Teenagers - sleep, growth, and maturation

If you have concerns, take him to the doctor for some blood tests, make sure he is getting plenty of protein as well.  My daughter went through this in HS and turned out she had mono.  

I don't think what he is doing  is out of the ordinary. Lots of boys that age still have lots of growing to do, and its done while they are sleeping!

No concerns. Just wondering if he might be a late bloomer with some more room for growth. And if anyone else had experienced a kid that grew after high school like my roommate in college did.

Son entered senior year at 16 and turned 17 in mid-fall. I think there is only one kid in his class that is younger, although there are several juniors who are older. So, he is young for his grade.

I think it is a proven fact that girls mature physically faster than boys, most by the age of 16.  Which is why I wouldn't mind my 18 yr old daughter marrying and starting a family but not any of my son as they reach 18.    I'm an expert because I have a large family.  

I grew 3 inches and added 30 lbs of muscle after my 1st year of college.  I would eat 3 to 5 servings every meal in the cafeteria for about a year and I slept a lot.  

Both my older sons reached physical maturity their senior year in high school.  My freshman son is still growing (6'-1, 180 lbs) and sleeps a lot on the weekends. 

Son just turned 28 and I think he just recently stopped maturing!

I think that he reached full growth potential at 23, and just recently has been able to grow in a full beard and not just chin hairs!

He still eats a lot but that is because his work outs require an intake of certain calories per day, so make sure that your son is replacing (with the right calories) what he is losing when practicing, playing, working out, etc. He takes lots of vitamins as well because professionals who he has trained with always believed that the body doesn't always get what it needs from just food, etc. That includes the intake of iron as well.

Grumpy and moody goes along with the hormones, which probably are just beginning to fully awaken at his age.

FWIW, son still sleeps a lot too!

The comment about marrying a daughter off at 18 is the typical bbmania chauvinistic attitude. 

Stafford - Definitely sounds as though your young senior is experiencing what we commonly refer to as "growth spurts". I also have a 16 yo (soph) who's been in this mode for about a year now and really into a period of tiredness and moodiness currently.  It has come in phases over the past year or so with a lot of growth.  Many if not most 16 yo's are in and out of such phases, but it's a question of how dramatic the changes.  My son is currently a few ticks over 6'2" and still appears to be growing.  As I mentioned in another post a while back, my wife has an MA in education and has studied a lot on the subject of teenaged sleep needs.  She has sent me various studies regarding sleep and teenagers... no matter how many times I pretend not to read them.  The upshot of what I've gathered is that 

Soylent:  how late is sleeping in??   My wife wife is always on me to let Jr. sleep as long as he wants on weekends....normally I'll wake him up about 11:30 or so.  I'm afraid if he sleeps until 1-2pm on weekends, he'll get thrown off and not able to get to sleep until very late on Sunday, throwing off the start to the week.

Pretty sure there's been research done that teens' body-clocks are substantially different from adults, and that most of them would function better in a world that had them sleeping from midnightish to 8-9am, minimum.  But, since we have to have HS during the work day, they're all forced to adjust to what is basically an 8-5 work day.

I know when I was a teen, and my 15yo is basically the same now, I'd drag my ass out of bed for school every morning, go to practice after school, come home and sleep for 2-3 hours (possibly after eating first dinner), get up and eat (again) and do homework, then go back to bed as late as 1 or 2am then do it all over again the next day.  And I'd sleep as much as I was able to on weekends.  Heck, my college schedule wasn't much different, though I did at least figure out by the time I was a sophomore that morning classes were best avoided if I wanted to keep my grades up.

And all that was with me mostly being done growing by about 16.  Add growth on top of that, and I'm surprised most teens are ever awake.

Now we have parents deciding how late their kids should sleep in on the weekends?

Why not just let your kids be kids?

As far as early workouts, a good practice is to get used to it in HS, because most programs have very early workouts?

If your kids have issues with getting up in the mornings, or playing videos all night, a tough college program isn't for them.

I did much the same for a long while last year BFS... didn't want son sleeping in too late so would wake him up around 11:00... with my wife telling me I was wrong to do so.  That's probably when she first started sending me the research studies.  I don't know the answer to your question exactly... whether there's a point of diminishing return on sleeping in past noon or later... but think best practice is to let them sleep in until they wake up on their own.  As I noted, I'm no expert on this and a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.  I just try to let him sleep in as late as possible on the weekends now.  Another mistake my wife got me past was the thinking that "since he has to get up earlier on certain days, just go to bed a little earlier".  But this doesn't actually accomplish much in practice... even assuming a kid can get himself to sleep by say 9:30-10p, doesn't really gain him more of the "right" sleep that he needs.  Like the OP talks about, when they don't get enough of that "right" sleep... it's pretty easy to see the changes in personality, moodiness, etc.

TPM - Just sharing what I've learned from someone who knows a lot more about this subject than I do, in this case my wife.  Anyone reading along is free to accept, reject, or look further into it on their own.

I agree with getting the right type of sleep.

I was just saying that there comes a time when we need to let our kids make their decisions and that would include lots of different things. Its not like he is out partying us playing videos.  What we fail to realize is that kids these days have a lot on their plate. It's not unusual to be tired. Son played baseball, went to school and worked in HS. If he wanted to sleep all day on his day off,  that was his choice, and believe it or not he got through HS and a demanding college program and maintained honor roll status.

They manage to survive, with or without that much needed sleep.

Someone I know did a thesis on sleep in regards to body recovery in sports.  I will see if I can get a link to post here.