Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How much sleep do your kids get, and when?

I didn't either!

Thanks for the heads up on fatigue. Now that they'll both be on the school bus at 7:30, I may be able to shift my work hours earlier so I can afford to move bedtime earlier. We may take a week to see how it goes first, though.

I have pretty high sleep needs - DH, not so much. My brother also gets by on shockingly little sleep. So the kids could have genes for pretty much anything.

Our DS (6.5) bedtime when school starts next week is from 8-6. We find that it take at least a half hour for him to fall asleep after we close the door.

This vacation, his bedtime has ranged from 8:30-10 and he's usually up around 6:15-7:30, depending upon when he went down, and depending upon if he has woken up during the night. (He's had nightmares lately.)

I've noticed that he's optimum with at least 9 hours a night.

Side note: Our son's first grade is from 8:30-2. The director of the charter said that they have learned that youngsters generally don't concentrate very well if expected to be in school past that time.

Contrasting this with last year at the public school in which DS was first enrolled...Kindergarten from 8-2:45.

I really wonder if these little ones, gifted or otherwise, just need more "downtime"? I call for a Siesta!

It was my husband's and my observation that our DS was tired enough coming home from a short day Kindergarten at the private school we moved him into (8-11:45). He bounced back after a few hours relaxing at home, however.

DS10 and DD7 are both theoretically supposed to go to bed at 9:00 pm and get up at 6:45 am on school days. DD7 is generally asleep by 9:30, although some nights she is getting up for things (growing pains, drink of water, hungry, forgot to tell me something, etc.) until 10-10:30. This gets better as the school year becomes a habit. DS10 is a night owl like his mother, and I'm lucky if he's asleep by 10:30. Any day when he doesn't have to get up early, he's up till midnight, 1 am, just like me.

Like HK said, no amount of sleep ever gets either one of us to the ability to bounce out of bed happily. Ever. DD7 is an early-morning bouncer, and she naturally falls asleep earlier, too.

DS6 is our sleeper. He goes up about 8, reads until 9 and sleeps until 7:30 or 8. (We don't leave for school until 8:30, so this works for us.)

DD4, starting K, does best with 11 - 12 hours. In bed at 7, out by 7:05 and up around 6:45. She needs more sleep than she likes to get. And like someone else's little one, if she's in bed on time she falls asleep no prob, but if she goes up 20 min late she might come down for the next 60 - 90 min, driving me crazy, since I know she'll be a wreck the next day. With her starting all day K, I'm sure she'll be worn out like her brother was and plan to have her up to bed a few minutes earlier... Which does rush the evening dinner/bath/bed routine.

Our youngest (3) is on a similar schedule to her sister.

Mk13 -- I do not know how you are doing it!

DD6 goes to sleep around 8.15-8.30, and wakes 6.30-6.45. She'll always wake at that time no matter how late she's up, and will stay happy and bright unless she goes 3 or so days with less sleep. FWIW she was never tired out when she started school unlike all her friends, she was energized by it

I think this is more common that people realize. There is the temptation to assume this means the kid is not sleepy, but it's like with babies, when you miss the nap window (ohhhh, how I HATED that).

Interestingly we don't see this with my higher sleep needs kid (she is mostly OUT a few minutes after her light is out), just the one who is more able to "get by" on less sleep.

I do feel grateful that both of my kids are happy morning people--chipper and alert as soon as they're up (unlike their mother!!) However, they do not sleep in if up very late.

ah, yet another creepy ditto, for me, AvoCado. sometimes i honestly think we're raising the same kid. although the "energized" thing only lasted until "disillusioned" took over...

My 2-year-old daughter usually goes to sleep between 9:30 to 10 in the evening this is because she gets more than an hour of sleep in the afternoon. I have to make her sleepy so she can sleep straight. She wakes up between 9 to 9:30 in the morning.

MK, have you ever tried a zinc and magnesium supplement for your DS5? I used to get considerable nervous overload from my weightlifting and found this combination beneficial for calming my CNS if taken a few hours prior to bedtime. Otherwise, I'd settle after 1:00am and be up repeatedly through the night.