Reflections on bedtime

One of the most interesting (to me) parts of becoming a responsible adult in a child's life is observing the rules and rituals that go into giving that child's life stability, health, freedom and boundaries. One of these is the regular bed-time rule.

Which got me thinking. As adults we impose rules on children as we know it is for their good, but they might specifically recognise this -

• eat all your vegetables
• clean your teeth
• lights out by 9pm
• etc.

But, then, we forget to do these things ourselves. (side note, this is an interesting post on how we don't share as much as adults despite encouraging our children to do so)

During my 3 month 'retirement' I could sleep as long as I needed to. (Interestingly sometimes this was 12 hours straight). This also meant that I could go to bed later than I would have while I was working, especially as Jed is a bit of a night owl.

But, is this really a good idea? Especially now I am back at work. I need to be out of bed by 6.50 on a work day, which means an alarm at 6.30. I need 8-ish hours sleep to function properly, so I should really be in bed by 10.30. And yet, 3 nights this week I've gone to bed at midnight.

The difference? There's no responsible adult telling me to get ready for bed. And perhaps a bit hypocritical to be telling a child she has to go to bed at a regular time, no matter what interesting things are happening, when we don't follow that rule as well.

(this post is about someone's else's experiences on re-creating a sleep time habit. I'm not as logical-process oriented than him, but it's been an interesting part of this reflection)