How many hours of sleep does your gymnast get a night?

[MdGymMom01]

My kids had their annual check ups today and their pediatrician said that elementary school aged kids should be getting 12 hours of sleep a night . Older kids should be getting at least 9 or 10, and she said that US children do not get the amount of sleep that they should and that the lack of sleep is causing many other problems--childhood obesity, learning and concentration problems, health problems...

My 9 year old son gets around 9-10 hrs and my dd gets around 8 or 9. So, how many hours does your child get?

 

[mariposa]

My 8 year old gets 11-12 a night. And boy does she need it. Just a few days of less sleep and she is different kid, and not in a good way. We homeschool though so I think that helps a lot. I have always said that if she went to school AND did gym, she would have quit because she would have been miserable.

My 4 year old gets around the same, sometimes less because she wakes up easily to noises, so when I am up, so is she. But she is very crabby when she doesn't get enough and usually will fall asleep on the way home from dropping her sister off at gym if she hasn't gotten what she needs.

I actually always wondered if something was wrong with my gymmie since she seems to NEED so much sleep, but maybe she is just fine. LOL. Might be why she is the one in the family least likely to get sick, even if the rest of us get something and often times she is the only one exposed, yet we get sick and she doesn't.

Interesting post!!

 

[MdGymMom01]

I find it so hard especially for the elementary school aged kids to get that 12 hours of sleep. Especially when they start school so early! My ds gets up around 7am so that would mean he would need to be in bed by 7pm. Sometimes we are not even home by then between the gym and ballet practices. I guess it would be a lot easier for home-schoolers considering there is no "set time" to catch the bus or be at school. I say they should start incorporating the 2 hr naps back into the school systems! Nowadays, Kindergartners don't even get naps anymore!!

 

[Billy]

Homeschooling definitely helps. Both my younger kids get 11-12 hours a night most nights. DD does have practice two mornings a week so on those days we're up by 6:45. But even then, they still get about 10 hours of sleep. Bedtime for them is between 8 and 9 pm depending on the day. Now my teenage son is a different story, although he's not as bad as most. He goes to bed at 10 pm and gets about 8 hours of sleep a night. Needless to say, bedtimes in our house are strictly enforced.

 

[emorymom]

DD7 gets 10.5-11. I've only ever read that elementary age kids need 10.5.

DS6 gets less. I'd say less by .5-1 hour. And he has always needed less sleep.

They are home schooled and I do not wake them up or very rarely. They fall asleep between 9pm and oh, 9:45 depending on how tired they are (reading in bed). So at least every 2-3 months there will be a lie in related to I don't know what.

 

[mariposa]

How Much Sleep Do Kids Need? - Watch WebMD Video
This guy says elementary through high school need 9-10 hours. Interesting video dealing with start times and grades and a study showing later start times increased grade.

Link Removed
This one gives a wider range of 10-12 hours for school aged children to preteens. And 8 1/2-9 1/2 for Teenagers.

Interesting the variations in opinion. I think that overall, it is very individual. But I would guess that kids that are involved in competitive sports that practice a lot of hours don't get the amount of sleep they really need.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

Pickle probably gets about 9.5, but could definitely use more. On gymnastics nights we don't get home unil 7:30 and then there's still dinner, homework, shower, and "chill time" before bed. We are lucky that school doesn't start until 9, but she has math team at 8 two days a week.

She catches up a bit on weekends.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

It would be a dream to regularly get 10 hours of sleep! I'm often up late studying after practice until 11:00...and since I usually have to be at school by 7:00 or 7:30, I'm lucky to be able to sleep until 6:00. So usually 6-8 hrs/night, depending on how busy I am. I can catch up on Sunday mornings, since I have practice on Saturday, but still...

I'm nowhere near as bad as most of the Math Clubbies at school. There was an informal "5 Hours Of Sleep Or Less" club for a while when a big project was aproaching. I was lackadaisical and spent about 3 hrs total working on it while watching South Park. Got an A. Booyah. -cue end zone dance-
There's one girl I know who is a compulsive studier and claims to have gotten 2 hrs of sleep TOTAL this week (finals week), though I don't know if I believe that. She posts on Facebook, "What should I do if everything's starting to look purple?" and everyone replies "SLEEP, already!"

It's like we're training for college. Most of these kids are in no way, shape, or form athletes though...

 

[UnoMas]

Younger DD usually about 9 hrs (she is 7) and older DD 8-9 (she is 10). School STARTS at 7 and the girls get up right at 6. Practice ends at 6:30 for the 7 yr old and 8 for the 10 yr old. They are so wound when they get home from practice, it is so hard to get them in bed right away. UGH. I hate it!

 

[fishchimes]

My problem is I have to have like at least 45 of goof off time daily or I get angry (lol idk how to describe it). So on days when I'm busy, and all the gymnastics and studying/homework is done, I end up staying up late to get that goof off time in ^^; usually I'm in bed by 10:30 or 11 though, and then I get up at 6:30-6:45. So about 8 hours, give or take a half hour or so.

I personally believe that no one should have to be in class before 9! According to some research I read about, no one is fully awake until like 11:30 AM anyways

 

[my4buffaloes]

It varies so much. On nights that she doesn't have gym she gets 10-11. Gym nights are 9-10, which is not enough. She is 10 years old. Fortunately she easily catches up on her off days. My boys never get enough sleep and even when they have the opportunity to sleep more they don't.

