How much sleep do your 5-year-olds need?

Nadia is used to waking up at 8am right now....her preschool was from 9am to 1pm. Her bedtime is about 9pm, although I send her to bed at 8:30pm if she seems tired or cranky. I think she *needs* at least 11 hours of sleep.

When she starts K in the fall, I'll need to get her up by 6:15am to get to school on time. Does that mean I need to get her in bed by 7:15pm, or did you find that your kindergarteners just gradually needed less sleep as they got older? I have no idea how we're going to accomplish that...most days we eat dinner then, LOL.

 

My daughter was in K last year. I had to get her (and her sisters) up at 6:30. Bedtime started at 6:45-7ish with the goal of being in bed by 7:30. Annie, however, is a very deep sleeper and it was no fun getting her up no matter what time she went to bed. I'd have to pull her out of bed some mornings and walk her half asleep to the kitchen. She is very grumpy.

It wsa hard to get them all to bed that early. I had to try to have us sitting down to dinner at 5 if they were going to have any free time between dinner and bed. Since she was picked up from school at 3:30, we were home by 4 most days. As long as I had a dinner plan we were ok.

Now that's it's summer my girls don't really have a bedtime, unless we have to go somewhere in the morning. I'll probably go cold turkey in the fall with the early wake up and bed time. Because it's still so light out I know there's no way they'll go to bed early. It was hard this spring!

 

I can tell you that for at the least the first month or so, my DD was so exhausted just from starting KG that we were actually putting her to bed earlier than usual. Her normal was 8 pm - 7/7:30 (so about 11 hours) and she was dog tired by 7, so we'd put her in bed early and after a month or so she adjusted and started being able to go to bed again at 8. Her teacher even said in his newsletter that we may find that are kids are so much more tired b/c they are doing so much and in a new routine. Even without that, you may find you'll have to push the bedtime earlier if she's having to get up that much earlier than she's used to.

 

in K mine laid down at 8:00 & got to watch tv until 8:30 (a bad habit, i know but daddy started it & i can't break it). they got up at 6:30 am. this year in 1st grade they went to bed at the same time but got up at 6:00 am. i have heard that 10 hours is the min. amount for their age but i can't imagine trying to get them to go to bed any earlier with things like soccer practice, an hour of homework & dinner & they have to get up when they do.

 

Thank you for asking. I had been wondering about this also.

I also think, reading this thread, that I am grateful that we got the afternoon kindergarten class. Currently, mine go to bed at 8:30 and get up between 8-9 in the morning. I figure next year, I'll move to more of an 8pm-8am scheduele. I want them to have enough time to be hungry for lunch before they get on the bus at 12:15. If they had gotten the morning, I probably would have done a 7:30pm-7am.

Marissa

 

Where can I find these kids who sleep so much?

I did put mine down at 7 because they had to be up by 6:30. One of them would always be up at least until 8, maybe 8:30. She was harder to get up in the mornings, but she couldn't fall asleep then, even though her sister did.

Now that it is summer I pushed bedtime back to 8 because I didn't them up so early. One will be up by 6, if not before (I do not get them up). The other, maybe 7:30, but maybe 6:30.

My teenagers could sleep all day.

All 4 of my kids quit napping by age 2.5. I wonder if it's connected.

They are being switched to a newly-built school that is closer this fall, which I am hoping means a shorter bus ride and a later time to get up in the morning, so a later bedtime. It was very frustrating this year because they didn't get home until 4:20 and had to be in bed by 7. There is no way they could've done any extracurricular activities.

I would start them with the earlier bedtime. If they don't need it, you can make it later, but if you start with the later one and they do need the sleep, you will be dealing with crabby, overtired kids.

 

My girls go to bed around 7 and I wake them up at 6:50 (even though they are usually awake earlier they just aren't aloud out of bed yet). My one daughter usually takes atleast a half hour to fall asleep at night and sometimes longer (sometimes if she is way over tired she falls asleep with in 10min but that is rare). We are usually walking out our door to walk to school at 7:45 so they have an hour to get everything ready for school. It was a big adjustment for my girls since they went from half a day, four days a week preschool to all day, five days a week kindergarten, The first month or two were really hard especially on my one daughter that likes to stay up at night. We also always have problems with her when they have winter an spring break or a monday off from school. During the summer they will probably be going to bed around 8 but I am sure they all will still be getting up before 7 since I have two early risers and since my girls share a room the one that likes to sleep will be woken up.

 

Aaron will start K in Aug and he needs a good 12 hrs still. My 9 year old, going into 4th grade still needs a solid 11 hours. It wasn't until she was close to 11 that my oldest could get 10 hrs and be okay. I think a lot of kids are chronically sleep deprived. We don't have any extra activities going on right now because of how early the kids need to go to bed to be truly rested for school the next day. So that means my 9 yr old goes to bed between 7 and and 7:30 to get up between 6 and 6:30. Yes that is early, but it allows him the sleep his body needs. Aaron will be going to bed about 6:30 when school starts so he can wake rested at 6:30 for school. Finally my oldest can go to bed between 9 and 9:30 and get up between 6 and 6:30. I adjust their sleep times based on their signs of what they need.

 

Josh starts K next year, and he goes to bed at 730, and will need to be up around 7. He needs every bit of that sleep!

Actually, all of my kids do. They all get 10-12 hours at night. No naps though.

 

My girls go to bed at 8pm (bedtime routine with brushing teeth and stories starts at 7:30; lights out at 8). They get up at 7:00am. I drive them to school for 8:45am (5 minute drive) on my way to work so that gives us a nice liesurely morning. Actually this 11 hour sleep has been their routine since they stopped napping just before they turned 3. Jamie is showing signs of not being as tired as she used to so after school is out I think I'll let bedtime creep up to 8:30 especially in the summer with so many activities and it being light so long. I really want to hang on to the 8pm bedtime for next school year because I think it will be very trying to go all day every day in Grade 1.

 

I was just discussing this with my mother last night. (She thinks my son only needs 10 hrs) My son is currently in preschool, and they do take naps there. So he gets a nap but Im not really sure how long he sleeps, and although I TRY to get him to be in bed at 8-8:30, my mother insists that he should be able to stay up later than the other children, and lets him watch tv.
She thinks if he gets 8 hrs at night and 2hrs for nap, he's fine. UH WRONG! He NEEDS more sleep than that, but he just doesnt want to go to sleep at night.

Hopefully a couple of weeks before K starts I will be able to get him into a STRICT schedule, which would include being IN bed by 8:30pm. . . he has to be up at 6:15am. If I see that he needs more sleep, then we will adjust from there, but I work full time and we dont usually get home until 615pm, so its hard to get him in bed earlier than 8pm.

 

Thanx for posting - I've read 11-13 hours is age-appropriate, and ours have always been pretty good sleepers. Mine will still catch at least one-two naps a week and tend to sleep about 11 hours thru the nite. I'm really dreading kindergarten schedule changes. GL everyone!