Bed Times - Peoria,IL

10 year old/4th grade
Shower done by 8:00, snack, to bed by 9. Lights out by 9:30.
He's up at 7:30ish.

Weekends? No bedtime.
Summer? No bedtime.
(Earlier bedtime IF we have an early commitment though!)

My school night goal is 7:30 pm for my almost-4 and almost-6 year old boys. Sometimes, with after school activities, its closer to 8, but I push hard for 7:30. My boys have to get up at 6:30, though, because we leave the house at 7am. My boys are usually sound asleep when I go in to get them, though if I were to let them sleep they'd wake up themselves by 7am.

I have 2 kids, who are 6 and 10.
The wind-down process, starts at about 7:30pm. Keeling things down.
They both go to bed at 8:00pm. And by the time they fall asleep, it can be 8:30. I know that. So that is why the bedtime, is 8:00pm. I want them to be fallen asleep... by 8:30pm.

I also KNOW my kids and how many hours they need to get adequate sleep. Hence, their bedtime is 8:00pm. And they are ready for it and fall asleep well.
They wake up the next morning, about 6:30am. On their own. They are rested.
However, if they sleep later, they are tired the next day.
I know that.
It is my "job" to know, their sleep needs.
My Husband doesn't even know.
I tell him time and time again, if the kids sleep later... the next day they are tired, they go to school and get more tired, then they come home after school and are CRANKY (not fun for me), and they are too tired to do homework.
SO... the next day, ALSO has to be kept, in mind.

When my kids were younger, if they slept late or later at night... they would of course be tired the next day and cranky/fussy. AND it took them, about 2 days... JUST to catch up, on their sleep.

Because you were in a conversation recently and your children's bedtimes seemed early to them, here's a chart that states how much sleep a child needs. A 3 year old needs 10-12 hours depending on the child, a 7 year old needs 10-11.
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/sleep-children

In view of that I look at the time I need my child up in the morning and backtrack the number of hours sleep he needs to determine his bedtime. My guy is almost 4, he needs to be up by 8 am, and requires about 10-10.5 hours sleep. So bedtime (when he is actually in bed) is no later than between 9 and 9:30, we start our routine 30 minutes earlier. He usually wakes on his own at 7:45-7:50 am. He's ready to go and it's about the same in the summer.

So, we do a kind of strange bedtime, but let me explain...

Kiddo (nearly 6 y.o.) is ready for bed at 7. We read to him for 20 minutes (recommended reading time per day for kids, and we might not get to reading to him earlier). Then, at 7:20 or so, we let him have 'quiet time' in his room until 8 pm on school nights; 8:30 on weekends. Quiet time means drawing, books, Legos (but only on non-school nights), magnet sets, etc. He's been working on making comic books/books lately and writing/drawing. This is relaxing for him and give my husband and I some time to take care of our own things.

He is up between 6 or 7 in the morning, with plenty of time to get ready for school.

We might let things go a little later in summer, but not too much. That said, if he's lying awake 20 minutes after 'lights out', then he's allowed to look quietly at a couple of books. This helps him to relax better than making him just lie there. We also take this on a case by case basis-- as in, if he's been misbehaving, he may lose his stay-up time. OR if he's popping out and asking for attention, then it's just straight to bed.

Well, I have to get DD to before care at school by 6:50am or so, so she is always in bed no later than 8pm. I think we're actually going to move it back up to 7:30pm-ish because she's been having a hard time getting up in the morning.

I don't put too much stock into what other people are doing with their kids. We do what works with our lifestyle and what will benefit DD the most. She doesn't do welll with late bedtimes, because she's up early no matter what.

My almost six year olds are in bed with lights out by 7:15. They wake up around 6:15, which is great for our schedule. They have time to talk a bit (they are twins and share a room), leisurely get dressed, have a family breakfast, and leave for school at 7:30.

An 8 o'clock bedtime for a seven year old sounds normal to me. If my kids get less than 10.5 hours of sleep they're whiny and cranky the next day.

The kids are 10 and 12. Lights out at 9 pm, but they share a room and usually whisper to each other for awhile. The 12 year old gets up at 6:15, the 10 year old at 7:30. They are not hard to get up in the morning.

In summer and on weekends, they often stay up later. If only that meant they would sleep in later...

I don't think 7:30 and 8 is too early for a 3 and 7 year old. If that works with your household, then great. I know someone with a 3 year old that goes to bed at 10 or 11pm, but kiddo and mom also sleep until 9-10am. That works for them, for now.

To Gamma: what the heck? When kids have school or must be up early so their parent can take them to daycare and get to work, an earlier bedtime is necessary. Keeping a child up late to spend time with them when they NEED the sleep is not good parenting, it is selfishness.

I truly cannot imagine having kids and not wanting to spend time with them.

That's what I get out of this type post. Why not let the kids stay up and do stuff with them. It's not like they need to go to bed so early, unless they get up by 5am. If parents didn't put their kids to bed as soon as dinner was over they might stay taking naps a little longer too.

