Sleep Habits

I am completely dumbfounded by the fact that my teenage girl, who just turned 14, cannot sleep in on the weekend. I thought that teenagers were supposed to imitate the sleeping habits of a hibernating bear and go to bed at ten and wake up some time before the sun goes down again in April, eat, and then go back to bed. What gives? My daughter goes to bed at ten and wakes up at 7 a.m. She claims that she cannot fall back to sleep once she wakes up, but shuffles around the house for the first hour groaning and telling everyone she encounters about how tired she is. I'm confused. When I make the egregious suggestion of her going to bed earlier it is as if I asked her to scrub the toilets of all the neighbors.

My eleven year old is much the same. He is suffering from a head and chest cold at the moment and still wakes up at 6:45. If I were sick, I would not leave the comfort of my flannel sheets for a few hours. Again, he insists that he cannot fall back to sleep either. Evidently he thinks that if he stays in bed to recover from his illness, he will miss some very exciting events transpiring in our very own living room. Nothing exciting is happening anywhere.

Our middle boy could go to sleep at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00 or 11:00 at night and still wake up at 6:15. His internal alarm is set for 6:15 and there is no budging that clock. I cannot understand how a child, who has had less than adequate sleep, can spring out of bed so early. When he goes to bed between 6:30 and 8:00, I understand, but really, if I went to bed at 11:00 and woke up at 6:15 I would be miles away from feeling like I want to spring out of bed.

Our youngest is quite possibly the best sleeper. Unfortunately, the days when he decides to sleep, are the days that I need to get him up for school, along with everyone else. Normally he is not a grumpy get-upper which is good.

The ONLY redeeming value to my children's sleeping habits is that they wake up in good moods. Also, they can watch television and keep themselves occupied while we, well, sleep in, if you consider, 6:50 a.m. sleeping in.

I guess there are worse things to be upset about, really.

Comments

Sarah Markley said…
I was the same way when I was a teenager...the latest I could ever sleep in was 9! Oh well!