A girl at my husband's former school is a swimmer and training for the Olympics. She gets up at 4:30 every morning to swim and then does it again after school. We joke with my dd that she is not cut out to be an Olympic gymnast because she could never get up that early. She craves more sleep all the time. Can barely get out of bed at 7:30. I agree though, most kids do not get enough sleep.

 

[gymnast695]

I'm a sophomore in highschool and get 8 hours of sleep a night, if I go to bed at 10. And on gym nights that hard to do, so usually its more like 7 :/ I'm a walking zombie every morning! Schools definitely should not start as early as they do.. my bus comes at 6:20am! It's still pitch black out where I live at that time. It's not possible for me to get to bed any earlier though, with gym ending at 9, and getting home, showering, eating dinner and doing homework!

 

[Deanna]

My DD (5yrs old) gets about 10 hrs of sleep each night during the week. Gym aside, school alone pretty much limits her sleep time to this. She catches the bus at 7, so has to be up by 6:30 at the latest. She HATES getting up (is not a morning person) and drags rump in the morning. She doesnt get off the bus until 4pm..so she only has 4 hrs between the time she
steps off the bus to "chill", eat, bathe, do any "homework" (normaly 2 days a week she will have a worksheet), get lunch ready for the next day, get clothes ready for the next day, do whatever her chore is that day (clear table, set table, unload dishwasher..ect.) and try and squeeze in a little time with her friend who stays with her grandma across the road from us when her mom is working. When I break it down like that it seems kinda sad that she is only 5 yet and i only get 4 hrs of waking time a day with her. And sad that at that age she only gets that much "free time". My DDs kindergarten does get a 45 min nap time (although we all know that by time most get to sleep its time to get up..lol)...they get down time even if they dont actually get to sleep. All the other area schools do not have nap time in kindergarten anymore..hers is the only one left.
My DS (will be 4 yrs old in less than a month) sleeps the same hours DD does. And he doesnt seem to need any more than that. He doesnt take naps during the day and will just play in his room when you try and put him down for one. His body seems to require alot less sleep. He is ready for bed at 8 and ready and willing to get at it at 6-6:30 when DD gets up (he is a VERY light sleeper) DD is like me and would stay up all night and sleep all day if given the chance.
Its really hard to say what is right and what is wrong. Everyone is different. I know myself I only need about 5 hrs a night..if i sleep more i feel worse than if i get less. I have always been that way.
Very interesting post.

 

[liseybeast]

I recently was looking into this and read that there are the average guidelines for different age groups on how many hours of sleep, but it often depends on the individual. It's about listening to your body and finding your own "magic number". Too much sleep can be as detrimental as too little. I never slept a lot growing up and stopped taking naps at the age of 2. It just wasn't necessary and every night I would sneak in to my parent's bedroom and watch tv for an hour with my mom and she would then try to get me to go back to sleep. Friend's parents were always shocked that I would go to sleep so late, but I think I got the amount of sleep I needed for my needs.

 

[gym law mom]

I would say both my girls got about 10 hours of sleep/night in elementary school and around 9 in middle school. Its hard with any kind of after school activity in high school for kids to get more than 8.5 hours. I know some school districts have pushed back the start time for middle schools and high schools because kids do need the extra sleep. In our district though high school still starts a little after 7. When you think about it, many adults aren't even at work when these kids are sitting in a classroom.

Just as a side note, you cannot "catch up on sleep." If the your child really needs 10 hours/night and gets only 9 for 4 days, they can't make up that 4 hours by sleeping in. Once sleep is lost, its gone. Of course people are different and where one child may absolutely need 11 hours, another may do fine with 9.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I do not think my daughter gets enough sleep because on gym nights she does not get home till 9and the she is usually wound up and awake from gym. She has to get up for school at 630. I kind of feel bad because in the summer they practice at 8am so she still has to get up early basically year round. On the weekends we try to catch up practice is later on Saturday. I suffer from severe lack of sleep because I work nights so eventhough I know this is not healthy I usually only sleep 5to 6 hrs so if my daughter is getting 8 hours it seems pretty good. I just do not know any solutions other than home schooling when they have such long gym practices on school nights but maybe it will help prepare them for the adult world.

 

[Aussie_coach]

I did a little research too and most sites I stumbled across recommends 10-11 hours sleep for elementary school aged kids. Active/wakeful kids will need less.

 

[cher062]

my 13yo gets on average 9 hours. Her bed time is 10 pm she doesn't have to get up until 7:30am and be at school until 8:30 am and its only a 10 min drive from the house.

 

[NGL780309]

Unfortunately DD gets 8 usually, but sometimes closer to 7. I'd like her to get 8-9. I don't think she'd get 12 hours even if we had the time. My other younger child (2 in May) gets around 8 at night, but still takes 2 naps during the day. I don't really think she needs more than that because even on the weekends she wakes up around 5:30am. She's like an alarm clock. I don't think there is a magic number and it can vary from child to child. I think it's important to watch for signs that they aren't getting enough. I think my 6 year old doesn't get enough and is often crabby and hard to wake up, but for the little one it's enough.

 

[Optionals United]

I can get anywhere from 7.5/10 hours a night. On my off night it it usally 9-10 regular nights around 7-9. I normally go to bed around 10ish sometimes earlier sometimes later. Some nights it definetly isnt enough though LOL