Just what the title says, what time did you usually go to bed when you were a kid? Also, did it vary on non-school nights or when there was something special on TV? Did it gradually creep later into the night as you got older? When did your parents stop having to tell you to go to bed?
Let’s discuss.
I have no idea, but once I got to high school I was able to do whatever I wanted regarding bed time. It was probably something like 8:00 until grade 4, then 9:00 till grade 6 and 10:00 till grade 8, but I don’t remember.
Never had one, I mean, i assume that when i was very young my.parents would send me.to bed at some time, but since i have memory i have always gone to bed simply when i was sleepy, i remember staying up until 3:30 - 4:00 am when I was about 11-12… Never got told to go to sleep.
Ugg, don’t get me started. I have awesome parents, who have given me everything over the years. I will never begin to be able to pay them back for 1% of what they’ve done for me. They’re incredible. But I still harbor a grudge against their unfair, tyrannical, probably-against-the-Geneva-conventions stand on bedtimes. Take any Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that involves bedtime, and that’s pretty much me.
In grade school (say 1-3 grade) my bedtime was 7:00 pm, even in the summer. It didn’t get dark until after 9 in the summer, so I had to lie there for hours in my PJs, listening to all the other neighborhood kids out there laughing and having fun.
It went up incrementally over the years, probably 9-10 pm in middle school, eventually 11 in high school. I always had a “bedtime” on school nights, even through high school, but by the time I had my first job (16 years old) I could stay up more or less as late as I wanted on the weekends/during summer, as I frequently worked past my “bedtime.” Throughout my (obviously rough) childhood I was always forced to go to bed at least 1 hour before my peers, on average.
What made it especially maddening was by high school I realized that my mom was a complete night-owl, just like me. In the summer I’d get back from work at 1 am, eat some food and go to bed by 2 am, and she’d still be up reading her book. But pointing out her hypocrisy when she insisted on sending her 17 year old son to bed at 11 pm did nothing to sway her.
The two greatest things about freshman year of college (which, btw, was completely paid for by my awesome, long-suffering parents) were 1) Staying up AS LATE AS I WANTED, 2) Eating ANY TYPE OF BREAKFAST CEREAL I WANTED. Living with friends, getting to have sex with my girlfriend whenever I wanted, binge drinking all weekend, they all paled in comparison to the satisfaction I got from staying up 'till 3 am on a school night.
My parents insisted at the time that it was for my own good, some day you’ll understand/thank us, etc. They were wrong. I’m pushing 30, and still feel the part of my youth that occurred from 8 to 10 pm was stolen from me, never to return. I’m fired up about just writing about it!
Of course, I realize that if this is the big issue from my childhood that I can’t get over, my parents were probably doing just about everything else right.
I don’t know what it was when I was small, I think 8. In early elementary it was 8:30, in later elementary it was 9. By the time I was in high school I didn’t have a set bed time. I tried staying up until 10, but got too tired (I had to get up at 5:45 to be ready in time for the bus) so I went back to a self-imposed 9:00 bedtime.
When I was five and started going to school, my “official” set weekday bedtime was 8:30 pm but it would sometimes creep up toward 9:00 (especially after the networks started airing their prime-time shows at 8:00 pm rather than 7:30 pm). Non-school nights had no set bedtime but I usually didn’t stay up past 11. By the third or fourth grade, my school-night bedtime was up to 9:00 or 9:30 (and sometimes 10 depending what was on TV) and around 11 by the 7th grade. My parents had generally stopped telling me when I had to go to bed by that time.
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In grade school (say 1-3 grade) my bedtime was 7:00 pm, even in the summer. It didn’t get dark until after 9 in the summer, so I had to lie there for hours in my PJs, listening to all the other neighborhood kids out there laughing and having fun.
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How long ago was this? My father, who grew up in the early 1940s before television, used to tell me his bedtime on school nights was 7:30 pm up until he was about eight. I also used to have a “how-to-tell-time” book written in the 1950s featuring a boy whose bedtime was at [shudder] 7:00 pm! To me, going to bed at those times seemed like something people did before there was electricity let alone TV. The only time I had to go to bed at 7:30 pm was either when I was really sick or being punished for something.
I didn’t have one. I had to be in my room by nine as far back as I can remember, but I rarely went to sleep until near midnight, even as a small child. My mom would be asleep way before me.
8:30 is what I recall. I remember being frustrated that mom & dad still had their 9-10pm prime time tv shows to watch.
I’d guess before I turned seven that they sent me to bed earlier. Young kids get whiny and grumpy when its past bedtime.
As I remember it, 8:00 for grades K-1, 9:00 for grades 2-5, and 11 until I graduated. I can’t remember why we skipped 10pm. No bedtime on weekends or summer, and I was allowed to stay up if one of our sports teams was in a championship game.
It would have been the early 90’s (I’m 29). No one else I knew went to bed that early, and even my parents today seem to think it was excessive. They claim that if I was in bed that early, it was because I was tired and needed to sleep. Nope. I was forced into bed kicking and screaming, where I lay for hours, wide awake, in broad daylight, listening to birds chirping and children laughing. Every. Single. Night. In their defense, I’m sure I was quite a handful at the time (as I mentioned, Calvin and Hobbes could almost be my biography). And by the time I was in high school my bed time was at a relatively normal hour, even if it was a bit earlier than average. If left to my own devices, I probably wouldn’t have gone to bed at all (I currently go to sleep between 3 and 4 am).
Before high school, 10:30 PM. I missed the 11 o’clock local news and The Tonight Show, I guess.
After high school, no bedtime.
9:00, but I could read in bed until 10:00, which I blame for my poor posture, eyesight and inability to go to sleep less than an hour after I go to bed now.
We send our 5 year old to bed at 7pm but that can slide to 8 on special occasions. He really does need the sleep and he turns into a grumpy bear the next day if he’s up too late. He’s usually up at 6:30, which suits us just fine for school days but can be a little tough on weekends.
9:00, although I was allowed to stay up later on Fridays and Saturdays.
As a teen it became 10:00, then as an adult I got into the habit of staying up way late.
9:00 on school nights, later on weekends and vacations, but I don’t remember exactly when. I do know that staying up till midnight on New Year’s Eve was a big deal. But I never cared that much about staying up late - I’ve always been a morning person.
I just remember it being too darn early. I constantly got in trouble for reading under the blankets with a flashlight. Once I realized that they could see my flashlight through the covers I started making a fake me in the bed and reading in the closet instead.
I think it was earlier when I was really little, but I remember 10:30 for a while until I got to high school where the pretenses were dropped completely. I’m the youngest of six, by the time I came around, my parents were basically like, do what you want, as long as you don’t kill yourself or someone else.
I think it was 8:00 in early elementary school, 8:30 in late elementary school, 9:00 in middle school, and 10:00 in high school. Weekends and summer was usually 1-2 hours later with a lot of flexibility.
Let me qualify that by saying that after about 4th grade, “bedtime” referred to being in my room and quiet. The lights did not have to be out and I would be up later than that reading or playing on the computer. So it wasn’t that onerous.
I’ve been an extreme night owl for years, though. I tend to sleep the deepest between about 6am-10am and generally go to bed around 4:00am when I don’t have to be up the next morning. The only time I go to bed before midnight is when I’m seriously sick.
9PM
10:30 on Fridays, so we could watch the monster/Sherlock Homes/Tarzan movies on the UHF channel out of Milwaukee.
1970s.
When I was elementary school I do remember an 8:30 or so time. If I wanted to read though I was allowed to stay up until my parents came in and said it was time to go asleep. After middle school I dont think I had a time at all.