Teenager doesn't get out of bed until midday

[doodles]

I seem to remember a news article about a college in the North East where they don't start until lunchtime but continue into the early evening. Seems sensible.

I have always been an early riser but now get very little sleep too

[BucksBornNBred]

My DS is also not getting up until midday, though he is "secretly" getting up during the night to play on his xbox (his best friend moved to Canada so they chat together). I don't really stress as it is holidays. I think my family are all night birds; I used to stay out until 3am and then go to work the next morning in my late teens! Like many others on here, I used to be able to give DS a run for his money on the sleep-ins, but nowadays if I make it past 7am then I am lucky... I am embracing old age and all its perculiarities lol

[Eccentric]

I have the opposite problem and can't sleep. I envy anyone who can sleep beyond 7am, especially if they haven't been awake half the damn night as well.

I am with you there Amber. 6 am is my sleep in. 5 am my norm. I love it when the clocks change to summertime because my body is conned into sleeping in for a few weeks until the light and the birds intervene. I love the mornings in the summer. A walk at dawn is bliss.

My 14 year old daughter doesn't sleep in late either. Her default wake up time is 6 am and 7 am on a good day and by 8:30/9:00pm she is falling asleep and not much good for anything.

I don't think that many of her friends are late risers either so although I would 100% agree that this is normal teenage behaviour. I also think it depends upon your body clock and whether you are a lark or an owl. No all teenagers are owls. I have a friend whose son sleeps in until 5pm in the holidays.

[Eccentric]

I often wonder how good I could be if I only slept...

Have you tried Bimuno? It is a Galacto-oligosaccharide that feeds the bacteria that make you produce the hormones that you need to sleep well. Lots of people that I know (including myself) have found it to really help and it is not expensive. An alternative or an addition is a teaspoon of green banana flour and a teaspoon of potato starch with a small amount of kefir an hour before bedtime. There are also other foods that aid sleep such as tart cherries and lettuce and other anti histamine producing foods. Histamine producing foods and this includes some probiotics (some are histamine precursors and other antihistamine) and vinegars and wine as well as cured meats. Then there are foods that prevent certain parts of your brain from going to sleep so that you feel like you are awake even if you are not. This includes drinking coffee early on in the day.

[Amber]

I have Bimuno every day and I make my own kefir which I have every night with potato starch. I think it improves the quality of the sleep I actually get but does not make me sleep any longer. Ditto kiwis before bed.

[scary mum]

I tried Bimuno but it didn't really help me. Not just subjective, my Fitbit tells the same story. My teenagers can sleep for England, although on struggles sometimes & are pretty good "nappers" too.

[kenyancowgirl]

Like many, I am now an early riser where I used to be able to sleep in as a student. My quality of sleep is not so good now which is one reason I get up early. Like Eccentric I love early summer mornings (although not so keen in the winter!) for walks - and the bird song I am now hearing is endearing!

I don't drink coffee at all and am not a tea drinker at night either - we eat around 7pm and this is our main meals- I would like to bring our evening meal earlier but it isn't practical really.

[loobylou]

My daughter really struggles to sleep in although she doesn't struggle to stay in bed reading till lunchtime.
My son just started sleeping in till 10 or 11 on a Saturday or in the holidays on a day he's not working. I think he benefits from the extra sleep.
I was a bad sleeper as a teen, never could get to sleep, woke early - being a junior doctor cured my insomnia; I learned to sleep wherever and whenever I could (which was not very often of course) and it seemed to reset my body clock.
Now in my mid 40s I can easily sleep for 11 hours a night if I'm allowed/not working!

[Yamin151]

Having babies cured my indulgent habit of 'drowsing' my way to sleep for an hour or more. Now with 'that age' approaching and even though they are teens now, I fall asleep really quickly and I miss that feeling of floating off.

My twin early risers are now 14, and not early risers anymore! We do wake them 10am ish, which I know is cruel, but with one we are having problems with school work and they do stay up watching TV until gone midnight.

I do wonder whether although I don't deny the evidence saying teens need to sleep later and longer, that staying up late can be 'falsely' stretched out from what it naturally would be by electronics like TV and computer (I know that a good TV programme will keep me awake to watch when I might otherwise sleep) and I don't think we can ignore that as a factor, so we don't just leave them to it or they would get later and later. I have a much loved uncle who has had problems with this all through his life - had a good career but struggled immensely with oversleeping and now in his 80s has for the last 20 years completely turned around night and day and although 'up to him', he has missed many family occasions due to this and caused a lot of angst for his daughter. He was early widowed so no partner motivating him to get up.

[Tinkers]

My DD has two cats she has to get up to feed. Even if we get up before her, we open her bedroom door and they do the rest. She wanted cats and was told it would be up to her to look after them. She never complains. Even during school holidays when she is at home and we are going to work.

As for bed time she tends to go at the same time as us these days, unless she is overly tired and she will decide to go before us.

She does complain about struggling to sleep though, and given the chance would sleep later.