Anything wrong with a late summer bedtime?

[Anonymous]

3yo DD normally sleeps 8:30pm-6:30am with a 2-hour afternoon nap. For the summer, we’re thinking of delaying her bedtime until 10pm so we can enjoy our evenings out in the backyard or park. Evenings are when DH and I are most relaxed, plus the summer heat is more tolerable then. We would probably stay out until 8:30 or so and come in for bath and books.

The handful of times she’s gone to bed late like this, she’s made it up with a slightly later wake-up time and a longer nap, both of which would benefit our work schedules! Are there any biological downsides to a late bedtime? If she were to become cranky or get less sleep overall, we would reevaluate of course.

[Anonymous]

Our 2 year old is on a regular schedule of ~11 pm bedtime with 9-10 am wakeup and a 2 hour nap. We just let her go to sleep when she's tired. No ill effects so far as I can tell and I don't really know why there would be. In our case I'm a night owl by nature and she seems to be too; works for us!

[Anonymous]

I use a similar schedule with my toddler in the winter.

[Anonymous]

There is no biological reason whatsoever for having a traditional bedtime for young kids who aren't going to school or daycare. One might make a good argument for following the child's personal biological sleep clock, but other than that it makes a lot more sense to set your own sleep schedule for the child around what works best for your family schedule.

When my kids were little, before they started preschool, I kept them up until 10 or 11 so they could spend more time with their dad after he came home from work, which was definitely his preference. I was a SAHM so we could sleep in and my kids were never the type of kids who get up at the crack of dawn so it worked great for us.

[Anonymous]

Sure if it works for you, what’s the big deal? My kids don’t sleep in, they don’t make up for being up later. So bedtime has always been important to us. Your kid seems to be able to sleep in so why not?

The only caveat is that having a 10pm bedtime at 3 years old may make them a true true night owl by middle school—when they do have to start getting up early for school. The kids I know who were on a late schedule as preschoolers stay up till midnight or later now and their parents have a hard time waking them up for school.

[Anonymous]

If it works for you right now its fine. You gotta do what works for you as a family.

But beware the kids that stay up til 11-12 for the first 5 years of life and sleep late. I had a friend who did this, kid basically watched TV all evening them fell asleep on the couch, so no bedtime routine whatever. When he started K he had a really hard time for months.
You can't just suddenly start a new schedule the week before school starts and expect them to change. It can take months to reset that clock.

[Anonymous]

Terrible idea

[Anonymous]

My son is a biological night owl and always has been so this period (and summers) have been great for him. As long as your child is getting enough sleep hours it should be fine. You can gradually transition back when you need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it works for you right now its fine. You gotta do what works for you as a family.

But beware the kids that stay up til 11-12 for the first 5 years of life and sleep late. I had a friend who did this, kid basically watched TV all evening them fell asleep on the couch, so no bedtime routine whatever. When he started K he had a really hard time for months.
You can't just suddenly start a new schedule the week before school starts and expect them to change. It can take months to reset that clock.

Those are two separate issues though. You can have late bedtimes with good sleep hygiene

[Anonymous]

It wouldn't work for us because we like to have adult time after bedtime and I can't stay awake past 11. My kids also don't sleep late enough when they go to bed late, so the result would be less sleep.

[Anonymous]

Do what works for you. It will be tough to turn around when/if she needs a regular schedule though.

[Anonymous]

Yup, my son has always naturally fell asleep later. He is also great at sleeping in. During school days, he sleeps 9:30-6:30, but in summer/weekends/covid it’s easily 11-8 or 9.

[Anonymous]

My kids play outside until 9 in the summer so yea... that should be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our 2 year old is on a regular schedule of ~11 pm bedtime with 9-10 am wakeup and a 2 hour nap. We just let her go to sleep when she's tired. No ill effects so far as I can tell and I don't really know why there would be. In our case I'm a night owl by nature and she seems to be too; works for us!

The only reason I see a benefit for an earlier bedtime is to use that time to be with your spouse and do more adult activities from sex to watching an inappropriate adult movie.

I remember being slightly annoyed with sil because her young kid went to bed late and it was awkward watching a more mature film with her watching it too. We were on vacation together. And no I didnt say anything.

[Anonymous]

It truly depends on the kid. If you have a kid who is going to wake up at 630 no matter what, it’ll be awful. If she bumps 2 hours later every morning, it could work.