thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Dec 5, 2013 9:36:37 GMT -5
www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/05/248885401/teens-who-feel-supported-at-home-and-school-sleep-betterThere is a lot of talk about teenagers and sleeping. I know there is a group pushing to get later start times for high schools, etc. I was a teenager 25-30 years ago, and I always slept like a log. Went to bed at 9:30, fell asleep, no problem. My husband says he had trouble sleeping as a teen, but no more so than he does now. He is just a night owl. Do you remember having drastically different sleeping habits when you were a teenager vs. how you sleep now?
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Dec 5, 2013 9:54:28 GMT -5
I've always been a morning person. Regardless of how late (or early) I went to bed as a teen, I was up and moving at 7 because my eyes popped open.
This translated fairly well to work in that there are no set hours in the labs I worked in, and discovered I could get more done in the 2-3 hours where I had it to myself than the rest of the day.
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Dec 5, 2013 10:02:45 GMT -5
As the parent of 2 high schoolers, I can tell you that they have widely different sleeping habits.
ODS will put himself to bed at 8, or 9, or on a particularly late night, 10. He played varsity football and Fall lacrosse since September. He knows he needs his sleep and assumes total responsibility for getting enough. He rarely says he is tired other than as his bedtime approaches.
YDS is a natural night owl. The current high school schedule does not work for him. He finally went to bed at 11:30 last night and had to be dragged out of bed at 6:15. He constantly complains of being tired. He tries to make up for sleep on the weekends by sleeping in until noon or later, but that just makes him stay up later that night -- a vicious cycle. We have tried numerous ways to get him to go to bed earlier during the week and to wake him up earlier on weekend days. But, as he gets older, we are intentionally placing it more in his hands -- he has to accept the consequences for his own poor sleeping habits.
My own habits are a mix of the two kids'. I crawled into bed at 9:15 on Tuesday night. Last night I dragged my butt up at midnight. Given the chance, I would probably crawl into bed every night during the winter at 7.
As for later start times for high schools, our old school district looked seriously at this. The problem is high school sports the games for which are typically played at 4:00 p.m. (roughly 2 hours after the average dismissal time). If high schoolers don't get out until 3 or 4, that means high school sports run until 7 or 8, followed then by dinner and homework until midnight? Also, every town in the state would have to buy into the new schedule or it wouldn't work because schools play both in leagues and non-league games. Not every town has lighted fields. Rush hour traffic here would make getting to and from away games more of a nightmare than it already is. Letting high schoolers start later is a nice idea, but very impractical around here.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Dec 5, 2013 12:31:56 GMT -5
When I was in HS, I couldn't fall asleep before 11, and often it was later. I could sleep in until 11 or later as well. Now that I'm old , I wish I could sleep in a little later. I get tired around 10, if not earlier, and can't sleep much past 7 unless I had crappy sleep, then maybe 9 or 9:30.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2013 12:36:26 GMT -5
As the parent of 2 high schoolers, I can tell you that they have widely different sleeping habits. ODS will put himself to bed at 8, or 9, or on a particularly late night, 10. He played varsity football and Fall lacrosse since September. He knows he needs his sleep and assumes total responsibility for getting enough. He rarely says he is tired other than as his bedtime approaches. YDS is a natural night owl. The current high school schedule does not work for him. He finally went to bed at 11:30 last night and had to be dragged out of bed at 6:15. He constantly complains of being tired. He tries to make up for sleep on the weekends by sleeping in until noon or later, but that just makes him stay up later that night -- a vicious cycle. We have tried numerous ways to get him to go to bed earlier during the week and to wake him up earlier on weekend days. But, as he gets older, we are intentionally placing it more in his hands -- he has to accept the consequences for his own poor sleeping habits. My own habits are a mix of the two kids'. I crawled into bed at 9:15 on Tuesday night. Last night I dragged my butt up at midnight. Given the chance, I would probably crawl into bed every night during the winter at 7. As for later start times for high schools, our old school district looked seriously at this. The problem is high school sports the games for which are typically played at 4:00 p.m. (roughly 2 hours after the average dismissal time). If high schoolers don't get out until 3 or 4, that means high school sports run until 7 or 8, followed then by dinner and homework until midnight? Also, every town in the state would have to buy into the new schedule or it wouldn't work because schools play both in leagues and non-league games. Not every town has lighted fields. Rush hour traffic here would make getting to and from away games more of a nightmare than it already is. Letting high schoolers start later is a nice idea, but very impractical around here. My district does this. The grade schools are early and the HS is last. My kids get off the bus @ 3 and the MS & HS are both right around 4. I have no idea about sports/club practices since I have 6 years to go until I've got a High Schooler of my own.
