Community Question: Is sleeping in all that bad?
What do you think? Is sleeping in all that bad? Does it set kids up for failure in their careers or limit them somehow? Or is it just another way to meet our kids needs as individuals.
Read the whole question here - http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2011/12/community-question-is-sleeping-in-all-that-bad/
What are your thoughts?
(excellent responses in the posts comments section to read)
_____
Is sleeping in bad? I don't think this can be answered with one grand brushstroke. Sleeping in for me is sleeping past my usual rising time (such as out late the night before, or as a treat on the weekends). Many people work on different natural clocks. My son is a night owl. He gets energetic about 8pm and has trouble going to sleep (since he was an infant). I was, once upon a time, an early bird. I could could wake up about 6am with no alarm clock and lots of energy. So I think people have a natural rhythm that works best for them personally. I used to think that if I allowed my kids to sleep in I was setting them up for failure in the real world. But over the past few years I have come to realize that there is no "standard" real world. So if a person is a natural night owl, they might want to look for work that allows them to follow their natural body clock. However, body clocks can be trained as well. I used to be an early bird, but over the years I have switched to being a night owl of sorts. You see my husband is a night owl, and I stayed up with him till he went to bed, all these years. Going to bed at midnight and rising at 6am just doesn't work for me. I have learned that my body functions best on 9 hours of sleep a night. So a lot of days I am rising about 8:30 or 9am. I don't consider this sleeping in, it is just my sleeping pattern. So I say go with your natural clock or train it to suit the life you need to live. Where sleeping in is a problem, is when you are choosing to stay in bed to avoid the world and your responsibilities. That is not okay in my books. This would would need correcting if my teen was doing this.
Other observations about sleep and body clocks:
- my teens don't like to get up early in the morning BUT when there is something they want to do, they can get up no problem.
- when we travel across time zones, we have to adjust our body clocks. So saying we have to train our teens to get up by 7am other wise they won't be ready for the real world, is like saying I should live my life by London time because I might live there someday. Not logical.
- our body clocks can be trained, so live in the freedom to choose your sleep pattern until such time as you need to train it for different hours
- find what hours each day you have the most energy and are the most alert, and do your learning or productive tasks at those times.
--
* Pam *
Faith, Family, Friends ...
Sit long, Talk much, Laugh often.
