What time do 15 year olds go to bed?

[fairyjay]

My ds is convinced that we are wicked parents, pushing him off to bed at 9.30 pm.
He is woken at 6.15 am for school, and doesn't get home until after 7 pm. What's the norm? I should say that he is naturally an early riser - rarely is he in bed later than 8 am at weekends and holidays.

I don't have teenagers, but I think 9.30 is too early. 10.00 - 10.30 sounds about right to me.

well, on sudnay i was tutoring a 16 year old. she was planning to go to a thing in croydon on the train after finishing tutoring. which was ending at 8 pm. i was a bit shocked, but then thought maybe i was just old?

We always used to go to bed quite early but we could watch tv or read or have radio on in our rooms for a bit. I think as we got older we were left downstairs while parents went to their room for peace and quiet.

don't have teenagers either, but I used to get up at the same time for school as a teenager and would go to bed on my own accord at 10 or so, sometimes later.

It does seem a bit early. Also, isn't he old enough to decide for himself?

Yeah 10-10.30pm sounds good, sensible if he's up at 6.15am.

My DS is 15 and doesn't go to bed until after 11pm.

In fact I go off to bed at 10pm or earlier with the baby and leave the boys up, so I've no idea when they actually go to bed

9.30 is pretty early. At 15 I would give him more flexibility, as long as he gets up in the morning.

Yes 9.30 does seem too early. He does seem to have an incredibly long school day! Is that normal times or does he do an after school club every day?

My 15yo dd and 14yo ds go to bed when they are ready. Usually about 10:30 but sometimes later and dd occassionally has an early night about 9:30.

My 15 year old would stay up all night if I let him. I tell him to go to bed at 10pm. Then, if he is still up at 10.30pm, I start nagging. He gets up for school at 6.45am.

School holidays he stays up half the night and sleeps until lunchtime or beyond.

My DS is 15 and I too would agree that 10 pm is reasonable. He used to get up at 6.15 to do a paper round and is often out of the house at school/sports activities until 6.30-7 pm. It might be better if he did go at 9.30 but he will perceive that as being too early/babyish.

Thank you everyone - that's really interesting and not too surprising. We don't have tv's in any of our bedrooms, so bed is bed, and it does seem that 10 is a more average time for his age group. And he is as good as gold in the mornings! I suppose I'm conscious that he does need his sleep (a bit like his mum!), and I don't want him to get knackered in what is a pretty busy term. We'll try it and see.

Thanks!

my dd is 15,she usually goes at 10pm,occassionally 9:30 if she's tired.She does read for a while and quite often finds it dificult to get to sleep.She gets up at 7:30.

My DS is 14 1/2 and goes to bed at 10.30 along with this brother who's 12 1/2...any earlier and they don't sleep.
The eldest is up at 7am everyday for his paper round. Also he comes home from seeing his girlfriend at 9.30...9.45 on weekends.
Every now and then, tho, he does take himself off for an early night when things catch up with him.
They're both quite sensible with their sleep patterns...saying that, the youngest would stay up til all hours on a weekend if we let him.

9,30! I mean really! where do you live? some small village? Where the Youth get their 'groove' on at the local village hall youth club ( after traditional christian prayers to kick it off) every Wednesday!

Seriously man. My kids goto bed at 10.00 but they don't go to sleep at that time, taking between 30 &60 mins to wind down.

FFF
I asked for opinions not rudeness.

That is my humour dear.

Fairy, if he thinks he's hard done by he should come to our house. I used to send my ds to bed at 9.30 when he was at primary, now it's 8.30 on a school night, 9.30 at weekends, because he now gets up an hour earlier.

Reading this thread, I think I'm maybe being a bit unreasonable with the 8.30 thing. He's a bugger to wake up in the morning, though, if I left him he wouldn't wake up till 9am.

Mine's 12 btw.

These situations just evolve though, don't they mumblechum. He's always asleep inside of 10 minutes, so I assumed he needed the sleep. But, at 15, he is more than capable of taking responsibility for these decisions - within certain guidelines!

And if he moans when I say 10 - I'll send him off to you!

My son is 14 and goes to bed 10 to 10:30 and his alarm goes of at 7:15. But presumably the amount of sleep needed will vary by child. I'd say look at how easy it is to get them going in the morning and whether the tiredness is affecting their moods (difficult to tell with teenagers, I know!) then adjust bedtimes accordingly. If mine has been particularly difficult to get out of bed or moods seem tiredness driven, we pack him off to bed early with a good book (or try to, at least!)

i used to go to bed about 11/12 and got up at 7- 7:30.

My Ds is 14.5 and doesnt have a set bedtime anymore, he usually goes up at about 10 or 11.

He is very good at getting up for school, he is always up at 6-30 to get ready.

15 year olds need about 8 1/2 to 9 hours sleep a night, so if he is getting up at 6.15 then 9.30 is about right. It does seem early, but he gets up relatively early (well, seems very early to me anyway!).

If he's getting off to sleep relatively easily and quickly then stick with it - there's a lot of evidence that teenagers (especially big ones) need much more sleep than they want, and that lack of sleep contributes to behavioural problems

15 is make your own decisions age isn't it?

if he chooses to go to bed at a ridiculous time and gets too little sleep he'll be the one who suffers, not you!

when i was 15 i was in a tutorial college and often didn't finish til 9pm so still had to get the bus home from the far side of the city centre and get some dinner and wind down before bed so parents wouldn't have tried sending me to bed, usually went up at 12 myself and was up before the rest of the house at 6.30.

i slept all day most saturdays though