Teenage Bedtimes

Right now for my 15 and 13 year old weekend "bedtimes" are at midnight ... when I remember to tell them it's bedtime. LOL And even when they DO get in bed at midnight most of the time they are up at least an hour longer watching tv or listening to music or reading. They don't blast their music all night long, they get great grades in school ... and it's the weekend. That's when things are supposed to be a little more relaxed since none of us HAS to get up early to start running all day long.

School night bedtime is 10pm.

My son is 14 and likes to stay up late. Always has. Both my husband and I don't like it, but he can't fall asleep early. He usually stays up 'til midnight falling asleep on his own with the tv on. There are times when it's later and then we have to force him to sleep and make him turn the tv off. I know the tv is a bad habit, but since he was really young he was never able to fall asleep with out it on. As soon as I turned it off while he was sleeping, he would get up, turn it back on and go back to sleep. We don't push the issue too much on the weekends, but we also don't let him sleep all day/morning. He is off the phone by 10pm.

Hi Page,

My teenagers are 17 and 16. At this age I pretty much let them stay up as late as they want on Friday and Saturday nights. The rules are simple; curfew is 12:30 if they go out, they are off the phone by 11, the television or stero volume is kept to a level not to disturb those of us who might like to sleep, and they best be able to get themselves up the next morning for work or planned family activites.

The rules are much different and more strict for school nights.

As a kid growing up I remember feeling really good about finally reaching an age where I didn't have "a bedtime", even if it were only on the weekends. It was like a right of passage from child to young adult.

You are in my prayers,
L.

Hello!
When I was in high school, I went to a boarding school where lights out was 9:30 freshman year, then 10pm through junior year, and then senior year there was no lights out time. The nuns would come by 15 minutes before lights out and knock on the door, and then at lights out, they'd come around and turn the lights off if you hadn't already done it yourself. That was during the week. On Friday and Saturday nights, they did not enforce a bedtime - although most of us didn't burn the midnight oil, because... hello... girls' school! What would we have done staying up late anyway?! When I went home on vacations and for summer, my parents enforced a 10pm curfew (famous quote from my mother, "Whatever you can do after 10, can just as well be accomplished before 10!") but once I was home, they didn't make me go to bed. It might have been different if I hadn't had really good grades and generally been a good kid.

But all that being said, I don't think there's any reason for kids to be staying up past midnight, probably. There's something to be said for totally screwing up their sleep patterns, and no matter what they say, they still NEED sleep! Their brains are still developing, they're still learning at an incredible rate, and it is good for them to get sleep during night time hours. At least that's my opinion, as someone who has always enjoyed her sleep. =)