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Why I put my kids to bed at 7:00 … it is a hot topic, that’s for sure!   When our  children were younger, we had all of our kids  in bed around 7:00 every night.  They were asleep around 7:30 every night.

UPDATE:   This post was written several years ago in 2014, when our kids were much younger, but I believe that it is important.  We still maintain a regular bedtime, but they no longer go to bed as early as they once did.  

 

I owe so many well-rested nights and happy children during the day to the fact that we have a regular and early bedtime for our children.  In fact, many Dutch parents put their kids to bed between 6:00 & 7:00 for very similar reasons that we have an early bedtime.    

in bed by 7:00

Before I begin- remember that although this works for us, it is not for everyone.   As with all of my advice, do what works best for your family. ♥

Our kids (ages 2-9) are in bed by 7:00

Yes, our young children are in bed at 7:00.    It is 2014, and my children range from 2 years old to 9 years old.    Our 9 year old now goes to bed at 8:00, because he is older and needs less sleep.   Until they are 9 years old, 7:00 remains their bedtime.  

Last week, a fellow blogger shared my post about what to do when your 2 year old is still waking at night.  In the post I talked about our early bedtime and gave some life-changing advice for our toddler that was waking up.  That post led someone to leave the comment “Who puts their kid to bed at  7:00 pm?”

WE DO.

Yes, We have received mixed feedback about this, but it works for us.  I know that 7:00 is early. I know that it cuts into their day, but I can tell you that I would rather have happy kids for 12 hours a day than tired or grumpy kids for 13 hours a day.    (Our older kids wake up at 7:00 no matter what time they go to sleep.  Really!)

Playing hard in the day makes kids tired by bedtime!

Our four YOUNG kids  play hard during the day.  They run around a lot and they spend a lot of time outside with us.


They are busy in the day, so they are tired when 7:00 rolls around.

 They DO NOT nap anymore and they are just plain worn out by the evening, even if they don’t want to admit it (and they never do! haha!)

We have tried to push this back when we are on vacation, but they just aren’t as relaxed and easy-going the next day.  They are a little more on edge, just like we are  (as adults) when we don’t get the rest that we need.  I put them to bed early because I want them to be smiling & ready to take on the day. 🙂 

Plus- the are usually asleep in 5-15 minutes, so I know they are tired.

A group of people standing on a covered bridge.

Do they ever stay up late?

YES!  Once a month they each stay up late for Their Special Night.   Plus, every night, our oldest son gets to have Read-Alone time in his room before bed, too.    Or they can read their spelling words while they fall asleep with this little hack.

If that have football or wrestling, they are up even later, but we AIM for an early bedtime!  Our younger children have a really hard time waking up for school at 7:00 am when he doesn’t get his full 12 hours of sleep, so I do try to get him to bed as early as possible.  
I want him to be able to focus at school, be energetic in play and at his sports and be happy at home!   This little chart can help you to know how much sleep they truly need…
Sheet on how many hours of sleep children need.

Kidshealth.org says:
“Most kids between 5 and 12 get about 9.5 hours a night, but experts agree that most need more.  When your body doesn’t have enough hours to rest, you may feel tired or cranky, or you may be unable to think clearly. You might have a hard time following directions, or you might have an argument with a friend over something really silly. A school assignment that’s normally easy may feel impossible, or you may feel clumsy playing your favorite sport or instrument.

Sleep Impacts Growth & Health

One more reason to get enough sleep: If you don’t, you may not grow as well. That’s right, researchers believe too little sleep can affect growth and your immune system — which keeps you from getting sick.”  All in all- sleep is important!  Your kids need it, even if they don’t WANT it.”

7:00 bedtime is the rule in our house

Do you have time with them in the evening?

I am not saying that this is right for everyone, so please hear me out.  My husband and I both work from home, so this works for us.   Two of our kids stay home with us during the day, and our older children go to school until 3:30.  We have plenty of family time daily from 3:30 until bedtime.   

Before my husband worked from home, I used to have the kids showered and in their pajamas before he got home, to give us more time together.  Remember that it is quality over quantity.

Does it happen every night?

7:00 bedtime does not happen every single night, but it’s our goal every night.   Most nights, one of our kids will be at practice until 8:00, so of course bedtime is later on that night.  
Sometimes, it’s even earlier than 7:00.  A few years ago, when my youngest kids were 3 & 5, they would  fall asleep in the car at 6:00 on our way to drop the older kids off at practice… and I just take them up to bed and they slept ALL NIGHT LONG.  They never woke up during the transition to bed.  I know it’s crazy, but when I try to wake them, they are NOT happy, so on those nights, I just let it go. 

