Bedtime on weekends?

[Anonymous]

My DS (who is 14) is supposed to be in bed by 10 during the week, but is usually in bed closer to 11:00 by the time his homework is done and he's showered. I don't really set a bedtime for Friday and Saturday nights. Am I alone in this?

If you do set a bedtime for your teens on the weekends, what is it?

My DS has been falling asleep lately in school and his doctor thinks it's because he has a different bedtime on the weekends than he does during the week. I just assumed all teens went to bed later on the weekends. He sleeps in until 10, 11, or noon on the weekends so he's still getting enough hours of sleep.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a teenager but I don't think they have bedtimes! I didn't when I was one.

[Anonymous]

Good time for him to learn that he should do what works for him, not what everyone else does. A friend in college insisted she needed 8 hours of sleep every night. No all nighters for her. I thought it was strange. Today she's one of the most successful people I know.

[Anonymous]

1 am for mine. I don't stay up to check but when I've woken up and checked, they've always been in bed when they're supposed to be. I have one would stay up all night if I didn't set a limit. But he has ADHD.

[Anonymous]

Was just reading a book about teens and sleep. I'm pretty sure most teens don't follow the advice, but "they" recommend keeping bedtime and wake-up time the same every night (or no more than an occasional 1-2 hours later). I'm not sure what parent really wants to wake up a teen sleeping in on a weekend morning, but if your teen is having sleep problems, sleeping in isn't the right solution.

[Anonymous]

Really depends on what is going on the next day. I enforce 8hrs of sleep, and limit how late video games can be played.

Other than that, I generally let him be.

[Anonymous]

I think the issue is going to bed at 11, not the weekend sleepin. you don't get to run a deficit all week and make it up on the weekend. That isn't really how bodies work.

Not sure what time your kid gets up, but mine will set his alarm for six and finish homework in the am when he is more efficient.

[Anonymous]

by 11 on school nights and no bedtime on the wekend. I don't think he will listen to you if you set up a bedtime on the weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue is going to bed at 11, not the weekend sleepin. you don't get to run a deficit all week and make it up on the weekend. That isn't really how bodies work.

Not sure what time your kid gets up, but mine will set his alarm for six and finish homework in the am when he is more efficient.

It's great that getting up early works for yours but would never work for ours. They would much rather stay up later to finish rather than get up earlier than necessary.

[Anonymous]

Wow, very late! Our 13 year-old 7th grader normally has lights out by 9:15-9:30. Of course, later if he has a test or a lot of homework, but almost never later than 10:30 on those rare nights. Weekends, always asleep by 10:30, and then only if he has a sleepover -- otherwise more like 9:30. Wakes up 7 days a week btw 7-7:30am. I cannot imagine a kid in middle school (7th/8th grade) not going to bed on a nightly basis until 11pm. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, very late! Our 13 year-old 7th grader normally has lights out by 9:15-9:30. Of course, later if he has a test or a lot of homework, but almost never later than 10:30 on those rare nights. Weekends, always asleep by 10:30, and then only if he has a sleepover -- otherwise more like 9:30. Wakes up 7 days a week btw 7-7:30am. I cannot imagine a kid in middle school (7th/8th grade) not going to bed on a nightly basis until 11pm. Crazy.

Depends on wake up time. My 8th grader goes to bed around 10pm (some nights later) every night and wakes at 7:15am. Two nights a week we don't even get home until almost 9pm. Weekend lights out is more like 11pm and she'll easily sleep until 10am.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the person, OP.
This is hard for a teen to understand, especially if they are the ones who need more routine and/or sleep than their friends.

Consider this: my oldest with ADHD absolutely needs the same bedtimes every day, otherwise he starts falling apart after a week. My youngest (no signs of ADHD yet but who knows) has never needed as much sleep, and may thrive with a less restricted lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

On a school night, bedtime is 9, knowing that my 14 year old may not fall asleep right away. He has to walk at 6:40, so he needs rest. I usually enforce a 12:00am bedtime on the weekends. I'll let him self regulate during the later part of high school.

[Anonymous]

My 14 year old doesn't go to bed before 11 (gets up at 7). He just can't settle in to bed early - left to his own devices, he would be up until 3 and sleep until noon. I try to make him at least get all his HW, music practicing, shower, etc. done before 10.

He will often sleep for a bit after school (I apparently have the only HS freshman who doesn't do sports + hours and hours of homework every day), but if he doesn't, he's up just as late. We're a bunch of night owls in a small house, which probably doesn't help.

[Anonymous]

No bedtime for the high school student; we do send the middle schooler off.

Although they don't have to go to bed at a particular time, we do get them up on weekends, because we have seen that sleep that gets screwed up on the weekends has unfortunate aftereffects during the week.