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

During the school year, DD9 goes to bed at 8:30 during the week, and I get her up at 6:00. She is very difficult to get out of bed. (She gets to stay up until 9:00 on weekends.) I think she's right on the edge of not getting enough sleep, judging by behavior, but she's often getting up and asking for stuff for an hour or more after bedtime.

DD5 is starting kindergarten tomorrow. He goes to bed at 8:00, and now he will have to get up at 6:00, too. We would think about moving his bedtime earlier, but it will be tough to fit in after work. He's easier to wake up than DD, so I think he's getting a reasonable amount of sleep now.

DD14 now goes to bed at 9:30 and I wake her at 5:50 AM.

I'd say that this is "adequate" sleep for her-- it is as much sleep as she's ever gotten, truthfully. At 8-10, she would go to bed between 10 and 11 and get up about 7. She's never been what I'd call a morning person, though, and no amount of sleep allows her to just "pop" out of bed and rapidly become alert. She has also always been slow to go to sleep and has suffered from insomnia, which may have a genetic component in her case.

We have circumvented this problem (well, both problems, really) by having her put vigorous exercise FIRST thing in her day. I get her up so that she has the time to do it. But this way she has some down-time to wake up completely, and she also gets the exercise into her day in a way that doesn't interfere with her sleep cycle. The most current evidence re: insomnia and exercise says that YES, it helps significantly... once you've been at it regularly for months. No quick fix, unfortunately. It has to be a lifestyle thing.

We've also found that it is SUPER important for her to keep to more-or-less the same schedule day in and day out. Moving bedtime even an hour really messes things up.

Our kids, 2 and 5, usually go to bed between 8-9 and wake up on their own between 7-8. DS2 also has a nap at daycare.

DS22mo sleeps from about 9-9:30pm to somewhere around 8:00-9:00am (with many wakings) then usually naps about 2ish hours in the afternoon, often starting around noon to 1:00pm. We keep the same approximate rhythm everyday. As you can tell from my "around" and "ish" qualifiers, this routine is based on natural sleep and wake cycles.

DS5 on a good day / night sleeps about 9hrs (with help of Melatonin and Hydroxyzine). When he was younger before Melatonin started working on him, he was running on 4hrs of sleep / day. It was exhausting to say the least! DS3 either gets 7hrs in one stretch (usually from 2am - 9am), or sleeps in two long naps (8pm-midnight and 7am-11am) ... and from time to time dozes off in the car or doesn't sleep at all.

Ds6 goes to bed at 7 and is asleep by 7.30 often sooner - he gets up between 6 and 6.45. Ds4 goes to bed at 7 and goes to sleep somewhere between then and 8.30. He wakes any time between 6.30 and 7.30 during the week though I let them sleep later in the weekends. Bedtime is the same every day though I don't stress if it slips to 7.30 or so on Fridays and Saturdays. Ds6 had an afternoon sleep regularly until 3.5 and occasionally until 4.5, ds4 stopped at 2.

As a working single mum I need the evenings to clean, have me time and do book work. Ds6 has a bio clock that suits this, ds4 not so much but he is happy to colour or read and play in bed for a while.

DD9 (my high sleep needs kid) goes to bed at 8:15 or 8:30 and is up at 6:35 for school. This is barely enough sleep for her and we have to wake her. She will sleep in till 7:30 or 8 on weekends if her brother does not wake her.

DS5 (lower sleep needs) goes to bed at 7:30 or 7:45 and is also up at 6:35. He wakes on his own and never sleeps in on weekends. He has been having trouble falling asleep for a while. We let him read in bed before lights out and I think it's actually too stimulating, but now that we've started this I think he would kill us if we took it away. I think he also needs more sleep, but am not as sure.

DD would benefit from going to bed at 8, but with a 4-year age gap she needs to feel like she gets to go to bed later than her brother.

I find that DS5 goes to sleep more quickly if he gets to bed earlier and pops up and out more when bedtime is too late.

ElizabethN, I didn't realize we have the same age spread with our kids. One thing I had forgotten is how tired they are after kindy (my son is in full-day). He normally does not say he is tired, but has been complaining of fatigue since school started and comes home pretty spent. I totally get it being hard to move bedtime earlier, but you might consider it for a bit at the start of school.

It used to be worse... but my DS6 currently goes to bed 10/11pm and wakes at 7am. He is not a sleeper. Never has been. I, on the other hand, have high sleep needs and have found myself regularly working at a deficit since becoming his mother. He gave up all naps at 18 months and considers the terms "sleep" and "nap" anathema.