How many sleeping hours (minimum) needed for 9 yr old?

[sk8rmom2006]

My DD is 9 yr old. She loves to skate. :roll: She does not mind to get up early AM (4:30am) in order to get lessons and practice. But she only gets about 7 hrs sleep. Though her school work does not seem to suffer,( actually doing quite well which surprised me a lot):halo: But she does look tired after dinner sometimes. My question is what min hours sleep required for 9 yr old in order to keep her healthy?

Thanks

[xofivebyfive]

4:30! Oh my gosh! That's insane. Well, I guess not that insane since I myself sometimes get up at 5:15 to make to to the 6AM session.

[Logan3]

My 9 year old just had a physical and the pd said EIGHT hours of sleep.
Some might need more and maybe some less?
Anyway the "medical" recomendations is 8h.

[Tennisany1]

I think 8 would be the absolute minimum. I know there have been some studies done (I'll try to find one on-line) and if I remember correctly most say that kids these day do not get enough sleep. My nine year old get 10 hours per night. People do need varying amounts, but I would be very cautious of going under 8 hours.

[cathrl]

7 hours sounds very little for a 9 year old to me.

Are you having to wake her up from a sound sleep every morning? Does she go to sleep in the car on a regular basis? If so, she's probably not getting enough sleep at night. If she absolutely has to get up at 4.30, can she go to bed a bit earlier?

Also, does she get up at 4.30 every morning? When mine was 6 or 7, she used to go to bed at 7.30 every night except the one when we went to the evening public session with dance intervals, and it was never before 9.30 that night. She adapted easily to having some days with more sleep than others. There's a big difference between having 7 hours sleep every night, and 7 hours a few times a week and 10 hours the rest of the time.

[flippet]

7 hours does sound like far too little. I know that for my toddlers, the recommendation is 11-12 hours total over the course of the day (including naps), and I actually think that's on the *high* end of the scale, because I'd have to drug my kids to get them to sleep that much, LOL! My kids (3 1/2 and 17 months) get about 8-9 hours at night, and then a nap of anywhere from 1-2 hours (most days). I would think that for a 9-year-old, it would still be in the vicinity of 9-10 hours, but I wouldn't go less than 8 on a regular basis. At least--make sure she's scheduled for 8, or even nine. If she doesn't sleep all of that time, and wakes up naturally (and not cranky!), then she's probably fine for that day.

Also, don't forget that as kids become teens, they actually start needing a little *more* sleep than they did as pre-teens. I know I needed 10 hours as a teenager, and I would often sleep a bit more than that, given the opportunity! Even now, I prefer to get 9 hours, but what mom of small kids gets that? :roll:

[oz01]

You may not notice much difference right now but kids with less than 8-9 hour sleep will have bad memories and do not grow as much as they are supposed to.

[sk8rmom2006]

Thank you for your information. Now I try to put her to bed at 8 and she will get up at 5. This way, she can get 9 hr sleep. I was surprised to learn that 9hr sleeps does not equal to 7 hr sleep + 2 hr naps.

[Live-a-little]

Here is a link which may help: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sleep.html

7 hours is not enough for a young child who is also a skater. Eventually, it may catch up on her. Are coaches out at the rinks at 4:30 am?