How much sleep for a seven year old?

[waferhappy]

My eldest son is seven years old however bedtimes are a real nightmare with him. His sisters who are five and three go to bed about 7:15-7:30. Eldest girl wakes at 7:30 for school mon-fri . Youngest girl wakes at 7:30 for nursery mon- wed. However my Seven year old is the nightmare his current bedtime is 7:45-8:00 awake at 7:30 same as his sisters. We do bath, warm glass of milk and a biscuit, a story , brush teeth then lights out he is fine until lights out is mentioned but then he throws a tantrum that I would except my three year old to throw claiming we baby him to much and he should get to stay up later as his not a baby he will throw things hit walls etc etc will eventually fall asleep out of exhaustion however this Wakes up my daughters and in turn my ten month old son which makes for a grumpy family in the morning. I've tried ignoring him punishing him asking him if anythings bothering him etc but nothing works

The only thing I can think of is the biscuit could be giving him a sugar rush....some kids, my DD included, are very sugar sensitive and it hits them hard.

I would also consider that he is maybe going a bit late....send him at the same time as his sister and if he complains, then tell him its because of his nightly tantrums...and when they stop, then he can go a little bit later.

My 7 yrold twins(nearly 8 though) get in bed at 8 and often read in bed until 830. Friday/Saturday it's more like 9 by time lights out. They get up at 730. This works for us-they're not tired/yawning/particularly grumpy and both tall healthy kids.
I think it depends on the child in terms of how much sleep-I thought it was 10-12 hours for this age?
I think it sounds like a control thing with him-does he get the chance to be in charge of anything the rest of the time? Is it attention seeking-does he need some 1:1?

Hello . I've thought about cutting the biccy out at night but worried that will make matters worse and he won't react well I will give it a go though. I will also try sending him up with his sisters tonight . I have told him if he would like he can have some quite reading time until about 8:15/8:20 if he likes but he didn't sound to happy about that he just wants to have the tele on in the lounge and not be in bed. I don't allow tv on in bedrooms sun-thur anyway. Friday and Saturday nights are exceptions . I do try to make sure my kids get one on one time with both me and dh but with four kids one being under one to it is hard. This weekend I took him to pick out a DVD he wanted for Xmas and treated to him to lunch out on his own with me and a trip to shakeaway.

Our 7.2 year old is in bed by 7pm most nights and sleeps until 7am most mornings, just the same as his 4.7 year old brother.

Defiantly going to try to put him to bed same time as my dds . However he keeps up a fuss that he shouldn't be going to bed so close to them!!

My DD is 8 and my younger is 5 in March and they go together. I think that staggering bedtimes is fine if there's a bigger age gap...but yes, he's probably better off in earlier.

Hiya, my 7 year old ds goes to bed at around 8 ish, but reading (and faffing, and sometimes Masterchef in bed with me and newborn brother) means he doesn't go to sleep till closer to 9. He is up at 7 am every day.

Try surprising him! Let him stay up a bit, but show him that it is boring maybe? Or try the entire series of Alex Rider audio CDs....never fails to elicit an early night here as each episode is an hour long, and there are millions of them. Or try other 'sideways' tactics....ooooh, you are such a bg boy, I think you can......and think of something he could do like read his sisters a story, or have a ten minute cuddle with you after the younger kids are in bed.....

Good luck x

My 7 year old goes to bed at 8.30pm on school nights and is up at 7.30am every morning. If i sent him to bed earlier, he'd just be up at silly o'clock in the mornings.

I don't find it makes any difference what he eats in the evening.