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

[AGM78910]

My DD in high school does 25 hours a week of gymnastics over 6 days and gets 9 to 9 1/2 hours of sleep per night. When she gets less than 9 hours she is tough to wake up.

 

[Kiwi]

My DDs get up at 7 a.m. so I try to get them into bed by 8 p.m., but it is difficult, quite often it is more like 9 p.m. Older DD survives okay on less sleep, younger DD (8) who is doing the competitive gym training, definitely needs more sleep than she is getting, it is a constant battle for me trying to get them into bed on time.

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

I go to bed around 11 (asleep by 11:30 usually), I would go earlier and do on some nights, but between school, homework, work, gym and attempting to have a social life (key word is attempting) it just doesn't happen. Gym ends at 9, I don't get home till 9:30, so it's tough. Plus I am not a morning person! I could happily sleep for 14 hours a night, but like to stay up later and sleep in.
I get up at 7:30 so I usually get 8 hours. But sometimes its 5-6 hours, if I have tons of homework, or have to get up earlier to catch a different ride to school.

 

[gymgurl]

I am 16 and get 10ish hours every night, sometimes less sometimes more but sadly i think that is going to change due to work increases.....

 

[MissBear]

This is something I have thought about a lot. All our competitive gymnasts train until 9 pm at least 2 nights a week (they are 7+). Even if you are round the corner that means bed at 9.30 earliest. However, primary schools here start at 9 and most secondary schools at 8.30-8.45, so perhaps they catch up in the mornings if they aren't up until 8 or so. But no school finishes before 3.15 and some go on until 4, so it's impossible to train earlier.
We recently had a parent remove her very talented daughter from competitive because the hours were too late.

 

[momof5]

My 9 year old gets about 9 hrs. She goes to bed at 10 and wakes up about 7. She could sleep alot longer since school doesn't start until 9:20 but she doesn't need it. She wakes up on her own without a alarm or me so I figure she gets enough sleep.

 

[gymnastbeth]

I get maybe 7 hours average. In the summer, I get an easy 9. During the highschool gymnastics season, it's a lot harder. Two practice nights go until 9:30, because we rent a club gym, and there isn't a lot of space. And club practice goes late also. Going to bed by 10 is usually the goal.

 

[LMV]

Our 11 YO Gymnast daughter usually gets 10-11 hours/night. She is usually going to bed between 7PM and 8PM
Our 15 YO Soccer/ Equestrian Eventing [no not at the same time] daughter usually gets at least 9 hours a night. Her traveling soccer team shifted their practices to start earlier recently so now there is no problem with her being in bed by 9PM. Before that she was sometimes getting to bed closer to 9:30 on soccer nights.

They are both doing a combination of homebound instruction and block courses on campus via a charter "school within a school" gifted track. This does help because they never need to be at school before 9:30 and they never need to be up late working on school work. If we weren't using this educational approach I think we would have to be more restrictive with their sports and other activities [our older daughter also plays in an all-state music ensemble] because there just wouldn't be enough hours in the day.

Our youngest is 14 months old and she usually gets around 11-12 hours a night. She sometimes naps but often doesn't need a nap during the day which is fine.

 

[MaryA]

My twin daughters who just turned 10 get about 10 hours of sleep a night. I think I have recommended this book on other threads (and, in fact, I think I learned about it on this site), but the book NutureShock (Amazon.com: NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children (9780446504133): Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman: Books) really changed the way I think about my kids and sleep. I didn't change their bedtime because of it, but I became a lot more vigilant about making sure that I stick to the bedtime that we set. It talks about the difference that even a half-hour of sleep can make in GPAs, IQ tests, etc. It even talks about how a lot of the attributes we think of as being typical "teenage" behavior are also the same attributes that apply to someone who is sleep deprived. I do not home school my kids, nor do I plan to, but I think this would be one of the biggest advantages of it... to be able to allow your teens to get adequate sleep once they reach the point where their bodies have trouble "turning off" before 11pm. If you think about it, if a teen is physically unable to fall asleep before 11pm and they have to catch the bus at 7am, there's no way they're going to be able to get the optimum amount of sleep.

There's only one chapter in NutureShock about sleep... lots of other good stuff in there too. All recent studies about how children grow and learn. I highly recommend the book to all parents!

 

[2012_olympics]

Hi Im Cassandra and im in 11th grade every morring I wake up at 4:30 am to be to the gym by 5 and training to 8am then school from 9 to 2 pm then i have about 1 1/2 hours from 2 to 3:30pm to go on facebook some homework and grab a snack maybe a quick nap before training again from 4 to 8 pm then im home to do homework take a shower and get myself ready for the next day so my goal is to get to bed every night by 12am and sometimes ti later and sometimes earlier so I can get from 4 1/2 hours of sleep to 6 hours sometimes on a good night and at these point of my life with lots of training and injury im getting tired of this non - stop lifestyle :/

 

[Bajanswife]

My girls (8 and 9) get around 10 hours of sleep during the week, but less on weekends, because often we are up late and they can't seem to be able to sleep in on weekends. My 11 year old DS gets less - he's always needed less sleep than the average kid.

 

[Krysta]

Between 8 and 10 most nights.
I hate early mornings though.

 

[MdGymMom01]

Hi Im Cassandra and im in 11th grade every morring I wake up at 4:30 am to be to the gym by 5 and training to 8am then school from 9 to 2 pm then i have about 1 1/2 hours from 2 to 3:30pm to go on facebook some homework and grab a snack maybe a quick nap before training again from 4 to 8 pm then im home to do homework take a shower and get myself ready for the next day so my goal is to get to bed every night by 12am and sometimes ti later and sometimes earlier so I can get from 4 1/2 hours of sleep to 6 hours sometimes on a good night and at these point of my life with lots of training and injury im getting tired of this non - stop lifestyle :/

Wow--I can't imagine you having enough energy or strength to keep up with this schedule and lack of sleep. Be careful--this is not the best or most ideal situation for growing teens like yourself.

 

[Kiwi]

No wonder you're tired, nobody can survive on 4 hours sleep a night, well, not for long.

 

[jenniffir]

well depending on the day i usually go to sleep at around 1-2 Am when projects are due its usually 3-4 Am and i wake up at 6:30 ish, but on sunday when i dont have a meet or anything i usually sleep for 12 hours straight, that is my day to catch up.

 

[mustlovejumping]

I really think it just depends on the person. I know I always had a very reasonable bed time for my age when I was younger, but I always woke up really early (not anymore though...definitely not a morning person now!). I'm 19 now and really only get 6 or 7 hours of sleep a night, but I really don't feel like I need much more than that. I'm a night owl and rarely get to sleep before 11:30pm, but I get up around 6:30 the mornings I have classes.

 

[bogwoppit]

2012_olympics was banned again for lying. She was banned during the time that was lost and so became unbanned. SHe is not a USA Elite gymnast, so what she says must be taken with a pinch of salt!

 

[Dezi]

My dd is eight and she sleeps 11 hours a night and she needs it

 

[loveforgym]

I get about average. I'm an 8th grader so I don't have too much homework, but i usually go to bed at like 9:30. Then i wake up at around 5:30 to shower... so like around 8 hours. I wish i could get more though!

 

[ejgymmom]

My 5 year old gets 11-12 hours a night, sometimes more. She loves her sleep and I love that she'll sleep in until 9 most days! She goes to bed between 8-9pm most nights and we're homeschooling so she'll be able to sleep in as late as she needs to.