Does your 14/15 year old ds do this?

[abdmom]

Does anyone else's 14 or 15 year old son sleep constantly? Since we got back from our summer vacation 3 weeks ago, ds has been sleeping until 3 p.m.! He's my first born and I grew up in a family of all girls. He'll rouse for dinner and be up past midnight, but man, he's comatose during most of daylight.

I have a couple of male relatives/friends who tell me they did the same thing. I'm feeling that I should just put him in a box with some food for the next six months. The start of school sure ain't going to be pretty.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Is he up late watching TV or playing video games? When I was a teen I loved to be alone so I made it a point to wake up late and stay up late so I could enjoy the peace and quiet a silent house brought me. I still stay up later than everyone else, it's my quiet time and I LOVE it! I'm a girl so I don't know that gender is a part of it.

 

[Christine]

My son has been sleeping until about 11:00 - noon. But he has also been staying up REALLY late (2:00-3:00 a.m). So I don't think he's sleeping too much. Now that school is going to start soon, I have to force him to shift his hours. Having started cross country this week, should help.

 

[We_Love_Disney]

My nephews like to sleep as well, but never ever were they allowed to sleep that late. My brother would throw a fit.

Allowing him to keep this schedule is kinda, well nuts. Doesn't he have chores, summer assignments, friends, a life to live?

Give him a reasonable bed time 10 or 10:30 and expect him to be up and active by 10 the next morning. no one needs more than 12 hours sleep - even a teenager.

Just imagine what the school year is going to be like??? Nip that behavior in the bud now!

 

[DMass]

I used to do that when I was that age. Getting up for school was the worst. My first thought would be "I can't wait to get home and go back to bed."

I wish I could sleep like that now. 6 am is sleeping late for me these days.

 

[HM]

My son probably would sleep until noon if I let him. Some days he's up on his own before 9am, other days, I'm in there getting him up b/w 9-10. He woke up one day at 6:30 (before anyone else) this summer, that was a shock! I can't condone sleeping a day away. He needs to get up earlier and go to be earlier....esp as we get closer to the start of school, when the kids will be up at 6:15. I also ask for the kids to get in bed around 11 during the summer (9:30-10 school year) but they are often up later than that (I'm already in bed).

 

[catycatcat4]

Seems pretty normal to me my 14 year old brother would sleep non stop if you let him and he doesn't stay up any later than me. I get up between 8-10 AM

 

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, teens do need a lot of sleep!

However, I think you need to take a good look at just how many hours of sleep he is getting.... from 4:00p.m. till midnight is only 8 waking ours per 24hour day. I think that might be considered excessive, and might warrant looking into any physical issues. mono crosses my mind????

The onset, upon returning from vacation might be a flag as well.
What might he have contracted while on vacation... anything from insect borne diseases... etc....

Take a good look at just how many waking hours your teen is 'up'.
Is he up till midnite, or almost dawn????

Then, go from there.

PS: Just on a personal note, no matter how much sleep my teen might need, I just couldn't be doing the sleep-all-day, stay up at night, thing. That wouldn't fly here....

 

[barkley]

ds 13 is currently on his 'summer schedual'-which means he stays up all night, and then power sleeps. this means he's sleeping much of the day, but in addition he's sleeping like 12-15 hours each day


he literaly only gets up to feed and use the bathroom. when i wake in the morning i know he's eaten b/c i see the evidence of packaging in the trash can, and the dirty dishes on the counter (ain't going to lie and say they even make it to the sink). he's so freaking pale from lack of sunlight he glows in the dark


absent the staying up all night, his behaviour reminds me of when he was younger and going through a growth spurt. just power slept and ate. given the amount of ankle that's showing when he puts on the jeans i just bought him a couple of months ago it's entirely possible that's whats going on in our house.

 

[Belle2667]

My mom always said that they grow when they sleep. Expect him to grow several inches by the time the sleep schedule gets back to normal.

I swear I can see DS14 grow while he naps (which he does on weekends during the school year).

All my sons did this. I think it's just part of being a teenager. My older two sons don't do it anymore.

 

[ckay87]

My nephews like to sleep as well, but never ever were they allowed to sleep that late. My brother would throw a fit.

Allowing him to keep this schedule is kinda, well nuts. Doesn't he have chores, summer assignments, friends, a life to live?

Give him a reasonable bed time 10 or 10:30 and expect him to be up and active by 10 the next morning. no one needs more than 12 hours sleep - even a teenager.

Just imagine what the school year is going to be like??? Nip that behavior in the bud now!

ha ha ha.... There's been a time when I've been a-okay with my teenagers sleeping the day away when they were home alone and we were at work all day. Guess you won't be giving me the parent-of-the-year award

I don't have to "imagine" what the school year would be like.... I know. Been there. Sleep schedules shift accordingly and time marches on. No worries.