I just feel so sorry for those kids. They could be outside playing and running around, riding their bikes and playing with the neighbors. Instead they are inside while the neighborhood kids are outside doing those fun things. My parents put me to bed at 8 during school and 8:30 in summer. All the neighborhood kids would stand around my window and make fun of me. It's wasn't my fault they wanted to watch TV or read or whatever. Kids should be able to spend time with their family.

All I can say is kids don't need 12 hours of sleep and if they go to bed by 7 they should be getting up around 5 or 6. That's just too early for me, I'd rather have some time in the mornings to organize my day and get it all sorted out before kids erupt.

Truly, I don't have a single friend that even starts bedtime before 8pm, and very few of my friends have less than 3 kids, on average I think that 5 is the norm for our group, I was only able to carry my daughter but she has 7 kids and I am raising a couple of them. They have never gone to bed before 9pm and they do quite well. They sleep until about 7:30, well, that's the boy and then the girl will sleep until 10 or later if I let her. She's a bit slow in the morning but as soon as she's awake she's ready to go.

She has never fallen asleep on her own during a quiet time in the evening when the baby was taking a nap or anything like that. So if she was tired she'd fall asleep on her own.

So yes, I think your kids bedtime is ridiculously early but it's not my choice to make.

6 yr old - 7:30 or 8 bed - 6:30 rise
nearly 4 yr old - 7 or 7:30 bed - 6:00 rise
nearly 2 yr old - 7 or 7:30 bed - 7:00 rise

The only time it is hard to get them up is if they stay up more than about 30 minutes past their normal bed times. They usually wake me up in the morning, as they are well rested.

ETA: This works perfectly for us, since we have to be driving away from our home by 7:15 in order to get my son to school on time.

Bedtime for my 3.5 and 5.5 year olds is just like yours - starting at 7 and usually done with books, teeth, prayers, etc by 730. Sometimes they fall asleep right away. Other times it's closer to 8. When it IS 8am, I can tell the next evening because my daughter is EXHAUSTED. I swear that 1/2 hour makes a huge difference for her!

My daughter is up between 545-615 on school days. She has to be ready for the bus by 7am and likes me to help get her ready before I leave for work at 615. She also likes to sit on the couch and watch 1/2 hour of cartoons before she leaves...and knows this is only possible if she gets up that early. She has the choice to sleep in until 630 and have dad get her ready but chooses to get up earlier.

In the summer we aren't as strict about bedtimes, but they usually get up at the SAME time every day - between 6-7am so we do not let them stay up much later than 830pm. They DO need 10-12 hours of sleep but on average get around 10.

My kids bedtime is the earliest of anyone I know, too...but this is what works for us and the other kids I know wake up later on school days and sleep later in the summer. Once my kids start to do this, we'll let them stay up later in the summers!

Our daughter never really had a set bedtime.
Our goal was for her to be in bed by 8 or 8:30. until she was in 4th grade.. then she could decide. She could read as late as she wanted.

All of this was based on the understanding, she HAD to get up in the morning and attend school.. She had to be up by 6:30 am. I never wanted to hear she was too tired for school. She also had to keep her grades up.

If she said she was tired, I would remind her that she stayed up the night before..

She learned very quickly how much time she needed for sleep.

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Can I just answer...NOW? (Seriously, I want them to go to bed now...sigh. It's been a long day.) ;)

Since we homeschool, there's no specific time we get up. Before the time changed, they were in bed around 8 and up around 7, but for the last few days they've been getting up closer to 8, 8:30.

Bedtime for my soon to be 8 year old is 8:00, regardless. During the summer, if we have some sort of activity planned that keeps her up past that, okay, but if we're just sitting around, I still have her go to bed at that time. My soon to be 3 year old doesn't have a specific bedtime yet, due to a lot of transitions and changes in her schedule, but the latest she stays up is 9:00.

I don't know how children can stay up until 9 or 10 and then get up at 6 in the morning...I suppose it must work, because I think that's a very typical schedule...but both of my children still need about 11 hours of sleep a night.

My boys are seven and ten. They go to bed at 10:00pm, and wake up on their own at 8:00am. Sometimes they read in bed for a half hour before they go to sleep. Weekends and summer they go to bed and wake up at roughly the same times, unless they have a reason to stay up later such as a sleep over or an outing. They are pretty resiliant, so when they do stay up later than usual they make it up by sleeping a little later the next morning, or going to bed a little earlier the next night. What time your kids go to bed will depend on when they have to get up in the morning. My kids don't start school until 9:00am and don't need to leave the house until 8:50am. If they went to bed any earlier they wouldn't have time for evening activities and homework. Also, in the summertime they would never be able to fall asleep while it is daylight and all of the other neighbourhood kids are still out playing!

That does sound early to me...and when I was young, I had to go to bed at 7 and even then, I thought it was too early.. I'd lay awake for another hour or so...... Now, with my own son, he is 11 and goes to bed between 9:30 and 10pm.. he definitely does well on a good 8 hours.