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sheilaincali
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Post by sheilaincali on Dec 5, 2013 12:52:43 GMT -5
DS (15) is a total night owl. During the summer he will comment to DH about how pretty the sunrise was and DH will say "wow, you got up early!" and DS just looks at him and says "No, I saw it before I went to bed".
We have a deal with the Boy. We don't enforce a bedtime under two conditions. One- our bedroom is under his so he has to keep it down at night while we are trying to sleep and Two- the first day he grumbles about getting up for school or throws attitude in the morning is the end of him not having a bedtime.
He will typically go to bed by 11 or so most nights. He gets up without complaint at 6:15 in the mornings for school. He usually goes in an hour early for his activities so he leaves for school at 7am (School starts at 8:15). On the weekends he sleeps later but he stays up later. We warn him if we have something going on that will require him to wake up early on the weekends. He doesn't ever seem or act tired so I assume he is getting enough sleep.
Around here the schools start within 20 minutes of each other to allow for bus traffic. The 6th grade starts at 7:55 am, elementary and jr high at 8:05 and High School at 8:15.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2013 13:26:15 GMT -5
House of night owls here, except poor husband... Homeschooling helps. But son is about off even the norm of night owl at the moment... Trying to adjust him back a bit. He'd love to sleep from 4 am to noon though....
Our high schoolers used to go first. I think everyone's back to the same scedule now? I think it's early...
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steff
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Post by steff on Dec 5, 2013 13:38:42 GMT -5
My brothers & I developed horrible sleep patterns when we were kids & it definitely runs over into adulthood for us. We're all hard core night owls. We can all run on about 3-4 hours sleep if necessary. One brother has to use prescription sleep aids to sleep during the week, the other brother got a job that doesn't start until noon, & everyone knows I'm totally useless until noon. I go to bed around 4-4:30 am & I wake up around 10-11 am.
With kiddo, I created another hard core night owl. When he was a baby, I put him on hubby's schedule (up all night, sleep all day). Switched it around when he was around 4 to get him ready for school. On school nights, he would go to bed around 8:30-9 pm. The older he got the later his bedtime got. By high school, he was deciding when he'd go to bed, but he always knew he had to be up early for school.
Now that he's in college & working, his hours are as screwy as mine are. he scheduled his classes to start after 11 am. On days he works, he's usually in bed by 2 am. On days he has no work & no school, he'll stay up all night & go to bed around 9 am.
because I have such horrible sleep patterns, I've never been one to bitch about kiddo's sleep patterns. Our house has always had a weird opposite thing going on with sleep anyway. Hubby works nights & sleeps all day. I stay up all night.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Dec 5, 2013 14:26:23 GMT -5
I've always needed my sleep. 10pm is usually my max, even in college unless I was working. I've always gotten up early (5-6am) and take naps on the weekend. No change from my teenage (or toddler ) years.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Dec 5, 2013 14:40:58 GMT -5
I wouldn't say drastically different. I've always been a bit of a night owl, and had some insomnia. It's just worse now. But even in high school, I went to bed fairly late, usually not by choice.
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whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on Dec 5, 2013 14:44:09 GMT -5
Since I was 4 yrs old I was forced to get up early in the morning and for the next 30 yrs I HATED every.single.morning. It didn't matter what time I went to bed, I LOVE sleeping in late.
Before we had kids, my DH kept telling me that I will be forever screwed once we do have kids.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Dec 5, 2013 14:45:54 GMT -5
What times do your highschools start? Mine started at 7:50. I could see delaying starting until 9, but not much later.
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sheilaincali
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Post by sheilaincali on Dec 5, 2013 15:03:30 GMT -5
At DS' high school- Warning bell is at 8:10, class starts at 8:15. They are done for the day at 3:05.
He opts to do the AM practice/meeting option for most of his clubs so he gets to school at 7:15 every morning except Friday. Monday and Wednesday is Knowledge Bowl, Tuesday and Thursday is Robotics. History club meets the first Tuesday of every month at 7:30 so he skips Robotics those mornings.
