Bedtime for your 15 yr old in the holidays & importantly how do you enforce it

[SoTiredNeedHoliday]

I really struggle with this and in previous holidays have just ended up leaving him up as he refuses to sleep prior to midnight. Often awake still at 2 or 3 am.....
Up at about 12 next day.

I can't stand it.

I don’t have a bed time for my 15 year old. He seems to be able to regulate it himself. If he has to get up for work (starts at 8am) then he gets up. If he doesn’t he stays asleep, but not til noon, more like 10. He does a lot of sport and socialising too and he often crashes out on a Sunday afternoon.
My 14 year old daughter can’t last much beyond 9pm on a school night and goes off to bed when she needs to. During holiday she will stay up later and can sleep til noon. But she’s great at school does all her work so I don’t mind.

Not had one for any of mine at that age. Holidays is a good time for them to learn how much sleep they need and impact of not enough.

I would also question why it is an issue for them to lie in until midday, if they don't need to be anywhere ?

That’s a really tricky one. Could you remove internet access when you go to bed, and / or make a lot of noise / plan things for the morning.
If he gets woken early he might sleep earlier.

I let them sleep when they can. However if we’re going somewhere or having visitors then they need to be up. Otherwise blanket rule for whole house is up , showered & dressed by 12 noon!

My 14 year old still has a bedtime in the hols but she'll still generally sleep till noon

I have ds 14 & dd 15, during the holidays they have no set bedtime and I have no issue with them laying in bed until lunch. Tbf only Dd will lie in until then ds is usually up by 10ish.

My thinking is they are awake at 6.30am during school time and holidays are for winding down. They seem to pick up the routine quick enough when back at school.

Computer automatically shuts off at ten on a week night, even in the holidays but he can still watch TV/ play on his phone after that. After a phase of staying up until the early hours, he will now go to bed at a sensible time and then wants to get up at a reasonable time too so think he has now learned to self regulate!

I don't have a 15 year old, but I do have a 13 year old and I don't enforce any sort of bedtime outside of term time, I just don't see the point and I didn't have one when I was that age either.

Why can't you stand it? I struggle to entertain my two and if we aren't going out they can sleep until whenever. They'll have their whole working lives to be up early.

If it bothers you then poke him awake earlier and heay get back to earlier nights. FWIW teens naturally have a different body clock to adults. Awake later and up later.

DS1 (15) doesn't have a set bedtime during the holidays. I leave him to make the decision, and make sure he knows when he's going to be expected to wake at a specific time the next day. If he then chooses to go to bed late the night before then that's for him to deal with!

What is the point?

Pick your battles.

Midday is early for my DS and was for me at that age. I often didn't get up until 2 or 3 pm! My younger brother often stayed in bed until 6 or 7 pm.

I've been reading a book called "why we sleep" and one of the things it says is that teenagers have a natural sleep cycle that means they function best on late bedtime and late wake up. It says that their education could be vastly improved by schools starting later to accommodate this. So I would be tempted to just let him find his own sleep pattern for the holidays.
However quality of sleep is also important, and he's not going to be having great sleep if he's watching tv, gaming or using screens all night so I would limit those, but allow him to sleep when he's naturally tired.

I’ve just remembered that I used to go up at about 11 and say if he didn’t get up then the next meal was lunch!

Often awake still at 2 or 3 am.....
*Up at about 12 next day.
*
I can't stand it.

Why not? Are you staying up with them?

I never cared about things like that, it's typical of a teenager, they can sleep for England. I used to like to stay in bed too and would have hated being disturbed.

If he has something important to do (or important to him), he'll get up if he has to.

PS: I agree with NannyR (only I would extend that to include 20s, 30s.....etc :-), I love laying in bed).

My DS is 14 and school holidays he goes to sleep whenever he chooses. He seems to stay up fairly late for the first few days and then the novelty wears off and he's asleep by 10-10.30 most nights. He's normally awake by 10am but lounges about most days unless he has plans or either DH or I'm off. Just let him do his own thing and see what happens?

I have much younger children that stay up until 11 and sometimes midnight in the holidays. 15 years old seems too old for a bedtime in holidays.

Do you mean school holidays or holidays away?

If school holidays, then let him be. Holidaysa re for rest and relaxation.

If holidays away, then it depends what you are doing. If you need to get up for a day trip then maybe mention that he needs an earlier night.

I would say no strict bedtime, but has to be up by 11/12 the next day.

Doesn't bother me. Ds1 self regulates. And if I tell him he needs to be up, because we are going out etc, he'll get up.

He can sleep all day if he wants! (He doesn't!)

When mine were 15, they were in there bedroom's by 10pm they watched tv or played games until whenever, as long as they weren't loud so we could sleep.

What is the problem OP?
Is he making noise and keeping other people up? Do you need him up in the morning for anything in particular?
If he isn't affecting anyone else then I don't see the issue.