When younger, he did go to bed by 8ish (later on the weekends) However, he was also up in the mornings between 4:30am and 5:30am...

My girls are 10, 9, 7, and 2. I have the older three go to bed at 9, and the 2 year old at 7.

10 year old is up like a bullet when it is time to get ready, it is actually comical how fast she shoots up. My 9 year old gets up fairly easily as well. My 7 year old has sleeping habits like her father; very heavy sleeper, extremely hard to wake up and slow to get ready. Getting her to bed sooner does not change the way she sleeps. However, she is the hardest to wake, when it is not time for her to. So if she falls asleep before bed time....there is no waking her to get her into bed. Carrying is a must. (she is still small :))

I base their bedtimes on a couple of things; bus comes at 7:00 am, that leaves 8 and a half hours of sleep which is okay for their ages. They get up for school about 6-630, breakfast, dressing, and teeth. I work until 5:00 pm and get home at about 5:45 pm, which means if I put them to bed earlier, it would make less time to hang out with them, and not to mention exceed the amount of time they should be sleeping.

I think the time you have them go to bed is a good time. I would push my oldest back to about 8, but it is ultimately what you think works best for your babies. 7 to me is early, but as I said, I wouldn't see them otherwise.

I think you do what is best based on their sleeping habits, and their patterns.

Also summers; I am really lenient unless we have plans to do something that is scheduled. Otherwise, I let them just hang around, and they know when they are tired to go to bed. And more times than not, even on school nights, the 9 and 7 year old just go, sometimes as early as 7:30. While the oldest goes as late as possible. (night owl) The two year old goes to bed at 7 no matter what.

bed time has always been 730, then lights out at 830 after an hr of reading.
My kiddos are now 8 and 11.

They get up at around 7. Is it hard to get them up, yes, because they are always up later than they are supposed to be.

We did 8:30 - 9:00 and the kids got up at 6:30. If they had gone to bed earlier, their Daddy would never have gotten to see them after getting home from work.

My children are 6 and 9. Bed time is always 9 pm even on weekends. Occasionally we allow our daughter to stay up but that's a rare treat. My children are up no later than 7 am; my son is up much earlier some days. My son is autistic and does not sleep like a typical kid so any deviation from this schedule throws all of us into disarray.

My three children are 10, 4, and 11 months. The baby goes to bed between 6-6:30pm and is up around 7am. Four year old sleeps from 7:30pm-7:30am like clockwork. In the summer he is usually up until 9 or 10pm because we stay outside until after dark. I homeschool my ten year old daughter. She is a night owl and rarely falls asleep before 11:30pm even though she must be in her room by 9:30 pm when I go to bed. She wakes between 9-10 am.

Up until my older daughter was 12 she and her younger sister (3 yrs younger) both went to sleep at 7 to 7:30 pm. Never later then that unless we absolutely could not avoid it. She slept 12 hours a night until she was 11 then her wake up time was an hour earlier since she was in jr high that year. Once she was 12 she wrote a persuasive paper saying that unless she was crabby or stopped getting straight A's then she should be able to stay up as late as she wants. There have been a few times I have made her go to sleep. Sometimes as early as 6 pm, lol.
My younger daughter has never needed as much sleep as her sister so they would both go to sleep at the same time but the younger one usually woke about half an hour earlier then the older one. She will be going to jr high next year and have an earlier bedtime so we will be having an early bedtime still. We try to aim for 8 at the latest now since her school starts later then it has in the past and she can sleep in more now.
Next year even though they will be in 6th and 9th grades they will still have to have early bedtimes cause the older one will have to be at the busstop by 6:30 am and the younger one will have to leave for school by 7:25.

Keep your early bedtime. Yes you may be one of the few parents that does. But your kids will be less crabby, better controlled weight and healthier. They will do better in school even. Scientific controlled studies have proven ALL of those benefits. The recommended nightly sleep is 12 hours from birth (well, not solidly then of course) till 10 yrs old. From 10 till 13 it is still 10 to 12 hours and does not drop down to 8 hours until 17 yrs old. Kids that got even half an hour less a night then the recommended amounts did noticeably worse on memory tests. So, you get a "good job" award in my book!!

Oh you asked about summers, sorry. In the summer I still kept close to that time cause they still woke up early. This past summer they both FINALLY started sleeping in if they stayed up late so we were able to let them do that. But still crabbiness meant early bed.

bedtime doesnt matter much the hours of sleep matters a lot. my kids need abotu 11 hours. we have a late start school.. (9 am).. so they can get up as late as 730 and still have plenty of time

I try to get them in bed about 730 and they get up around 630 or 7..

At least one night aweek... there is something going on and they dont get to bed till 8 or later.. so the next night I really try for the 7-730 bedtime.. it is hard to get thim in bed early school gets out at 4.. by the time we get home 430 dinner bath.. homework.. and before you know it ... bedtime is late..