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Dec 5, 2013 15:30:55 GMT -5
Until I had a baby in my 30's, I also loved staying up late and sleeping in. I learned quickly, my baby doesn't care if I want to sleep in. It took several weeks of laying in bed in the dark for hours for my body to finally get used to going to bed at a reasonable hour. Now I have no problems waking up naturally at 6:30. It sucks that it took me this long to realize it, and I kind of wish I would have gotten better sleep habits as a kid.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Dec 5, 2013 15:48:47 GMT -5
I have never been a morning person. My gradeschool mornings were nightmarish - I had a terrible time getting up in the morning (and then stumbled around in a fog til about 10:00am). I had a strict bedtime but always had trouble falling asleep. So bedtime of 9:00pm I'd just kinda lay in bed until I fell asleep usually sometime after the evening news (10:30pm) - my bedroom was off the livingroom with the TV (and parents watching it). It wasn't the TV keeping me awake. I really HATE when people tell me - oh, just get up at the same time every morning and your 'body clock' will reset to that time. Um, no. All of gradeschool, high school, and junior college and then a full time job and NOT once did I ever just 'snap awake' at 6:00am even though that was when the alarm went off each and everyday. If the alarm didn't go off I'd just sleep thru til about 9:00/10:00am -ish and wake up naturally. Even if I had full sun in my face - I'll just sleep till then. I never naturally awake from sleep before 8:00am - no matter what time I went to bed the night before. I can hit the hay at 7:00pm and sleep thru til 9:00 the next morning. (Ok, Im old now and get up to use the bathroom during the night - but I fall back to sleep quickly). I know as a teen if left to my own devices I'd easily sleep 12 or 16 hours. I can do it now as an Adult, too. When I go 'feral' - when I have 10 days off of work and don't have to follow the clock - I slip around to the back of the clock, get about 9 - 10 hours of sleep each 'night' and feel absolutely great - and then I have to go back to the time frame the rest of world lives by I do think everyone is different. I know I feel the best when I get 9 hours or so of sleep each night - I have friends who happily get by on 6 hours of sleep - and that's a 'full night's rest' for them - they are bright eyed and busytailed and perky. <-- I HATE them. So, yeah, I can see where teens might have some sort of odd sleep patterns or longer/shorter sleep times. I can also see the benefit of a regular bedtime - even if it's NOT on one's internal pattern. There's something to be said for consistancy.
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Chocolate Lover
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Post by Chocolate Lover on Dec 5, 2013 15:57:49 GMT -5
I've ALWAYS been a natural night owl. Mom tells stories about smashing up sleeping pills in bananas for me when I was little (not entirely sure she's kiddding). I could sleep for hours as a teen and could now, except my mattress needs replacing and I get uncomfortable after too long I don't function well on the rest of the world's clock, but here I am. It helps when I get enough sleep but it's still wrong to me. My 2 kids are both like me. They'd rather be shot than get up early. Step son, bright eyed and bushy tailed morning person. It's all I can do not to kill him every morning. He has finally stopped getting up at 5 though.
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flamingo
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Post by flamingo on Dec 5, 2013 16:37:52 GMT -5
I was up at 6am for high school-school started at 7am. I was decently awake and ready for the day. As I've gotten older, I've become more of a morning person. I'm up at 5:15am, and in bed between 9 and 10 every night. Weekends I stay up later, but I'm still up by 6:30 at the latest. I tried to be a night owl in college, because all my friends were. It didn't take.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2013 18:26:53 GMT -5
My Mom use to call me a vampire because left to my own devices, I'd stay up all night and sleep until early afternoon. I've seen many sunrises in my lifetime, because I didn't go to sleep until after the sun was up. My sleeping habits didn't start to change until a couple of years ago. I was ready to go to sleep much earlier and a lot of times I'd wake up and be out of bed before dawn. Like OLD people. I started working days earlier this year and I still don't particularly like HAVING to get up so early to go to work. When my children were in their early teens, during the summers we'd often stay up together until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. Those were fun times.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Dec 5, 2013 18:51:24 GMT -5
Another night owl here. I used to go full vampire in the summer and sleep from dawn to late afternoon. Arizona summers are brutal during the day.
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