How many hours of sleep do your kids get?

[adi&co.]

I'm plagued with days on end of barely any sleep because of the combination of my terrible sleeping habits and my kids' wonky ones. I was thinking about my oldest, Marcus. He's 6.5 and only gets 9 hours of sleep and that's after we started him on melatonin to get him to sleep earlier. he goes to sleep around 9 and wakes up at 6 and when he wakes up, he wakes us all up (drives me nuts since I don't sleep much at night)

Jamesen goes to bed around 9 and will sleep in until 9 if Marcus doesn't wake him up (he's 4). Gemma goes to sleep around 9 as well and will sleep until about 8 if Marcus doens't wake her up, but she also wakes up at least 3 times a night (still at almost two, ugh).

is this crappy sleeping a normal thing? Can you tell me how many hours of sleep your kids get and their ages?

[MamaBee]

My son, 6, is horrible with sleeping... he goes to bed every night by 8... and you hear him goofing around until 10:30... then he is still up by 7 am. He is allowed to sleep as late as he wants, joys of homeschooling... he does not nap... *sigh* I've talked to his doctor about it and he said do baths, relaxing time before bed... which has never worked, even as a baby... so yeah... so the doctor said that some kids just don't need that much sleep... however, J just looks so tired...

So, will be watching to see anyone has the magic solution... haha

[carrie1977]

My kids are in bed between 8:00 and 9:00...just depends on the day. But, they are awake by 6:30 to get ready for school. My son will usually wake up and come lay with us at some point during the night. Most often he just sneaks in and I don't realize it until I wake up. LOL!

But, if they don't have to get up for school they can sleep in until 7:30/8:00...which they love.

[lauren grier]

Sounds pretty average to me , some kids just need less sleep - just like some need more. If they're focused and well behaved during the day I'd say they're getting what they need. Up until maybe 2 yrs ago Connor averaged 5 hrs a night. That sucked big time. Now at 10 he's much more settled and goes to bed at 9 and wakes btwn 6-7.

[jacinda]

My girls are 10 and 7 years old. They go to bed around 8pm and wake between 7.00 - 7.30am.

[Beebo]

Adrienne goes to bed at 8:30 every night except for Friday and Saturday then she will usually be in bed by 10. She wakes up on school mornings around 6 and on weekends she gets up between 7 and 9.

[nikkiARNGwife]

Mine are 8 and 5...weekday bedtime is 7:30 for both and they are asleep by 7:45 usually. We're up at 6:15 during the week. Weekends I let them stay up a little later and they'll usually sleep til at least 7.

Mine have always been good sleepers though...I've never had to deal with them up at night unless they were sick and they know that when it comes to bedtime..it's bedtime.

[ChristyHC]

My 4 and 5 year olds need about 10-11 hours a night. They are both done with naps for the most part, but if they start to average closer to the 10 hours a night or less, I give force them to lay down for an hour in the afternoon one day a week and they will usually fall asleep. My 8 year old probably only needs 9-10 hours of sleep a night. From an early age we've taught our kids to read the clock and set a time when they are allowed up. For example, my 8 year old is an EARLY riser. He would be up at 5:00 every morning if it were up to him. But then it just wakes everyone else up (especially since him climbing off the top bunk often wakes up younger brother who sleeps underneath). He is allowed to have a book or two at the foot of his bed, and after a certain time he is able to read quietly in bed until our set wake up time.

[PurdueLiz]

Since we homeschool, our situation is a bit different. Kids are 13, 12, 10, and 8. The 13 and 12 y/o's share a room and the 10 and 8 y/o's share a room. They all go to their rooms around 10. The older two are usually quiet by 11 or so. The younger two are often up till 11:30, reading or just doing stuff quietly. Since they don't have to be up, we don't mind too much most of the time. The oldest is usually up by 8 or so. The 2nd by 9. The younger two will usually sleep till 9:30 and sometimes even 10 or 10:30.

