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My prime working hours have always been from 10 pm til 2 am. No drugs, coffee or other stimulants needed. The house is quiet (no tv playing), everyone is asleep, and the phone doesn't ring. I don't even use headphones...the warm silence of the night is conducive to creativity. I've stayed up many nights until sunrise, stayed active all day, except for a nap in the afternoon, and kept going until 2 the next morning.
Some studies suggest that people like me have ancestors who were the night guards for the prehistoric tribes.
It doesn't sound to me like there's anything wrong with this child. Just that her mother is a light sleeper and a worry-wart. In two or three years, with any luck, this child will be at college with a bunch of other people taking dance and there will be a lot of night-owls. And mom can have all the silence and milk she wants.
I agree with all you wrote. However, I had to highlight one sentence to let you know you forgot something: Late at night is when ALL the housework is done and no one needs me for anything!
Late night is the only time of day that I can really call MY TIME!
My daughter is almost 15. She is a good kid in every way except one.... She's developed a habit of staying up very late. We live in a small apartment and, all night, all I hear is her going back/forth to the kitchen, opening the fridge, taking something (milk or juice), going back to her room, dancing, click-click-click on the computer, etc etc etc.
Last night, I was up until after 3am with this! I kept telling her to GO TO BED! She would quiet down for a while but then back to the nonsense. She actually stayed up all night and didn't go to sleep until 10pm tonight.
I am not getting a good night's sleep at all. I find myself constantly waking up all night long to tell her to turn off lights, get out of kitchen, go to bed, etc etc etc. This isn't something that just developed over the summer ---- she would do it a few times a week during the school year, too.
I am at my wits end with this. I need to be able to sleep without worrying about her leaving the fridge open or drinking a gallon of milk in one day or cooking something and falling asleep while it's cooking and causing a fire. I've considered a lock on the fridge and the pantry, but that just doesn't sit right with me.
Any constructive thoughts or suggestions??
People will probably hate me for saying this, but I don't think you should be telling a 15 year old to go to bed. Eight or ten year old, yes. 15 year old, I don't think so.
Why don't you discuss the situation with her, and ask her to be quiet after you go to bed, and tell her to stop waking you up. Maybe make a point of saying good night to her before you go to bed, and reminding her to be quiet.
Also, if you are being kept awake by the sound of clicking on a keyboard in another room, you might have some type of sleeping disorder. You might want to consider sleeping pills, white noise, or something.
Or maybe your apartment is just too small or has too thin a walls. In which case you should maybe look for another apartment. Maybe one with bedrooms farther apart from each other.
Anyway sorry but thats about as constructive as I can be. I think you are wasting your time trying to make her go to bed.
The concern about the milk is that milk is $5 a gallon. I cannot buy a gallon of milk every other day because she wants to be up all night. Milk is also very fattening (even 2%) and it's not healthy to drink that much milk. (she is not even close to being fat but with all this milk drinking, I'm sure it's going to catch up with her)
Um, so stop buying milk. Just buy canned milk if you need it for cooking.
The things I was doing at 15? Well, I wasn't waking my mom up often because I wasn't in the house at all, and she had no idea.
When I was home though, my mother has always been a light sleeper. She was always yelling at me to go to bed. It didn't change the fact that I was (and am) a night owl and not tired.
Thats what I was thinking. I was/am a night owl too. When I was about 11 I started staying up watching movies on TV all night. Now I'm on the internet all night.
How can you make a 15 year old go to sleep? It's not going to work. It's just going to cause a lot of stress.
I suppose in the eyes of a 20 yr old, I might be viewed as "super old" by some. As for the disconnected, it is amazing what you learn if you are a parent who keeps watch over their own children, and keeps watch over those of their friends who spend countless hours in your household. What I've observed comes from having many youth over the years in my welcoming house. When you have a variety of teens in your household for days at a time, you spot some sad situations where their parents are clueless or just ignore problems. Recreation drug use by teens is happening, even by good kids.
I stand by my comments to consider recreational drug use as a possible contributory factor to ongoing sleep habit disturbances.
Well I know when I was staying up late in the summer, it had nothing at all to do with drugs, so I don't make the assumption my kids are doing drugs when they do what I did.
She's in the home this whole time, and it doesn't sound like she's even got friends over. To me it doesn't look at all like drug use, certainly not without other clues.
I think it's just one of those puberty phases that kids often go through. They even like having the house all to themselves, and that feeling of standing watch.
Am I the only one who thinks mom is overreacting ? 15 year old daughter stays up late on her computer during summer vacation, drinks milk. Keep an eye on her she will probably be tricks for heroin money before she's 20.
And to the other posters who suggested disconnecting the wifi, when have you ever outsmarted your children in matters of technology ?
LOL at the heroin comment.
As for the technology; I said earlier that I have never had to ACTUALLY do it, but the modem and the router is in my room, and my door locks. If I wanted to make it happen, no one else would have internet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CyberCity
Let's assume she went to bed the night before at 3 am and got up at noon. Ok, so noon is the start of her awake time. Then she went through the next night without going to bed and did not sleep until 10pm the following day. That puts her awake for ... 34 hours. Have I missed something?
