Mom Shares Nighttime Routine For Her ‘Night Owl’ Family That Doesn’t Believe In Set Bedtimes
Kids can be night owls too.
FamVeld | Shutterstock Every family is different. While some parents adhere to early to bed, early to rise lifestyles, not all kids thrive in that environment. If adults can be night owls, kids can be too. That means, as mom Emily Boazman explained in a recent TikTok, these kids function optimally later in the day and not early in the morning.
Instead of having a set bedtime, Boazman's kids go to sleep whenever they feel tired. It works for their family because they are homeschooled and don't have to be up early for the bus! While this family's lifestyle might not work for all families, it's proof that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to raising kids.
A mom shared her unconventional nighttime routine for her 'night owl' family.
Boazman's sneak peek into an evening routine with her night owl family started with their arrival home from church after 9 p.m. The kids were still full of energy, and Boazman and her husband were carrying groceries. It was time to eat dinner. The mom explained that they hurried to cook because eating this late is unusual, even for them in this lifestyle.
The family then put on comfortable clothes so they could relax before settling down to eat. “I always clean as I cook so I'm not left with a huge mess after we eat,” the Boazman wrote, as she washed dishes at about 10 p.m.
The family finished eating around 10:30 p.m., then cleaned up, picked up toys from the floor, and tidied up the house. By about 11 p.m., it was bath time for their youngest. While he bathed, the mom and two daughters spent the next half hour doing pedicures.
Around midnight, it was time for bed. The mom helped the kids get settled, then left the room to take a bath. But as soon as she got there, her son followed her. She helped him back to bed before finally taking her bath and going to bed around 1 a.m.
The comments were a mix of relatable stories and questions. Some said, “I love this for summer, but I’m curious how it works during the school year.” Others shared that they also stay up late. “I’ve been a night owl since I was born,” one user wrote, “and now my youngest is the same.”
Living as a night owl can be difficult since the world functions on a 9-to-5 schedule.
Being a night owl or an early bird isn't exactly a choice. A preference to start your day later is part of your genetic makeup, according to Rebecca Robbins, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine. She told CNBC, "We all have a slight genetic orientation to one of two types, either being a morning person or an evening person."
She went on to explain that the distinction is evolutionary in nature, dating back to tribal communities that could only thrive when there were people keeping watch on a 24-hour cycle. She said, "The village would protect itself by [having] a smaller group of individuals staying up to protect the others while the rest of the village sleeps. Then that shift would end, they would go to sleep, and the morning shift would start."
Being one of the late protectors became an evolutionary marker in some people, resulting in night owls. Now, life isn't dictated by the same need for community engagement and protection, so we function on a 9-to-5 schedule. That, unfortunately, can be very difficult to adjust to as a night owl.
Boazman's family is lucky that they can live life on their own time thanks to homeschool, but encouraging her kids to embrace their opposite lifestyle might be doing them a disservice later in life when they have to work with everyone else. Experts say the best way to prepare night owl kids for the standard schedule of life is to start their sleep routines early and to be consistent.
Living as a night owl but not adhering to a night owl schedule can be detrimental to your health.
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Healthy sleep isn’t just about what time you go to bed, but how much sleep you actually get. For instance, going to bed “early” at 9 p.m. but waking up at 2 a.m. means you only got five hours of rest, which isn’t enough for a good night of sleep.
The same idea applies to night owls. Going to bed after midnight might feel natural, but if you need to be up at 5 a.m., that schedule will eventually wear you out. Poor sleep hygiene can lead to a multitude of problems, including mental health issues and physical ailments.
A Harvard-led study followed about 64,000 healthy middle-aged women over eight years and found that those who identified as night owls were 72% more likely to develop diabetes than morning larks. Additionally, these women were more likely to engage in unhealthy habits such as drinking heavily, smoking, eating poorly, and, as you might expect, getting too little sleep. This is basically what happens when you live as a night owl but can't sleep like one.
Nancy Foldvary, a sleep specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit academic medical center, explained the dangers of being a night owl. “We live in a sleep-deprived society, with about 40% of adult Americans not getting enough sleep,” she said. “Night owls are especially at risk of chronic sleep deprivation, which affects our bodies and every organ system, increasing the risk of health problems.”
Being a night owl family isn't a bad thing as long as you can adhere to a night owl lifestyle. Unfortunately, most of us have to wake up early for work, and that means staying up late every night isn't exactly doing us any favors. If you're lucky enough to build a career around your preferred sleep schedule, don't hesitate to do it. However, if you can't, you still need to get enough sleep every night to avoid health issues.
Matt Machado is a writer studying journalism at the University of Central Florida. He covers relationships, psychology, celebrities, pop culture, and human interest topics.