Adi/Adrienne, unfortunately, your two y/o sounds fairly normal. Our daughter (8) didn't really sleep that well until she was about 4.5 and then, we think, only because we moved her brother in with her. With your 6 year old, could you maybe set him up with books and a flashlight or something and let him know he can't wake anyone up until XX:XX time unless it's an emergency? Ours used to often wake each other two until we laid down the law that it wasn't okay because the others needed more sleep. Hopefully you can get something figured out, the no sleep thing is so not fun.

[jovi_girl]

I have a 4 and a 2 year old. They both go to bed around 630pm because they get up around 530-6am no matter how late we put them to bed. My four year old is asleep within minutes, especially if hes been at preschool. The two year old is often still awake at 730 but she still has a 1.5hour day nap so i figure thats fair enough. So they both roughly get 11-12 hours sleep. And they need it, any less than that and they're unbearable the next day.

[MommaTrish]

Zach (9) gets about 10. Ryan (8) gets who knows; I lay him down around 8, he gets up around 6, actual time he sleeps is unknown. Bella (4) gets 8-10 hours, it depends on how much she sleeps. Mason (2 next month) sleeps from 8-12, is up until about 1, sleeps on and off waking every 2-3 hours until we get up.

[adi&co.]

We homeschool too and we have been trying very hard for a few months to "lay down the law" for Marcus. We have a clock in his room and if it's before 6 when he wakes up, he's not allowed to get up. he has to lay back in bed and go back to sleep. if it's after 6, but before 8, he can go next door to the toy room, but he has to be quiet. I need to have him practice shutting the doors quietly because he's always slamming them shut which wakes jamesen up and jamesen slamming them shut again wakes gemma up. they all share the same room so we can have the toy room for Marcus to play in while we're all asleep. I tend to end up asleep on their floor at the foot of Gemma's bed and Marcus always comes in and talks to me which makes me mad, lol! that child kills me!

[fifilur]

Noah is almost 6 yeras old and sleeps around 10 hours a night. We start prepping for bed at 8, at 8.30 lights are out and he's asleep before 9. On weekdays we get up at 7. On weekends we usually sleep in till about 9, if he wants to get up earlier he goes downstairs and puts on the tv till I get up.

[glumirk]

My son (4.5) is one who wakes up at the crack of dawn (or earlier in the winter) no matter when we put him to bed. He's not allowed to get up until 6:30, and he honestly gets the best sleep if we put him down at 6:30 or 7. That doesn't happen every night though. He would be ok until 7 or 7:30 if he took a 45 minute nap, but any more than that and he's up all night.

My 2.5 year old daughter is a much better sleeper. She goes to sleep around 7:30 (bed at 7) and sleeps until 6:30 if her brother doesn't wake her up. She also takes about a 2 hour nap.

The one month old...well, she's still settling. I'm a huge fan of the Baby Whisperer and the idea that sleep begets sleep. Luckily my kids don't know what "time" their bedtime is, they just know it's after dinner, so if we have dinner early they go right along with the routine, and it makes it easy to have an early dinner so we can have a surprise movie night that keeps them up a little bit late.

[YepBrook]

Mine get about 10 hours of sleep per night. Both to bed at 8:30 and they talk a bit... They are usually asleep by 9. They both get up at 7:30.

[rach3975]

((Hugs)) and lots of sympathy on sleeping issues! I'm like you and go to sleep way too late, which makes it even harder. Is your night-waker prone to ear infections? I ask because we never guessed what a huge difference getting tubes in would make for my DS's night wakings. He was probably dealing with a lot of ear pressure that we didn't know about before that.

My oldest (10) gets in bed at 8:45 and generally sleeps from 9-7:30.
My youngest (5) gets in bed at 8:15, falls asleep anywhere from 8:30 to 9:30, and wakes at 7:30. (I have to wake her for school days. On weekends she wakes around 8.) She's my future night owl.

