If there is a morning we have to be up and out the door by a certain time, they set an alarm if necessary.  We have yet to have an issue with someone not being ready or being exhausted to get up and get moving. 

 

[fourisenough]

My big kids (12 and up) go to bed whenever they want. In practice, that's usually by 10p. All are up by 7 at latest, but earlier if schedule dictates.

 

No night owls in our house.

[Garga]

Bedtime is 9:30 and he wakes at 6:30. That's 9 hours, but I think he needs more.

 

He gets up at 6:30 because school starts at 8 and it takes him that long to be ready. He likes a slow morning. We have to start at 8 so he's done in time for work, which starts at 4, or I'd let him sleep later.

 

Over the summer, I'm changing bedtime to 10 or 10:30 and then will let him sleep as long as he likes so we can figure out how much he needs. The reason I'm picking a bedtime in the summer and not just letting him do what he wants, is that I want to test how much sleep his body needs by creating a rock solid bedtime so that the body naturally winds itself down at the same time each day, so we can then see how long he needs to sleep in in the morning.

 

I have a feeling he'll need a full 10 or more hours of sleep. I'm not sure how to handle that next year, since he'll still have to get to work at 4 so we'll still have to start at 8. An 8:30 bedtime would feel a bit ludicrous for his age... I'll worry about that in August.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Garga

[Guest]

I let my teens set their own sleep schedules. I read something once that said it was biologically normal for teens to become night owls and sleep late. I forget the reasoning behind this, but I remember being justified in letting my teens sleep in. Lol

 

 

My teens go to bed when they want, and usually wake up late morning. If they aren't awake by noon, I wake them up. They sleep 10-12 hours a night, sometimes up to 14 hours. I homeschool the younger kids in the morning then the teens in the afternoon.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Kinsa

[Shellydon]

13 yo is in bed by 9:15 and sleeps until 7:30/8:00  Nearly 15 yo is asleep no later than 10:00 and is up around 7:30/8:00 as well

[elegantlion]

Ds needed at least 10-11 hours of sleep at that age, well he still does at almost age 20. We are not morning people, so he never really had a bedtime as a teen. We would school in the afternoon, which gave me all morning to do my chores, and when I started college, my homework and online classes. 

 

He has now finished two years of college with no issues about getting to school on time, we commute together. He had an 8:00 math class all year and did just fine. We're still not morning people. 

 

So the argument that kids won't know how to get up for college was not so in our case. Also, my dad worked second shift in a while collar job his entire career, he was so not a morning person either and rarely went to bed before 1 a.m. I imagine ds will not have a traditional 9 to 5 job either. 

 

In the summer ds was allowed to regulate his own time as long as chores were done. 

 

 

[Peaceful Isle]

My 15 yr old goes to bed at 10, my 13 yr old goes to bed at 9:30, and my 11 year old at 9. They usually get up between 7:30 and 8. School starts at nine.

My six year old goes to bed at 8:30, and doesn't get up till maybe 9 am. Thank you Lord! I love that he sleeps in :)

[J-rap]

We didn't set bed-times for our kids when they were around 15 and up, but I did feel that my #1 job as a mother of teens was making sure they got enough sleep.  (I'm not kidding!)  Most of my kids were self-regulating and knew when they needed to go to sleep.  But a couple became night-owls, and as long as they were homeschooling and it worked out okay, I let them do that and then sleep in.  If they ended up being in an activity that required them to wake up early, they pretty much figured out on their own that they needed to go to bed earlier then.  

If I could help them get to bed earlier by helping with a chore now and then, I'd do that.  Sleep is that important.

[foxbridgeacademy]

My kids are natural night owls and I let them sleep when they want.  Recently (the last year or so) they both have been going to bed earlier, DN has horrible insomnia so his schedule is always messed up).  For the most part DSD is the earliest to bed around 10 with DS usually by 11.  DD can flucuate from 7pm to 2 am depending on if she's on a "controlling" her life kick.  They all sleep around 10 hours.  I've not told them when to go to bed since they were about 10-ish.

[regentrude]

My kids never had a bed time past age 5. 

My DS didn't get home from sports practice in the city until around midnight,three days a week. 

My estimate is that my teens sleep around 8-9 hours.

[AK_Mom4]

DS21 and DD16 both need 10-12 hours a night. My older two have always gotten by with less 8-9.

 

During the school year, DD16 heads to her room by 9pm. She then showers and winds down for about an hour..

 

DS21 is partially nocturnal and battles insomnia. He gets his best sleep from 3am to 1-2pm.

[ritaespinal]

The average amount of sleep that teenagers get is between 7 and 7 ¼ hours. However, they need between 9 and 9 ½ hours (studies show that most teenagers need exactly 9 ¼ hours of sleep). Teenagers do not get enough sleep for a number of reasons: Shift in sleep schedule. :lol:

[Pawz4me]

Our boys never had set bed times after they were six or seven. DS18 has always preferred to go to bed around 10:30 or 11:00. If possible he'll sleep until 8:00 or 8:30 but he has no trouble getting himself up at 6:00. DS21 is a natural night owl and will probably always have a bit of a struggle dealing with an 8 to 5 world. I think when he was in high school he went to bed around 11:00. He was up around 7:15.

