sleep routine for elementary age kids - myth

[meemee]

one thing i keep hearing is dont let your child sleep in during the weekends because it will mess up their routine. sleep routine. its not just now but i recall my parents waking me up during the weekends when i was elementary age myself yeeeeears ago.

do you think that's true?

i've been watching the sleep routines of quite a few kids since it defines when they come over to play or have a sleepover.

so this week we have the whole week off. just like i have to bug dd to get up none of the kids are out yet. yet on the weekend they are out by 7 am. i can hear them outside playing at SEVEN in the morning. 

i find dd does that too. she has 2 sleep routines (is that the right word?!!) one for the week when she can barely wake up at 6:30 and one for the weekend when she is wide awake at 6:30 - always without fail unless she is sick or has been up all night reading. 

summer is a whole different story. dd is a night owl and goes back to being a night owl in summer. 

i never thought about this much till this morning when its past 9 and i dont hear kids outside at all (not that they are supper loud, but i hear the basketball, bicycle). dd is still fast asleep. yet this last weekend they were out by 7 am including dd. most of the kids in my neighborhood are 3rd grade to high school age.  

anyways do you notice the same? 

[contactmaya]

Where i am, its dark at 7am. It seems to me that if a child needs to sleep in, they are not getting enough sleep during the week.  I can understand why people say not to let kids sleep in, but on the other hand, i would rather go to bed earlier than wake a sleeping child when its not necessary, ( and even when it is necessary)

I have become totally obsessed with going to bed early since ds started school, so he can get up early enough to get his 7h10am bus. Now, by some miracle, his bus picks him up after 8 (truly a miracle!!!!) We go to bed at 8pm, all of us. Its kind of crazy, like permanent jet lag. Im living on planet parent.

Sorry im not much help :-)

[meemee]

Originally Posted by contactmaya 

 It seems to me that if a child needs to sleep in, they are not getting enough sleep during the week. 

hah!!! so you'd think. i think its all about having to do something they dont really want to do. dd is naturally a night-owl. if school started at 10 or even 11 am she would have no problems waking up. i think. 

so u'd think they'd sleep in during the weekend. ugh. no matter how much i try she wont. even if i force her to stay in bed, she'll get her dry erase board and draw/write in bed or read a book. but not sleep. 

but she is also the child who prefers to have control over her time - do what she wants to do rather than what i or someone else tells her to do. 

[tooraloora]

I think it probably depends on the kid. Me sleeping in results in my sleep schedule being thrown way off, and it has always been that way. Always. It's also a huge pain to get back to my normal schedule. It takes me about a week. DD (nearly 7) doesn't seem to be like that at all. I let her sleep as long as she wants as long as we don't have somewhere to be. She usually gets up about the same time anyways, but she does sleep in occasionally. It hasn't posed a problem for her. DS seems to be more like me so far.

[cameragirl]

With DD, it only seems to mess up her sleep schedule if it gets REALLY off. For example, I had to go to the ER a couple weeks ago. I didn't get a bed until 1 am, and DD fell asleep at around 2. Of course that will mess up her sleep for a day or two. If she sleeps in an hour or two, though, I don't notice a difference.

[Peony]

My kids never seem to sleep in ever, so I don't notice a difference. 

[ashleyhaugh]

my bodies natural wake up time has always been (well at least since middle school, lol) like between 930 and 10, no matter what time i go to bed, whether its 11pm or 5 am, so "sleeping in" on the weekends isnt really sleeping in for me, its more like im waking up early the rest of the week. thankfully ds isnt usually an early riser, though hes usually up earlier than me when hes allowed to wake up naturally, usually between 830 and 9. we dont use an alarm on the weekends unless we have to be up and go somewhere early

[Polliwog]

My kids are up early every day. We've been the kids outside at 7:00. Usually later, but when you're up around 5:30, 7:00 is late.

[skreader]

One of my kids is a natural "lark" like DH and me. Usually gets up at 6am every day, even on weekends. He goes to bed at 9pm, but seems to stay awake iin there sometimes until 10.

The other needs more sleep in general. Even as a teenager, she is usually asleep by 9:30 and would sleep until 8 or 9 on school days if she could. On weekends, I will wake her up by 9am  to make sure that her sleep schedule is not thrown off.  Her sleep needs are something I've been aware of since she was about 6, and she began to notice it herself when she was about 10. She sometimes turns down sleep-over invitations, because she knows that the talking with friends until very late will leave her sleep deprived and cranky.

I think maintaining a healthy sleep routine and being aware of "sleep debt" is important for everyone's health, not just kids.

[Alyantavid]

I let my kids sleep as late as they want when they can.  They have to be up by 6:30 on weekdays so weekends or days off of school, they sleep in.  They're usually still up by 7 or 7:30.

Originally Posted by contactmaya 

Where i am, its dark at 7am. It seems to me that if a child needs to sleep in, they are not getting enough sleep during the week.  I can understand why people say not to let kids sleep in, but on the other hand, i would rather go to bed earlier than wake a sleeping child when its not necessary, ( and even when it is necessary)

I have become totally obsessed with going to bed early since ds started school, so he can get up early enough to get his 7h10am bus. Now, by some miracle, his bus picks him up after 8 (truly a miracle!!!!) We go to bed at 8pm, all of us. Its kind of crazy, like permanent jet lag. Im living on planet parent.

Sorry im not much help :-)

We can't always get to do what we'd want to do.  I'd love to never have to wake my sleeping kids, but that would mean that I would never see them.  Especially if I had to put them to bed even earlier.
 

[onlyzombiecat]

My dd is homeschooled and has had sleep issues since she was young. When left to her own devices I know that she will have a sleep pattern that shifts to being awake all night and sleeping until late evening.  A consistant wake and sleep time every single day is pretty important in her case while it might not matter much to another child. Dd gets 10 hours of sleep per night in the schedule we have made.

Dd sleeps later than school kids but definitely can not just sleep an hour or two later one day and then get up at the regular time easily. In her case it would take several weeks to get back to the regular routine.

[velochic]

Dd has two schedules... school days and non-school days.  She goes to bed at 8:30 on school nights and struggles to get to sleep. On weekends and holidays she stays up until 11pm or so and sleeps in until 10am usually.  She definitely "catches up" on sleep on the weekends, as she's a natural night owl.  She gave up naps completely when she was barely 2 and has had trouble getting to sleep all of her life.  She tries so hard to get to sleep earlier, but it just doesn't work.  Letting her sleep in on the weekends doesn't mess up her natural routine.  Going to school during the week messes up her natural routine.  Her circadian rhythm is not in tune to getting up at 6:30am.  I don't like to wake her when she can get as much sleep as she needs.  She wakes up very happily during the week even though it is earlier than she'd like, so I don't see it doing a lot of harm as long as she sleeps as much as she wants on the weekends. Research says you can catch up on sleep, which she does on her days off.

[meemee]

velochic i can sooo relate to you. 

that is why i looove the summer holidays. those long summer vacation months. dd is SUCH a different person. honestly. she is much more cooperative, open to options, not moody, name it and i'll say it. breaking her cycadian rhthym is really, really hard on her. she can barely make it to may. by june she is DONE. the last two or three weeks of school before summer holidays are her WORST.

and yes on school days it is imperative dd have her down time in the AM. nothing starts her day on a bad note if she had to hurry.