My sister's son has gone through puberty. He is 12 years old, 5'8" and 150 pounds. She is wondering if it is normal for him to want to sleep from 6pm - 9pm. He wakes up for about an hour and then goes back to bed until 6:30 am.

TIA

By Karen~moderator on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 08:43 pm:

When they reach puberty, they start needing more sleep, but I don't know about sleeping 3 hours in the evening like that.......When was the last time he had a physical checkup?

By Paulas on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 08:50 pm:

She said he had last checkup at age 5.

He eats lots. His afterschool snack today was a 12" pizza.

By Pamt on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 08:52 pm:

Teens do need about 11-12 hours of sleep. However, if he hasn't had a check up in 7 years I'd definitely get in him for that. Kids, boys esp., also tend to eat a lot at that age, but it wouldn't hurt to check it out. Does he get any regular exercise??

By Mrsheidi on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 09:33 pm:

How long has he been doing it? Sleeping too much "can" be a sign of depression. But, I wouldn't assume that if it's not affecting other aspects of his life...homework, moods, etc. If he's been doing it for a while then I would be worried. If he's exercising, that might also be a reason.

By Paulas on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 09:42 pm:

Heidi,

I mentioned your comment to her and then asked her if he had gotten dumped lately and she thinks that he might have. So, maybe it is a bit of depression.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, January 15, 2005 - 11:38 am:

Paula, more than anything else, the boy needs to have a complete checkup.

And, if I ate a whole pizza (even though I'm not an adolescent boy), I'd be sleepy too. Just like most of us want to take a nap after Thanksgiving dinner. I certainly wouldn't allow a kid to eat a whole pizza at that hour unless it was intended to be his dinner, but you say it was an afterschool snack, which implies that he ate dinner in the hour he was awake later. 5'8" and 150 pounds sounds pretty much alright, not as if he were significantly overweight. But if he keeps eating and sleeping like that he might become overweight.

And I wonder how he can keep up with his school work, let alone other activities, if he is sleeping that much. I know that most adolescents and teens are, in fact, short on sleep, needing (according to multiple studies) 8-10 hours of sleep a day and most not getting it because of school, activities and jobs. But if it were my kid, I'd be taking him in for a checkup - annually.