Earlier to bed now, or just rip off the bandaid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sleep physicians will tell you that it’s very detrimental to health just to add an extra hour or two of sleep for a lie in on the weekend, after later than usual nights - the issue being that the sleep schedule should be the same continuously for optimal health.

Letting kids stay up all hours and sleep all day in summer is not really a good thing any way you slice it. Consider keeping them on a healthy sleep schedule during vacations and summer breaks going forward, it might teach them not to go off the rails once they leave your home as semi adults.

Curious as to whether you have/had any actual teens, and how you get them to go to sleep at 9:30 PM and wake up at 5:30 AM, year round.

You already know the answer to that question. DP

[Anonymous]

I have a tween not teen, going into MS. The schedule stays the sane year round aside from special occasions. She’s in bed around 830 most nights, reads til 930 then lights out.
She had swim team in the morning all of July and then camp 3 weeks of August so not hard for us to keep same schedule.
Her friends who stay up late are just messing about on phones/tablets anyway which I’m not a huge fan of, so it’s not a big loss to not stay up late.

[Anonymous]

We started waking the kids up at 7 am last week by turning on the lights and opening blinds. It’s working.

[Anonymous]

Rip off the bandaid. PP who says it takes 6 weeks to get a new routine doesn’t know what they’re talking about, nor does the PP who quotes the ‘sleep physician’. Kids will adjust by the second week. It’s good to be flexible. Sleep hygiene is important to an extent, but making a teen or tween go to bed at 8:30 in the summer is just crazy.

[Anonymous]

I stepped our bedtime start back 5-10-15m each day. (Kind of depended on the day and what was going on).

Regardless of the different subtractions, I kept stepping it back. No exceptions even when we did a weekend vacation one week before school. We went to bed pretty early for a vacation, but it was worth it. And I like getting up and starting vacation days before attractions get crazy.

School started fine for us.

[Anonymous]

Bandaid. We started two weeks ago (crazy, I know). It was not rough. Kids - 6th and 9th.

[Anonymous]

My 17 year old has been sleeping 12 hours a night since his job ended last week. Cutting that back 4 hours is the issue not his bedtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rip off the bandaid. PP who says it takes 6 weeks to get a new routine doesn’t know what they’re talking about, nor does the PP who quotes the ‘sleep physician’. Kids will adjust by the second week. It’s good to be flexible. Sleep hygiene is important to an extent, but making a teen or tween go to bed at 8:30 in the summer is just crazy.

In our case I just want them to be asleep by 11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School starts in 10 days. At this age, not sure if we start implementing a strict schedule in regards to sleep/wake time in preparation for school, or just rip off the bandaid when it’s time to go back.

Pros and cons of each at this age?

My friend who also has a tween and a young teen said she’s forcing it starting Monday, but our other friend with older kids said her kids have always adjusted just fine the day of.

This will not work for my rising 11 grader. He would laugh if I told him to go to bed early next week, even though it would be best for him. He is just going to have to suffer when it starts. Me too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bandaid. We started two weeks ago (crazy, I know). It was not rough. Kids - 6th and 9th.

If you started 2 weeks ago this is not a bandaid approach, unless I am mistaken.

[Anonymous]

Adjust now.

But don't force bedtime. Force wakeup time. Bedtime follows that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a tween not teen, going into MS. The schedule stays the sane year round aside from special occasions. She’s in bed around 830 most nights, reads til 930 then lights out.
She had swim team in the morning all of July and then camp 3 weeks of August so not hard for us to keep same schedule.
Her friends who stay up late are just messing about on phones/tablets anyway which I’m not a huge fan of, so it’s not a big loss to not stay up late.

Give it two years.

[Anonymous]

All these posters answering about their 11 year olds are cracking me up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sleep physicians will tell you that it’s very detrimental to health just to add an extra hour or two of sleep for a lie in on the weekend, after later than usual nights - the issue being that the sleep schedule should be the same continuously for optimal health.

Letting kids stay up all hours and sleep all day in summer is not really a good thing any way you slice it. Consider keeping them on a healthy sleep schedule during vacations and summer breaks going forward, it might teach them not to go off the rails once they leave your home as semi adults.

Omg how annoying are you

Your poor kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It takes 6 weeks to adjust to a new routine, ie, have your body wake naturally at the expected time each day. So, it doesn't really matter at this point. Use this opportunity for leverage: lay out the options to your teens, tell them they can choose, and then remind them how wonderful you are the next time they complain about you.

In fcps, the middle school starts so early that most kids never naturally wake up