What’s a Reasonable Bed Time for Children?
According to this interesting”Snooze or Lose” article by Po Bronson in New York Magazine, 9:30pm is a reasonable bed time for a ten year old. What do you think? It seems too late to me. My 11 year old kids usually go to bed by 9:00pm and if it’s any later they are basket cases. They still need at least 10 hours sleep so if they were getting up any earlier than 7:00am, they would have to go to bed earlier.
I do agree that children are over scheduled and that contributes to them not getting enough sleep. Either their activities keep them out too late or they have a hard time winding down because of all the running around.
According to a study conducted by Dr. Avi Sadeh of Tel Aviv University, a loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to losing two years of cognitive maturation and development. Two years!? Other problems that are contributed to lack of sleep include headaches and obesity. I can see the headaches being a problem because it has happened to me enough times that it’s an obvious connection. Stress is also a contributing factor.
Some of these kids have to start school between 7 and 8:00am which does seem a little early especially if they are going to bed past 9:00pm. I investigated to see how much sleep children should get at different ages. Here’s the break down according to WebMD (How much sleep do children need?)
- 1-3 year olds need an average of 12 to 14 hours.
- 3-6 year olds need an average of 10 and three quarters to 12 hours.
- 7-12 year olds need an average of 10-11 hours.
- 12-18 year olds need 8 and a quarter to 9 and a half hours.
How much sleep do your kids get by with? I try to talk sense to my daughter because she has a tendency to wander around after bedtime and is in denial about being tired. We’re back to having quiet time at 8:30 so that they can ease into bedtime with quiet reading and will be ready to sleep by 9:00.
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:57 pm
[...] Original post by Sandra Williams [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 11:56 am
[...] Sleep is another ‘bone’ of contention for parents & kids. Click the link to find age-appropriate bedtimes. [...]