 

It’s good for your marriage: 

My husband and I see each other all day long while we work from home or while we are spending time with the kids, but at night we have time to watch a show, play a board game, etc…  

Now, I am not saying that this is why we put them to bed early or that it is why we started, because it’s not, but we do enjoy that time together.   Did you know that the #1 fear of preteens and teenagers is divorce among their parents?  Quality time together, with your spouse, reduces this risk greatly.Make it a point to tell your children that you are going to spend time with your spouse. 

Children Need Sleep

Remember- our bedtime certainly isn’t for everyone, but it works for us.  It is healthy for our kids to get that amount of sleep and it helps them overall.   Quality sleep + healthy foods make a huge difference for children (and adults).

On the other hand…

I wanted to share a story, for those of you that have a late bedtime.  My very dear, long-time friend, Julia, has always had a late bedtime and her children follow her lead.  They stay up well past 10:00 and it works for them.  They sleep in every morning and they are happy, healthy, smart children.   Her children are the same ages as mine.   I know that I need to wait until 11:00 or later to talk to her on the phone.  🙂   

All of that to say that this is what works for us, but it is up to you to find out what works best for your family.  

I hope this helped to shed a little light on families with early bedtimes.  Sleep well… no matter the time!♥


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Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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587 Comments

  1. I have always put my kids to bed early! And I get crazy looks from people, too. My kids are early risers, whether we put them down at 7 or 10. They are up around 6am. Always. They are 4 and 5 now and we still aim for 7 every night! When they need extra sleep, they won’t sleep in, so down at 6:30 they go! Thankfully my Hubs gets home around 5:15 so this works for us.

  2. I have 3 boys at home, 7,8 & ll. Last year their bedtime was 7:30 for may of the reasons you mentioned. This year we let them stay up until 8 pm. Everyone of them is still dead asleep when the alarm goes off in the morning. Sometimes it is hard to get them to sleep right way because they have something going on or they like to sneak a little talk with each other, but we try to get as close as we can. Our 7 year old could use an even earlier bedtime. We limit the amount of television, computer and video games especially during school nights so their choice is to read or play. They usually play and are ready for bed when the times comes. It doesn’t always happen as planned but occasionally we get it done on time. It is also nice to unwind and spend an hour or two with just my husband and I in the evenings. It is the only time we get to see each other during the week.

  3. I couldn’t agree with you more. My kids (that still live at home) are 15, 12, 9 & 4. The rule in our house is 7:00 is bedtime for the 12, 9 & 4 year olds and personal time for the 15 year old. He usually isn’t home at 7:00 anyway but if he is, he needs to be in his room and not out with my husband and I. From 7:00 to 9:30 when we go to bed is our time to catch up with each other and just spend some quiet time with each other. And bed time is the same every night whether it’s a school night or not.

  4. I completely agree with you. I worked up schedules for my kids since they were born and it works great. Because every kid is different, I’ve managed to observe how many hours each one of them needs at night. My almost four year old needs 11 hours, which he started sleeping since he was 10 weeks. So when he started school he started going to bed earlier (7:30, before he went to bed at 9 and woke up at 8, which was what worked for us at that time, but still gave him 11 hours. My 8 month old girl needs 12 hours and has been doing so since about 10 weeks also. She goes to sleep at the same time as her brother, but wakes up an hour later. This works great for us, knowing they are getting they sleep they need and also getting the sleep we need. 🙂

  5. My four and seven year old are usually in bed by 7:30. My seven year old will sometimes go to bed closer to 8 if she’s still finishing her reading. Our school bus picks up at 7:15 so there’s no luxury of sleeping in.

  6. Our kids are 11,10,7,&6. We have always had early bedtimes. 7 is my goal for school days depending on what is happening that evening. I truly believe this is why my husband and I have such a strong marriage because we do have that quality time to simply hang out. Typically on Friday nights, we are more relaxed with our kids bedtimes. But us parents love the time alone and my husband also helps with bedtime so he gets to have time with the kids each night as well. I haven’t really ever had an issue with trying to wake my kids up in the morning (6:15am) unless we had a late night due to sports and whatnots. Obviously you don’t NEED to explain yourself to other people, but I would have felt the desire to explain “why” also.

  7. We put our kiddos to bed at 7 and get harassed all the time. They’re 9, 8, 4 and 2 and they all desperately need that 12 hour stretch of sleep. Aside from what the experts say, I have hands on experience telling me this is what they need.

