It is important that children of all ages get a good night’s sleep. According to the Mirror, Stacy Carlsen, a teacher at Wilson Elementary School in Tennessee, US, shared an informative guide outlining the ideal time to do this between the ages of 5 and 12.
According to the scheme, a five-year-old child should go to bed at 18:45 and sleep for about 12 hours. At six years old, he should go to bed at 19:00 and sleep for about 11 hours. At 7 years old, the ideal is to go to bed from 19:15 to 20:45 and rest for 11 hours. At 9 years of age the tolerance is only 15 minutes and therefore children should go to bed from 7.30pm and sleep for 10 and a half hours.
A 10-year-old child should sleep from 20:00 to 21:30 for 10 hours. However, at 11-12 years old, the ideal time would be to sleep from 20:15 to 21:45, 9 hours 45 minutes.
Some parents agreed with the teacher and said the chart was a helpful guide. One mother said it “justifies” the bedtime she already set for her children. “I have four children, and I get a lot of criticism before bed,” he explained.
“I started setting bedtimes years ago based on how much sleep they needed…I’m glad to see this chart confirms the exact times we’ve already set.”
However, not everyone was so impressed. The father-of-one compared the strict rules to military service. “This is not military service, and if I sent my kids to bed at 7 p.m., they would wake up at 4 a.m. No thanks. Besides, I’ll never be able to spend time with them after school.”
Other parents are of the opinion that bedtime routines should vary between months and depending on whether the child naps during the day.