My middle DS has Smith-Magenis syndrome. It's a genetic disorder, and one component of it is lots of sleep issues and a different circadian rhythm than most people have. He continued to wake 3x a night until he was almost 4. That's when he got tubes in his ears, and within a week of getting them in he went down to 1 night waking. That persisted until 5 1/2, when he had surgery for sleep apnea and finally started sleeping through the night. He's 7 1/2 now, and until very recently he was sleeping from 8:15 until between 4 and 4:45, and then napping in the early afternoon. Even working with the sleep clinic at the Children's Hospital in DC, absolutely nothing we did could get him sleeping later in the am or giving up the nap without major behavior problems. Finally a few weeks ago he started giving it up on his own. Now on no-nap days he'll sleep from 8:15 until 5:30 or 6.

When my early waker wakes up, there's no keeping him in bed. He's supposed to play quietly in his room until 6, at which point he can come in to us. Most days it works, but there are still some days when he does wake us all up. It's happening less as he gets older.

[kristijoy]

I think every kid is different. And if you have challenging sleep habits yourself, he probably got the same gene. I have friends who are both physicians (surgeons on call at all kinds of bizarre hours). Needless to say, the kids have bizarre sleep habits too.

I've been blessed with a good sleeper. My son is 7 years old. He gets in bed at 8pm and sleeps until about 7am. I think sometimes he's up a little early playing quietly in his room. He goes all day and crashes at night. The downside is that he's such a DEEP sleeper we have yet to night train him. My DH wet the bed until he was in his teens, so our little one is like his Daddy.

[adi&co.]

oh it's most definitely my genes that are contributing. My dad is a terrible sleeper too and I got it from him and sadly passed it down to 2 of my kids. Marcus sleeps really well once he's asleep, it's just getting him there that has been the issue. Until we started him on melatonin anyway. Gemma is my worst sleeper. my boys were sleeping through the night at least a few times a week if not almost every night by 22 months. Gemma has only slept through the night once. We moved her into the boys' room a few months ago to see if that helped and it's not done much. Jamesen wasn't that great of a sleeper until 4 so I guess I just have to wait it out. My sleeping habits are worse than ever though which is why I'm hurting so bad. I don't sleep much at all. ugh

[Sherri Tierney]

Bedtime is 8pm. My kids take melatonin as well. By 8:30 they are usually asleep. I usually kick them out of bed at 6:30 on the week days. They are always still exhausted after 10 hours sleep. They could use another hour or so. My son (8) wakes up naturally about 7:30. My daughter (11) will sleep until noon if we let her.

These days I am exhausted. I've been going to sleep by 8:30 and getting up at 6:30 myself and still worn out.

[staciahall]

I'm now to the days where it's like living with vampires. My 20 yr old son could go to bed at 4 am and sleep past noon and he proved it over the holidays . As a child he would sleep about 9 hours to feel pretty good but my daughter really never needed more than about 6 or 7 hours tops. She still doesn't need nearly as much sleep as I do at her age of 22. I think she said she goes to bed at around 1:30 or later and still gets up at 7 ish for work/school. Can't imagine how she functions but she always has.

I sympathize with those of you who don't have good sleepers. I can only take about 3 days of sleep disruption and then I'm grumpy!

[NellahBean]

My kiddos (5, 18 months) usually are in bed by 7:30 and asleep by 8:00. My 5 year old wakes up around 7:30 and my 18 month old will usually sleep until 8-8:30 and still takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. We've just established a routine that we do each night that helps us keep to it. We eat dinner, get them in the tub, put on jammies, brush teeth, read books & scriptures, say prayers and then I sing them a song. It works great for us and it is always best when I can be consistent.

[Misty Cato]

My 6 year old gets 10-11 hours a night.

My 9 year old gets a bit less. He goes to bed and the same time as my youngest, but is allowed to read in bed. He'll get anywhere from 8-11 hours a night. He gets up without complaining and has plenty of energy all day, so I haven't felt the need to give him a specific 'lights out' time.