At 15, irregular sleep hours, extended periods of non-sleep .... even if she is a super "good" child, my thoughts would be about possible misuse of drugs that she got from a friend (for example, the sharing of ADHD drugs by high school friends is not uncommon).
I think it is important to be watchful but careful about jumping to conclusions. It also just indicates "teenager". An anthem of my youth...
I was in my room and I was just like staring at the wall thinking about everything But then again I was thinking about nothing And then my mom came in and I didn't even know she was there she called my name And I didn't even hear it, and then she started screaming: MIKE! MIKE! And I go:What, what's the matter? And she goes:What's the matter with you? I go: There's nothing wrong mom. And she goes: Don't tell me that, you're on drugs! And I go: No mom I'm not on drugs I'm okay, I was just thinking you know, why don't you get me a Pepsi. And she goes: NO you're on drugs! I go: Mom I'm okay, I'm just thinking. She goes: No you're not thinking, you're on drugs! Normal people don't act that way! I go: Mom just give me a Pepsi, please All I want is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me. Just a Pepsi.
Suicidal Tendencies -- Institutionalized
The OP can choose to consider whatever solutions she wants. And she can choose to give thought to whatever possible contributory factors that might be involved. As a parent, we each get to make our own observations of our children and their friends, and have our own style of open communication with our children, and then act as we see best for the benefit of the child while also considering the entire family.
Good luck to all concerned parent on raising healthy and happy children.
I suppose in the eyes of a 20 yr old, I might be viewed as "super old" by some. As for the disconnected, it is amazing what you learn if you are a parent who keeps watch over their own children, and keeps watch over those of their friends who spend countless hours in your household. What I've observed comes from having many youth over the years in my welcoming house. When you have a variety of teens in your household for days at a time, you spot some sad situations where their parents are clueless or just ignore problems. Recreation drug use by teens is happening, even by good kids.
I stand by my comments to consider recreational drug use as a possible contributory factor to ongoing sleep habit disturbances.
Moderator Cut
I think it does matter that she's an over all good child, not going out at night and is staying home.
Moderator Cut.
It doesn't sound like she is experimenting with drugs.
A teen who pulls all nighters and stay up late is not doing drugs.
I was like that at her age, my friends were like that, none of us were doing drugs.
The fact that she feels like eating and drinking at night says she isn't doing drugs, unless its marijuana most other drugs you don't feel like eating with and if she was smoking pot shed be asleep at night.
Last edited by Jaded; 08-13-2013 at 08:12 PM..
Reason: Off-topic and rude
As for the technology; I said earlier that I have never had to ACTUALLY do it, but the modem and the router is in my room, and my door locks. If I wanted to make it happen, no one else would have internet.
I think it is important to be watchful but careful about jumping to conclusions. It also just indicates "teenager". An anthem of my youth...
I was in my room and I was just like staring at the wall thinking about everything But then again I was thinking about nothing And then my mom came in and I didn't even know she was there she called my name And I didn't even hear it, and then she started screaming: MIKE! MIKE! And I go:What, what's the matter? And she goes:What's the matter with you? I go: There's nothing wrong mom. And she goes: Don't tell me that, you're on drugs! And I go: No mom I'm not on drugs I'm okay, I was just thinking you know, why don't you get me a Pepsi. And she goes: NO you're on drugs! I go: Mom I'm okay, I'm just thinking. She goes: No you're not thinking, you're on drugs! Normal people don't act that way! I go: Mom just give me a Pepsi, please All I want is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me. Just a Pepsi.
Suicidal Tendencies -- Institutionalized
@modem comment.
It wasn't in my moms room it was in the living room, she would shut it off though and I wasn't tech savvy enough to figure it out, she usually did something from a webpage to disable it.
I was however tech savvy enough to take my phone and use it as a modem.
Something my mom had no idea the phones could do.
I did this to prove a point that it was solely the fact that the didn't want me awake and that she wa just trying to exert control over me.
She told me I was keeping her up but one night after using my phone as a modem and doing the same things I always did, which was laid in bed with the fan on, lights off, headphones in and on Facebook/YouTube/iTunes/whatever and she didn't once come to my room to tell me to go to bed or that I was making too much noise.
Just proved my point that she wasn't going to sleep until she knew I was asleep and that she was keeping her self up and checking the modem and making bogus claims about noise.
Her control issues were not my problem but hers alone to work through And it wasn't me keeping her up but her own neurotic tendencies.
Moderator Cut.
Last edited by Jaded; 08-13-2013 at 08:13 PM..
Reason: Please comment on the OP's topic. NOT the OP herself.
I guarantee that if the mother test or accuses the daughter of drugs the test will come back negative and so will her daughters attitude.
If my mom had drug tested me as a teenager then I would have pissed, I would have thought what an idiot, she doesn't know me or get me, why doesn't he understand me, why is she like this to me, I'm not doing anything wrong she's so stupid why doesn't she try to get to know me.
It would have put so much more distance Between us.
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Well, I wasn't waking my mom up often because I wasn't in the house at all, and she had no idea. 