 

[marcyinPA]

Oddly enough, my DS15 is more of a morning person. He tires at night (midnight is late for him) and will be up around 9 am. Sleeping late for him is about 10:30 am.

Now that summer band is here, he goes to bed earlier...he was in bed last night at 10pm! He had to get up at 6:30 am...which he had a hard time doing. He stumbled out of bed and into the shower at 7 am, and out the door at 7:30.

 

[SpecialK]

My nephews like to sleep as well, but never ever were they allowed to sleep that late. My brother would throw a fit.

Allowing him to keep this schedule is kinda, well nuts. Doesn't he have chores, summer assignments, friends, a life to live?

Give him a reasonable bed time 10 or 10:30 and expect him to be up and active by 10 the next morning. no one needs more than 12 hours sleep - even a teenager.

Just imagine what the school year is going to be like??? Nip that behavior in the bud now!

My son sleeps late just about every day in the summer and still manages to have a life. I don't worry about it. He'll be an adult with an early schedule soon enough!

Soccer practice starts tomorrow, so he'll be getting up early again.

 

[PollyannaMom]

If left to their own devices, a lot of teenagers would stay up very late and sleep very late. It's considered pretty natural at that age. (And yes, it means the school schedules in most places are completely out of sync with their "customers"!)

BUT, I agree that you should look at how much he's sleeping.

You say he's staying up "past midnight" - could he be playing video games or watching TV until 5:00am? If that's the case, and he's getting 10 hours of sleep a day, just in the "wrong" place, I would chalk it up to a growth spurt, and remind him that he will have to switch to an unnatural (for him) school schedule soon. - Help him either plot out how to make that a gradual change, or prepare for a jet-lag type of change, whichever he seriously feels is best. (And make it clear, if he chooses the jet-lag version, that he is NOT to take out his grumpiness on the rest of you!)

If he's really sleeping 14 hours a day (using 1:00am for "past midnight"), then I'd probably take him to the doctor to be checked for mono.

 

[NotUrsula]

Yes, DS is 13 and is normally sleeping from about 11 pm or midnight until about 10 am. If the house was dead quiet he would probably sleep longer, and some days he does. He has also grown 9 inches (and 6 shoe sizes!) over the past 6 months.

It's a growth spurt, Mom. Take him for his regular checkup, but don't worry too much about it unless he's showing signs of something else wrong. (Depression will cause people to want to sleep, too.)

 

[JessicaR]

I have a 13 year old and a 17 year old. The 17 year old used to do this but not anymore. The 13 year old is KING of staying up late and sleeping till we wake him. My sisters and I did the same when we were allowed. Totally normal behavior. Soon enough they wont be able to and will be back in a routine - no biggie. His friends all follow the same routine.

 

[AristocatFan]

Yes, it's normal. There's a saying that when teens are sleeping they're growing. I believe it because when my youngest son was 15 last summer he slept every spare minute he had in between band and baseball.....he grew 5 inches that summer!

 

[Tinkh]

My son is 16 and he does the same thing. He is sleeping now. At 4 am this morning, I got up to use the restroom and he strolled by me and gave me a quick hug and said "love you, goodnight". By 2 this afternoon, we will probably start trying to get him up. There is no reason to stress it. In my medical classes, we learned that most teens have different circadian rhythm than every one else. They are biologically more inclined to stay up later and sleep later. There is a huge movement to try and push the starting time of many high schools due to this fact. It can be so annoying and worrisome; however, the teens are really just doing what their body is telling it to do.

 

[Darsa]

Heh heh, good to hear I have a "normal teen"!! My 14 year old daughter stays up until I don't know when (she's been up and working on dance routines when I woke to go to the bathroom at 1AM), and sleeps until noon or even after. I'm not going to fuss over it for oh, about another week and a half or so; then I'm going to start being mean-mom and sorting her schedule out to get her ready to go back to school. She has to catch the bus about an hour earlier to get to the high school, so I think the first little while after school starts will be VERY interesting...

 

[barkley]

Heh heh, good to hear I have a "normal teen"!! My 14 year old daughter stays up until I don't know when (she's been up and working on dance routines when I woke to go to the bathroom at 1AM), and sleeps until noon or even after. I'm not going to fuss over it for oh, about another week and a half or so; then I'm going to start being mean-mom and sorting her schedule out to get her ready to go back to school. She has to catch the bus about an hour earlier to get to the high school, so I think the first little while after school starts will be VERY interesting...

i've found that using a spray bottle filled with ice water can be effective those first few mornings of school (dd revealed this method as being employed by camp staff when i marveled at how the counselors at the camp she and her brother attended managed to get him up each morning)