[mariewilcox]

Cheyanne is 13 now so she gets about 8 during the week (sometimes a bit less) and on the weekends she sleeps in a bit but not as late as her brother used to! (Those days are probably coming though).

Even as a child though she didn't need as much sleep as many kids her age. By the time she was 4 I had to stop naps during the day because she would be bouncing off the walls until midnight! I could always tell if she had a nap at preschool because she wouldn't sleep. Without a nap she would be out like a light by 8 pm and usually up by 6 or so.

It's probably genetic for her - I only average 6.5 hours a night and I wake up before the alarm feeling refreshed and get through my whole day without being tired. Her dad was pretty much the same.

[adi&co.]

Originally Posted by staciahall

I'm now to the days where it's like living with vampires.

bahahah it's funny you say that because I often say I must be part vampire, lolol! I'm like your daughter, I go to sleep later and get woken up early. In my perfect world, I would be allowed to be nocturnal

[coopert]

My kids go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00. My 7 year old is up between 6:00 and 7:00. But my four year old sleeps until 7:30/8:00. So about 10 hours for my 7 year old and 11 hours for my 4 year old.

[lovely1m]

My 7 year old goes to bed on school nights at 8:30 and falls right to sleep. He's up at 6:20 to get ready for school. On weekends, I let him stay up, but he's normally asking to go to bed by 9:30 and sleeps until 7:00-7:30.

[kristijoy]

Have you heard of the 'two sleeps' theory? It's evidently a historical sleeping pattern that goes back to the days before artificial lighting.

Here's a couple of articles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783
http://guardianlv.com/2013/08/two-sl...ed-to-slumber/

My DH has actually been doing this for quite a few months. He comes to bed. Sleeps until he wakes up and then gets up and meditates for an hour or so and then comes back to bed. It's been great for him. Could be something creative to try!

[adi&co.]

yes I've heard of the two sleeps!

[pewtertm]

Rachel is 8, and up until Christmas, she was going to bed 8. Started prepping (drink, brushing teeth, bedtime story, prayers) at 730, lights out at 8. Her alarm goes off at 6.

She's now staying up to 830 or 9 due to being out late for church and karate...she drags in the morning. Her body is still wanting that extra half hour or so!

So she's a 10 hour sleeper. Through her kindergarten year, she was a 12 hour sleeper. With no nap during the day...she cut those out on her own when she hit 2. I was really sad about that, LOL.

[SeattleSheri]

We talked to our pediatrician about this when the boys were smaller and her explanation was that some people just need less sleep and that is totally natural and not something to be concerned by. I didn't need a lot of sleep as a child either. Our boys go to bed at 9 to 9:30 (and it's a lost cause trying to get them to bed earlier). They get up at 6:30 on school days and sleep until 7:00 to 8:00 on weekends

[Stacey42]

My boys are 10 & 11. They go to bed at 8:30, are generally asleep by 9 and always always always wake up at 6am.

My oldest has been getting up by 5:30-6am since birth. Doesn't matter when he goes to sleep - 6pm, 8pm, 10pm, midnight - anytime. He gets up at 6am. He needs 9 hours of sleep or he is a royal PITA the whole day so they go to bed early.

My youngest would sleep later if his brother would let him, but only maybe 30 minutes or an hour. He'd also put himself to bed around 9:30 if we didn't have an earlier bedtime due to his brother. By their own choice they share a bed 90% of the time (they have bunk beds but the majority of the time they sleep in the same one) so when one goes to bed or gets up, the other has to do the same.

[Keely~B]

My ten year old goes to sleep between 8:30 and 9:00 and is up between 6:00 and 6:30.

My teenager's sleep schedule is rather chaotic. She's really busy and has a lot of commitments, practices, competitions etc.. I'd say average she's in bed at 11:00 or 11:30 and up around 6:45. If she has the option to sleep, she'll easily sleep until noon.