I know my kids don't sleep enough. At my house, bedtime is 8-8:30 pm and they get up at 6:30. That seems to work pretty well: not quite enough some days, but it will do. But after a few days at the House of Ex they come back tired and cranky, because bedtime over there is an hour or two later, even for little Eric who's 3. (Maintaining a consistent routine across multiple households is one of the many challenges of a joint custody arrangement.) But my kids aren't alone in this, as most children today are getting less sleep and staying up later. After all, with their schedules jam-packed and so much to do, it's hard to wind down at night and even harder for parents to crack down against the pleas of "Just one more story!" or "Just a little longer?"
Personally, I think early bedtimes rule: moms and dads need a little child-free time, you know? I used to be amazed at parents who put their kids to bed at 6 pm every night, but now I totally get it.
But by caving and letting them stay up we're doing our kids a disservice, and now there's an easy way to tell kids (and us) how much sleep they should be getting. Experts recommend that children in preschool
sleep between 11-13 hours a night, and school-aged children between
10-11 hours of sleep a night. The Sleep Slide-Rule breaks down sleep needs by age group and shows kids what time they should be going to bed if they have to get up at a certain time, or conversely what time they should sleep to in the morning if they go to bed at a certain hour. The Slide-Rule appears to be only available for classroom use right now but I'm hoping it becomes more widely available soon, because as soon as it is I know what The Ex is getting for Father's Day. Or can I just tattoo the information on him somewhere?
