Irregular betimes can affect children's brain development ('study')

Tombo2001

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/irregular-bedtimes-can-affect-children-s-brain-development-1.1457676

A nice guilt inducing headline in the Irish times today.

As it happens, our three year old has quite irregular bedtimes.

I would love to be able to say she goes to sleep at 8pm every night. But it doesnt work that way.

We didnt employ the 'let them cry to sleep' method, and unlike her older sibling she doesnt seem to like books so much. We read to her and after 30 seconds she loses interest. Sometimes the minder lets her sleep during the day, and that completely messes things up for us. One way or another, it is a big challenge to get her to sleep.

Anyway, what I'd be more interested in, is what time do your kids go to sleep and how regular is their bedtime?

We'd be around 9.30 each evening, wake up at 8am. Which I suppose is regular but by too late and perhaps not enough sleep.

Big Bag of Chips

To be honest, after 3 kids who are all different, I'd say do what works for you at the time!

When my eldest was around 3, bedtime would have been between 7 and 7:30 for them. Never later than 8.

By the time the youngest was 3 (and the eldest 6) bedtime could be anything between 8 and 10!

nesf

It's paraphrased from a Guardian article. What it fails to copy over was that the difference in test scores was small, in some cases only a couple of points. Also it's based on self-reported sleep behaviour and crucially the difference between "usually" and "sometimes" can be quite confused for some people.

liliq

My almost 2 year olds bed time varies from 730 (rarely) to 1030pm.
He gets up any time between 7 and 10am though.
I guess once they're in school the regular rising time tends to even out bedtimes a little?

simply simple

My girl now 5 and she wasnt very good with sleeping habits since day one. She is very much interested in books. Your daughter not having interest in books is nothing to do with her brain really, she might like to gain knowledge in more different manner, saying stories without a book might be keeping her interested! If she sleeps enough hours mean 10 hours then she is getting enough sleep. Reaserch that newpapers publish are sometimes conducted on very few targeted people. Try working out with the babysitter to not let her sleep during day, and I assure you she will gradually get to sleep early at night. I did this with my girl too, works wonders. Once she starts going to Montessori and School she will be dead tired to stay awake. Even if you ask her to stay awake , she wont Now my girl goes to bed at around 9 to 9.30 and gets up at 7.45 to 8-15, once school starts back again this will change accordingly.