  8. I totally agree – my 3 year old still goes to bed by 7:30 at the latest. The one thing I can’t figure out – he’s always needed a little more sleep than average. He used to sleep from 7 PM to about 8 or 8:30 AM. Then one day last year I put him to bed at 7 – and he laid there talking to himself until after 9:00! I couldn’t believe it, but figured it was a fluke. Then he woke up at 6 AM the next day – it was a long day for all of us. And the most surprising thing – he kept doing it. It’s been almost a year and he still lays there for hours each night talking to himself and would gladly get up at 5 AM if I would let him – but he’s tired and crabby all the time. Any suggestions? Our doctor suggested Melatonin, which I gave him a few times, and it did help, but when I did some research I found out that nobody really knows how it affects kids, and some of the potential suspected side effects scared me too much to keep using it.

  9. I WISH my kids would go to bed at 7! They wake up at around 7 or 8 in the morning, but refuse to go to sleep until 10, 11, or 12 at night. I too have 4 children. Ages 4, 2 ( almost 3), 19 months, and 4 months. What time do your kids wake up in the morning?

    1. 7:00 every morning (almost on the dot) for our 6 & 8 year olds. The two & four year olds wakes up closer to 8:00. School starts at 8:40. 🙂

  10. Agreeing. 100%. Back in the day all 5 of our kids were in bed at 7:00. We too had a pretty full and scheduled routine that insured everyone had plenty of need for sleep. The only difference, and don’t ask me how it happened because I still don’t know, is that ALL 5 of our kids were nappers, like every day until first grade! The littles would nap from 10-12, then again at 2-4 with the bigger kids. And then yup in bed at 7 and asleep by 7:15, then up around 6 a.m.. As teens my kids self regulated when they went to bed, but again, usually it was somewhere around 9 because they were now getting up at 5-ish to get ready for their day. Very rarely did we have “cranky or whiney” kids, and looking back most remarks about my kids were that they were very happy and didn’t argue with each other.

    *If* someone wasn’t “tired” or “the sun is still up!”– it didn’t matter. The rule was in bed on time. You don’t have to sleep, but you must be quiet so others can. And yes, usually they *were* tired and would fall quickly.

    As an interesting side note, in our house, if your broke the rules punishment was “5 extra minutes earlier in bed” with infractions adding up over the day and starting anew each morning. And yes, there were times people went to bed at 4:00…but that’s another post.

    As they grew older the bedtime would “age” as well, by half hour increments, fourth grade was 7:30, 6th grade 8:00. But by 7th grade we no longer told the kids when they “had” to be in bed, the pattern was well set and they were usually happy to take a shower and hit the hay all on their own.

  11. Nice article and website! You seem to have a lot of useful tips! When I have kids, I’ll be needing all of this for sure. 🙂

  12. Hi, I really liked reading ur post. But I need some help. When to feed them dinner if they sleep at 7? Also I have two kids , 3 years and 6months. Elder one has afternoon nap of 2 hours. So he is too active till 10 pm. Have a very hard time making him sleep. Hope u can help me. Thanks in advance. 🙂

    1. We have dinner around 6:00. (The timer just beeped because its done and ready to come out of the oven… its 5:30 here.) 🙂

  13. I completely support early bedtime for growing kids. My 18 month old is in bed at 7 and my 3 year old is in bed at 7:30/8. My 18 month wakes up at 6, but has a 2 hour nap in the afternoon after lunch. My 3 year old wakes up around 7.
    Sleep is sooooo important! Not only is it when their bodies do their growing, but it’s also when everyone’s brain does it’s waste removal! Throughout our bodies is the lymphatic system to remove waste products, but they don’t exist in the brain. When we sleep is the ONLY time our brain can remove waste products through the cerebral spinal fluid. So tack that info onto your list!
    http://tedsummaries.com/2014/10/15/jeff-iliff-one-more-reason-to-get-a-good-nights-sleep/

  14. My daughter is 10 months old and has slept through the night since she was about 4 months old. She goes to bed between 7-7:30 ( some weeks I work until 6 or later and I love bedtime cuddles). However, we have a church group on Sunday evenings that meets early and is done by 7. I’ve never been able to make it through the devotional without needing to go settle down our daughter. Any ideas? I don’t want her to lose the sleep she needs but the community aspect of the group is very important to our family too.

    1. Oh man- that’s a tough one. Our kids are that way (very tired & irritable by about 6:30, until bedtime). I don’t have many suggestions, but keep going because that time is important for you! We used to go to a devotional group once a week, too and it did get hard, but my husband & I just loved that time so much & we felt like it was really important.

  15. You didn’t link the right article in the first graphic for tips on kids waking up too early.