My kids are 6 & 8. The goal is for them to be in bed asleep at 7:30, but in reality, it's often closer to 8-8:30. We pushed it back from 8 to 7:30 to see if that would help with their moods and I feel like it does. We really cannot push it back any further because my husband doesn't even get home until 5:45! There's no way we can do dinner, allow some free-play, and a relaxed bed-time routine any earlier. My older child goes to cub scouts thursdays and it is from 6-7:30, so there are days he doesn't even get home until 7:50

On sports nights my 7 yo eats a partial dinner at 4-4:30pm, then squeezes instrument practice and homework in before game, usually around 6pm. We'll probably get home around 7:15, he will eat a snack and then bedtime. Hopefully he will be in bed before 8. My impression is that we do very little screen time compared to most, which I think makes it easier because he doesn't fight bedtime.. He watches a TV show or a Youtube video on TV maybe... I don't know, once a month? No iPad and no video games to stay up playing either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to eat dinner at 5:30 and aim to be reading bedtime story by 6:30. But with elementary school and sports schedules, we are often eating at 7 and in bed closer to 8. Sometimes he doesn’t sleep right away. Is he getting enough sleep? Wake up is at 7am or a little earlier.

I’m surprised that the teams near us catering to 6-7 year olds are scheduling games at 6:30. That seems so late for kindergarten players.

Nuts

+1 There is no justifiable reason to have a kid in bed before 9:00pm or sunset.

What?? My 9 year old goes to bed at 8:30 and is hard to wake up at 7AM. She just needs a lot of sleep. If she went to bed after 9PM she'd be a hot mess in the morning. Kids have different sleep needs.

Anonymous wrote:I'm always surprised to see kids with absurdly early bedtimes. I realize all kids are different and some are lower energy than others, but I can't get mine to even eat dinner before 7pm - they want to play outside with their friends. Our street is super tight knit, all the kids get major FOMO if they're forced to go in very early. The amount of moms I've met over the years who send their kids to bed early with iPads so they can chug alcohol... smh. Not saying this is you, OP. I just hope these "early to bed" folks are doing it legitimately for their kids.

I would guess your street is more the anomaly. We are an early bedtime house. But in my experience, people who put their kids to bed early are the kinds who limit screen time and are more anal about sleep hygiene, school readiness, and behavior (for better or worse). There's not a lot of neighborhoods these days where the kids are all out playing every day, instead of inside with electronics or out at "activities." Our street doesn't have any kids younger than HS age, and mine are all in elem, so it's a little bit of a crapshoot even if you are in a neighborhood setting. My friends whose kids have late bedtimes tend to care less about school and more about sports, can't get the kids to sleep in their own rooms, or they are just too burnt out to enforce rules/ don't have a helpful spouse. Others come from a different cultural background where approaches to bedtime are different. The fact that your kids are outside running around with friends is awesome though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's elementary school starts at 7:30. Very very few my kid's classmates participate in weekday sports or weekday activities outside of low-intensity stuff like art, music, and Kumon-type tutoring.

In contrast, my brother's kids go to an elementary school in the same area that starts at 9:00 and according to his observation, half or more kids are in weekday sports, including his. So I'm guessing it all depends very much on school start times.

I used to be envious that his kids' school starts later, but it also dismisses later, which pushes everything else much later. Pick your poison?

This is where alot of the problem is, Schools should not be in session before 8:30am or after 3:00pm, 7:30 is just too early.

I agree, but I have zero control over it. My kid and all her classmates have to go bed much earlier than many kids and that's just the way it is.

Not as a single person but you would be surprised what enough parents acting together can do, unfortunately though it's hard to get people to work together on issues like this.

Oh look, big talker is going to change a school's start time.

People like you are exactly why trying to organize protest about things like this never works.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid's elementary school starts at 7:30. Very very few my kid's classmates participate in weekday sports or weekday activities outside of low-intensity stuff like art, music, and Kumon-type tutoring.

