Lack of Sleep among S'pore Kids - pls share your views

[tisha]

cyn-w:

i try to get my boy to sleep about 10hours everyday

Thats great. How old is your boy?

My DS (12 years old) sleeps only for 7 hrs (11:30 pm - 6:30 am) on weekdays + 1 hr of nap in the afternoon/evening after returning from school( this I insist, so that he is fresh for HW/revision).

[ANobleNerd]

Naps are important if there isn’t enough hours for the night-sleep to make up the overall number of hours.

[livewith_vanilla]

I'm a secondary 1 student.


In primary school, my sleep time was around 8 hours.
In secondary school, I'm lucky to get 8 hours, most of the time, I get 7 hours.

I don't take naps in secondary school life nor did I take naps in p6 , cuz the life was just so hectic. Jam-packed. Stuck in school for 12 hours .

I miss my sleep , even weekends cant replenish my sleep. The amount of homework... *groans*

So, let your children sleep in on Sundays and during the holidays. Sure, they can do their work , but let them chill out. Being tired makes a person irritable.

[tisha]

livewith_vanilla:

I'm a secondary 1 student.


In primary school, my sleep time was around 8 hours.
In secondary school, I'm lucky to get 8 hours, most of the time, I get 7 hours.

I don't take naps in secondary school life nor did I take naps in p6 , cuz the life was just so hectic. Jam-packed. Stuck in school for 12 hours .

I miss my sleep , even weekends cant replenish my sleep. The amount of homework... *groans*

So, let your children sleep in on Sundays and during the holidays. Sure, they can do their work , but let them chill out. Being tired makes a person irritable.

Thank you livewith_vanilla for sharing the useful tips from a student's perspective. :celebrate: Appreciate it. Best wishes for you in secondary school and beyond. :love:

[jedamum]

My teenager clocks average 7hours if include weekends sleep in. Otherwise is 6-6.5hours on weeknights. No fb. Our relationship will sour if I nag him to turn in early as I am deemed not understanding. If he did, some occasions he will set early wake up alarm and get out of bed early to finish his work while I still snoozing. He has no complaints and look forward to school...but thinks he can survive on little sleep.

[sharonkhoo]

jedamum:

My teenager clocks average 7hours if include weekends sleep in. Otherwise is 6-6.5hours on weeknights. No fb. Our relationship will sour if I nag him to turn in early as I am deemed not understanding. If he did, some occasions he will set early wake up alarm and get out of bed early to finish his work while I still snoozing. He has no complaints and look forward to school...but thinks he can survive on little sleep.

I would think 7 hrs is OK even if not ideal. The main thing is whether he is often tired, lethargic, grumpy etc, and whether he gets sick often. If not, I suppose it's fine. I recall managing on 6-7 hrs a night in my sec school days too, and since I had ECA on Sat and church on Sun, I didn't really get to sleep much more during the weekends. My kids are getting 7 hrs a night plus an extra 1-2 hrs in the weekends, and they seem to be OK. No complaints about falling asleep in class etc, and their overall health is good.

[Rae4kids]

My P6 DD sleeps at 10.30pm and wakes up at 6am. Which is only 7.5 hours of sleep. Sometimes she cannot sleep and ends up sleeping at 11pm+, while sometimes she wakes up at 5am just to do homework. That results in her getting headaches, which has been a constant problem for us. I told her not to stress herself that much, but considering it is soon PSLE period, I know it is difficult for her.

[zzmummy]

Working mums probably share the same peeve. By the time I reach home is 7 plus. After settling down, it would have been past 8pm. And thereafter I need to go thru their schoolwork and do revision. Which is why my son only get to go to sleep ard 10pm. With this in mind, I choose a nearby neighbourhood school which starts later at 8am. We can leave the house at 730am and reach by 740am which is their assembly time. And in the afternoon, I make sure he takes a nap as he is cared for by his grandma. My child wakes up with a happy face and skip his way to school compared to the many grumpy faces I saw of other school going kids. I know my child is well rested and I can work at ease with that in mind.

[Funz]

DS is P6 this year. He goes to bed at 9pm and is up at 5.30am. Same as DD when she was in P6. In fact DD is in Sec 2 this year and still goes to be at 9pm.


They seem to be able to cope with their work including all the CCA and whatever supp classes they have. In fact, they are free most evenings.

Reakids, no idea what school your DD is in that the workload is so heavy. My experience with my kids and my niece and nephew is very different. All of them are in different schools but all do not have that high a workload. Of course if your DD has a certain goal or dream school that she is working towards, she may be more stressed. My kids did not aspire to go to any of the top sec schools so they worked at a pace that they are comfortable with. It was mummy here who was kinda stressed out with her pendulum act of cool mum and tiger mum. In the end, cool mum was way more fun so we went with that.

One thing that believe in is physical activity in the midst of all these cramming. Kiddos are in sports CCA so they get trainings twice a week. All CCAs cease in the months before the PSLE so I tell kiddos to get out of the house to play or swim instead. Some physical activities helps relieve stress and helps them rest better at night.

[sharonkhoo]

Another thing is to see if she has poor winding down habits. Does she study all the way, then go to bed? In the last 30-60 mins before bedtime, she should avoid studying, using phone/PC etc. Some time of chit chat with family, watching a bit of TV, reading, having a snack etc, may help.