[SparklyUnicorn]

no clue...no set bed times here

 

[Carrie12345]

I have no idea!

 

They don't like mornings, but they're pretty much always able to get up when they need to, which might be 6 one day and 10 another.  They're 18, 15, and almost 14.  The 10 and 6yos are the ones who drag their feet in the morning, and they typically put themselves to bed before 9!

[RootAnn]

Eldest is a night owl and will sleep late if we don't wake her up. Next year, I plan to let her start school at 10. I have no idea what time she actually falls asleep since I am asleep by 9:30 most nights.

 

Dd#2 (rising freshman) has always needed a ton of sleep, goes to bed early (7, but doesn't go to sleep right away). She's up by 6 most days, but will sleep in until 7 if she was forced to stay up (sport, family trip, movie). So, 10-11 hours.

[wed1998]

My almost-15 year old has always had a set bedtime and he now naturally goes to bed every night about the same time (10PM).  He's an early riser, could probably use a couple more hours of sleep a night, and I think the discipline of a regular bedtime will always serve him well.  Besides, regular bedtimes are one of the most important recommendations for all of us, including adults, including those who have trouble going to sleep and staying asleep.  It certainly works in our house! :-)

[Donna]

Dd goes to bed around 11pm most nights and is up between 8-8:30am, starting school by 9...she likes to move slow at first in the morning. She easily gets up earlier if she needs to and will stays up later if she needs to.

[jewellsmommy]

Dd has always been a night owl who comes from a long line of night owls. The teenage years have made it even worse. She sleeps between 9 and 12 hours. I have been insisting that she be up and out of bed by noon on the weekdays. Even waking at noon, she moves in slow motion (think sloth speed) for the next 2 hours. 

 

Saturdays she has to get up by 8 for soccer games and similar on Sunday for church.

 

She says her goal is to work nights or have a job where she sets her own hours.  :lol:  Luckily for her, with her career goal, that may actually be possible.

[idnib]

DS13 is usually in bed around 10:00. I'm up at 7:15 and the kids are up at 8:00. We like a leisurely cooked breakfast with some reading so we don't start till 9:00. But this is a recent shift for us. It used to be an hour earlier but I pushed it out after learning that most teens do better with later start times. DD9 is just along for the ride even though she's not a teen yet.

[MerryAtHope]

Mine often slept 10-11 hours here. Sometimes only 9, and occasionally more (a few times after my oldest started college, he might come home from an afternoon class, crash, and not get up until the next morning--and he wasn't pulling all-nighters, he just was still going through some growing. Guys continue to get broader shoulders etc... into the early 20's, even if they aren't growing vertically much any more). 

 

We're all night owls here, especially since my dh is disabled and sometimes has an irregular sleep schedule. Bedtime was often around 11 or 12 on school nights, and later on the weekend--I just wasn't willing to say "No, you can't stay up and watch xyz on Netflix with your dad!" They needed time together, and sometimes night was when they could get it. School often started at 10 or 11 here and went until 6 ish. Do what works for your family.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

 

We have get ready for bed times. But that is to cut down the amount of noise when I'm ready to sleep.

 

They get 9-12 hours of sleep, depending on teen.

[Mom22ns]

I love seeing the variety. My kids were each different. Bedtime at that age was around 10:00, although I didn't police bedtimes by then. I just asked that they were in their rooms and quiet so everyone else could sleep.

 

My ds slept about 8 hours/night and was up at 6:00 every morning - I didn't wake him. His natural sleep habits didn't change until his senior year of high school. He hasn't been up at 6:00 in years now  :lol: .

 

Dd really needed 10-12 hours of sleep and still does. She slept until about 8:00 during high school and slept in when opportunities presented. While she functions best with a lot more sleep, she has also been the one who is best at getting up to an alarm at whatever time she needs to for whatever she wants to do. 

[mirabillis]

She says her goal is to work nights or have a job where she sets her own hours.  :lol:  Luckily for her, with her career goal, that may actually be possible.

 

i used to say that too. worked great early on, went to bed late, slept in late. then i had kids... ha! been up at the crack of dawn ever since. 

[...................]

My 15 yo goes to bed around 9:15 and wakes at 6:30. He likes his morning alone time and has always been a morning person, accomplishing the most before noon.

 

My 13 goes to bed at 9:15 and wakes anywhere from 7:30-8:30. Yes she sleeps up to 11 hours.

 

They both exercise a lot, eat healthy and have almost sugar free diet. No screen time an hour before bed. I do not jump into their bedrooms at exactly 9:15 becuade they're born pretty responsible and if they just need an extra 5 or ten minutes to read I'm ok with that.

 

I'm a little less lenient on my dd because if she goes to bed later she will wake up way too late.