Sleep Needs

I was watching the news on Direct tv last night and they had some pediatrician on talking about ADHD and ADD. My children don’t have any issues with attention or hyperactivity, but I did gain an interesting piece of information that I wasn’t aware of before the show. Did you know that the average 5 year old needs between 10-11 hours of sleep a night to be healthy? I know my son, who is five, is not getting near that amount. The show was talking about how much growing a young child is doing within a 24 hour period, and how rest is required for the cells to build and rebuild and prepare for a new day. It really motivated me to move my son’s bedtime up an hour and stick to it. He has been going to bed at 9, but now I’m thinking 8 is a much healthier time for him to be going to sleep. That means I will need to start his bedtime routine around 7. I am happy to do it.