How Many Hours of Sleep Does Your 12 Y/o Get at Night?

Another option is that she is needing more sleep. I know that may seem strange, but when I've had teen foster kids, most of them benefited from an earlier bedtime (I'm talking 8pm for some!). Perhaps the "wind down" time is not enough. Just laying down at 9 doesn't mean any of us would fall asleep immediately. Take a look at her bedtime routine. Perhaps you and she need to make some adjustments there, too. I agree with the other poster: if she begins to have trouble waking at the appropriate time, adjust to an earlier time to bed. Good luck!

At 12 or 13 years of age, your daughter should be getting between 9 and 11 hours of sleep for optimal development and function.

Here are some links:

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/sleep-children
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sleep.html

All the best,
Susan

my 12 yr old boy goes to bed at 9:30pm & wakes at 6:30am (out the door an hour later for school). He's always been slow to wake up, so the hour in the morning after he wakes is spent eating breakfast, laying in bed a bit, then taking a shower.

he does well in school (not a 4.0, however! lol *congrats on that, mama!*), is involved in sports, and does the regular rough-housing play w/his buddies.

i think pushing her bedtime to 9:30 would be fine - especially if she's so open with you & would tell you if she's feeling tired/worn down during the day :-)

That's a pretty late wake-up time compared to a lot of kids going to school, so I think she's getting plenty of sleep if she goes to bed at 9:30 or 10:00. Anything over 9 hours is plenty for that age. I have a 10 year old and 14 year old, and that's about what they get, and they are good students and not tired during the day.

My son is 12. Bedtime is between 8:30 and 9 PM, but we let him read a book until 9:30 if he likes. That seems to work really well for winding him down. And he seems perfectly ready to go to sleep at that point.
He does seem to have a harder time falling asleep in the summer, when he hasn't been at school all day and running around a lot.
I think that's probably normal.
BTW, wake up time is 6:45 AM for him for school days. Sounds like your daughter is probably just getting older and needing a bit less sleep time :)

I just asked the same question about a week ago. I got a lot of great feedback. My son is 12 and I let him go to bed at 9:30 and is very much into sports. Many mommies thought that was too late and others thought it was about right. But one mom made a good point every child is different and their bodies are different. If she is sleeping 8.5-9 hours and is waking up on time then I think she'll be fine.

So my suggestion is 9:30. If you noitce she is starts to struggle in the morning then go back to the 9pm achedule.

Good luck

Well she is just plain growing up Mom. She will require less sleep as she gets older. As high school hits things will be even crazier, especially if she is active in sports or other extracurricular. Her average by the time high school hits will be far less sleep due to all the homework. I had to relent and let my daughter stay up between 9:30 and 10:00 when she was in jr high. She still had to wind down, maybe read or watch a little tv with her father and I, but she adjusted well. My daughter is a huge sleeper. Takes after her dad. When she is tired she will go to bed. There are nights she is ready at 8:00, if homework allows, she goes to bed. It will all work out. Just have her realize that she needs to listen to her body. When she's tired she needs to go to bed.