Letting difficult child 2 sleep in over break has been a mistake

[gcvmom]

And tomorrow I'm getting him up by 9am. Then Thursday by 8:30am. Friday by 8:00am, and the same for the weekend.

But lately with all the difficult child 1 drama, I let the other one sleep until he wakes up on his own. Which has typically been some tiime after twelve noon! On Monday, he got up at 1:45pm! I know he's a growing boy, but this is getting ridiculous!

Now I think I know why... it's 1:45am here and HE'S STILL AWAKE!!! husband told me he was up around 2am the other night because he forgot to take his medications, and difficult child 2 was still up.

So tomorrow... he's going to get up earlier, get some exercise (although it's supposed to rain hard tomorrow), and go to bed earlier.

 

[Marguerite]

Exercise on waking and exercise right before bed, should help.

difficult child 3 gets a reward for being in bed before midnight. It's a bigger reward for being in bed before 11.30 pm. The other angle - he needs to stop looking at lit screens (Nintendo DS, e-readfer, computer screen, TV) before bedtime, because of the melatonin issues - it can throw out your body clock. We explained about melatonin to him and he is trying to use this.

Marg

 

[HaoZi]

Exercise too close to bedtime keeps you awake. Gotta run him ragged in the afternoon.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

I let my difficult child "do his own thing" for bedtime during break also. He has two friends in Europe that he has been playing Xbox Live with for over 2 years and another young guy in Texas. They look forward to these breaks!

However, it definitely messes up the day/night cycle. The timing of your post actually coincides with his first night of an earlier bedtime last night! Midnight is early for him.....so last night and tonight are midnight and I will make sure he is up no later than 10. The bedtime will stay midnight until Sunday, but the waking time will get earlier! He has actually never been a sleeper - even as a baby.

Good luck!

 

[DammitJanet]

Ya know, the summer Jamie grew so incredibly much...like 7 inches in one summer, he slept almost constantly. This from a hyperactive boy. If he wasnt sleeping he was running. He would get up with the sun, do something at some incredibly fast pace then I would find him passed out for hours. Then he was up again for a few more hours then he would eat dinner then go to sleep as soon as it got dark. I think he was like 13 or 14. I simply couldnt keep him in pants that year. He just went up, up, up. He ended up at 6'3 by the time he entered 9th grade...lol. Stopped at 6'5.5

 

[gcvmom]

I think that's part of it, Janet. In September he wore a 30-30 pant and a men's medium shirt, and he's now wearing 32-32's and is in a men's large. He fell asleep on the couch this afternoon around 2:30 and slept for 3 1/2 hours! Wish I could do that...

 

[Marguerite]

It's growth hormone plus other hormones zinging around. Melatonin too. Seriously - exposure to strong light early in the morning and cutting exposure to strong light by about 9pm is a good start, because it is strong light that 'tells' the pineal gland whether it's day or night, and a teenager's hormones are strongly linked in to the pineal gland and melatonin. So when you get him up - turn on the lights. Let him get onto computer games if it fits with your timetable. But in the evening after 9 pm, better for him to read a book than to play games. Maybe organise a board game with him in the evening instead.

Marg