what time to turn wifi off on school nights?

[tired911]

DS15 a lovely, sensible kid. Doing very well academically - GCSEs this summer. We've had a challenging time lately as he had an unexplained seizure about a month ago - doctors think it was a one off, but we are possibly looking at an epilepsy diagnosis eventually, we will see. So worrying but he is taking it in his stride.

As I said, he's generally VERY sensible - a bit of a (wonderful) nerd really. I could always depend on him getting to bed at a reasonable hour, but lately he's been wanting to be online with his mates (who I know well etc) later and later. They are literally doing stuff like online chess but I don't think it's wonderful to be up that late on school nights PARTICULARLY when sleep deprivation is a trigger for seizures.

He just kicked off massively because the wifi went off at 10pm which he thinks is unreasonable. I am much more relaxed (up to a point) at weekends, but I don't think that 10 on a school night is a really early time to get off screens?! What do others do? Fully prepared to be told I'm being draconian if that's the case!

Personally I don't think 10 is that bad but maybe you could stretch to 10:30? Not much longer but at least it's a compromise. I would be feeling the same as you though due to his recent seizure

Your screentime limit of 10pm is sensible but you shouldn’t turn your router off ever really - it usually takes about a week of it being on for your internet service provider to optimise your internet and turning the router off resets it.

@IneedcoffeeinanIV - I’m sure he’d like 10.30. I just thought it wasn’t great for sleep health being on a screen that late (yes, appreciate I’m answering this at nearly midnight on my phone! 😆) - plus if it’s another half hour or so until he’s in bed, and he’s always up before 7…is 11pm until 6.30am really enough sleep?

@DemonSpawn - we have an app that can turn off certain devices, not switching off the whole router.

if the doctor thinks it's a one off and it hasn't happened since then you have no evidence that lack of sleep would cause a seizure, i say leave it on until half 10 especially because he's 15, some people just don't need loads of sleep

At 15, if he is a sensible kid, I would be allowing him to self regulate. I did this with my dd and she stayed up a bit too late on a couple of occasions. She then concluded that she felt shit the next day when she didn't get enough sleep, so she learned to put her phone away.

I never turned ours off at all. DH could still be working quite late sometimes, and I also like to dip in and out of stuff for which I need the internet.