In contrast, my brother's kids go to an elementary school in the same area that starts at 9:00 and according to his observation, half or more kids are in weekday sports, including his. So I'm guessing it all depends very much on school start times.

I used to be envious that his kids' school starts later, but it also dismisses later, which pushes everything else much later. Pick your poison?

This is where alot of the problem is, Schools should not be in session before 8:30am or after 3:00pm, 7:30 is just too early.

I agree, but I have zero control over it. My kid and all her classmates have to go bed much earlier than many kids and that's just the way it is.

Not as a single person but you would be surprised what enough parents acting together can do, unfortunately though it's hard to get people to work together on issues like this.

Oh look, big talker is going to change a school's start time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm always surprised to see kids with absurdly early bedtimes. I realize all kids are different and some are lower energy than others, but I can't get mine to even eat dinner before 7pm - they want to play outside with their friends. Our street is super tight knit, all the kids get major FOMO if they're forced to go in very early. The amount of moms I've met over the years who send their kids to bed early with iPads so they can chug alcohol... smh. Not saying this is you, OP. I just hope these "early to bed" folks are doing it legitimately for their kids.

Im always surprised to see parents who don't understand that other schools have earlier start times than their own, thus some kids have to go to bed earlier. I'm guessing you don't work in a profession that requires good analytical skills and knowledge of the world beyond your tiny bubble

What's the early start time for bedtime story at 6:30pm? 3am?

Anonymous wrote:I'm always surprised to see kids with absurdly early bedtimes. I realize all kids are different and some are lower energy than others, but I can't get mine to even eat dinner before 7pm - they want to play outside with their friends. Our street is super tight knit, all the kids get major FOMO if they're forced to go in very early. The amount of moms I've met over the years who send their kids to bed early with iPads so they can chug alcohol... smh. Not saying this is you, OP. I just hope these "early to bed" folks are doing it legitimately for their kids.

Im always surprised to see parents who don't understand that other schools have earlier start times than their own, thus some kids have to go to bed earlier. I'm guessing you don't work in a profession that requires good analytical skills and knowledge of the world beyond your tiny bubble

I'm always surprised to see kids with absurdly early bedtimes. I realize all kids are different and some are lower energy than others, but I can't get mine to even eat dinner before 7pm - they want to play outside with their friends. Our street is super tight knit, all the kids get major FOMO if they're forced to go in very early. The amount of moms I've met over the years who send their kids to bed early with iPads so they can chug alcohol... smh. Not saying this is you, OP. I just hope these "early to bed" folks are doing it legitimately for their kids.

10yo sleeps ~9.5 hours (930p-7a)
7yo sleeps ~10 hours (930p-730a)

Just like adults, kids require different amounts of sleep, there's no universal number. A reasonable range? Sure, most reputable sources (CDC, Mayo Clinic, etc.) say 9-12 hours for kids our age (6-12yo).

I think our 7yo would benefit from an additional 30 mins sleep, but even if we lights-out early at 8p or 830p she can't seem to fall asleep much before 930p (and yes, we've tried a wide variety of approaches to encourage earlier drifting off to sleep time). 730a is the latest wake up time to reliably get to school on time, but in the summer she tends to sleep the additional 30 mins until 8a. I'm just glad school doesn't start any earlier than it does.

Research also generally suggests best to go to bed after sunset (to best align with body's natural cycle of melatonin release / circadian rhythms)... but definitely before midnight (even for adults) to ensure we get enough of the most restorative deep sleep cycles in before morning light enters the room.

Some people are early risers, some are more night owls, but we all do our best within the constraints of school times, activities, family logistics, and individual preferences.

But around here, we've got 6 months of late sunset (715-830p), 4 months of early sunset (445-6p), and 2 months in between. As such, even when our kids were younger they rarely went to bed before 8-830p so we could keep a pretty consistent year-round sleep schedule without putting them down before dusk.