How Much Sleep Do Kids Need?

While many parents know sleep is an important pillar of their child’s health, some may not know how much is enough. From infancy to their teen years and beyond, kids go through a series of developmental stages, so their sleep needs can and will change. Whether we’re talking about babies beginning to walk or teens going through puberty, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, and kids need plenty of sleep to support those processes. Ahead, we look at how much sleep kids need throughout each developmental stage. 

How Much Sleep Do Kids Need?

The youngest among us require the most sleep, and understandably so. These guys are in the throes of exponential change in a rather short period of time. Most parents will find that sleep in the early days of their child’s life can feel like a moving target, and multi-hour stretches may be hard to come by. Rest assured, though, that short bouts of sleep and erratic sleep schedules are normal for infants and toddlers, and your little one’s sleep schedule will eventually settle. For the time being, the best you can do is ensure that your kid’s sleep time adds up to the recommended totals for their age. 

If you’re not sure how much sleep your child needs, The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) offers the following recommendations for sleep duration in children and adolescents. (1)

How Much Do Babies Sleep?

In terms of daily sleep requirements, babies and infants need the most out of all segments of the population. Newborns usually sleep 14 to 17 hours a day, and their sleep is generally punctuated with frequent wakings as they need to eat frequently. 

Infants need slightly less sleep than newborns, but their daily requirements, including naps, are still pretty high at 12 to 16 hours a day. Lynelle Schneeberg, sleep psychologist and author of Become Your Child’s Sleep Coach, tells Sleepopolis that “Infants begin falling into more regular (or consolidated) sleep patterns around the 4 to 6-month mark, and many begin sleeping through the night around this age as well.” (6)

1-Year-Old Sleep Needs 

A 1-year-old needs 11 to 14 hours of sleep in each 24-hour period, including one to two naps. (1) At this stage in their development, your baby’s days (and nights) are a flurry of activity. Their time is spent discovering their independence and learning new things like pulling themselves up, feeding themselves, and walking. (7)

2-Year-Old Sleep Needs 

A 2-year-old’s sleep needs match their 1-year-old requirements at 11 – 14 hours per day, including one nap. (1) At this age, your little one is meeting their social and emotional milestones, showing empathy, and getting a handle on language skills, including gestures, two-word phrases, and requests. (8)

3-Year-Old Sleep Needs

By age 3, kids need 10 – 13 hours of sleep daily, and many are transitioning away from napping altogether. (1) At this stage, your little one knows their name, and their world expands through social play. They may begin asking “who,” “what,” “where,” or “why” questions and can draw simple objects. (9)

4-Year-Old Sleep Needs

At age 4, kids still need 10 – 13 hours of sleep per day. (1) At this stage, they continue expanding their social skills and begin to play pretend. Your little one can answer simple questions, talk about their day, and name colors. And as their hand-eye coordination starts to take shape, some can even catch a ball. (10)

5-Year-Old Sleep Needs

Five is a big milestone, and with so much going on, kids still need 10 – 13 hours of sleep per day. (1) At this stage in their development, they can count to 10, follow given rules, understand the concept of taking turns, and do simple chores at home. (11) 

6-Year-Old Sleep Needs

A 6-year-old needs 9 – 12 hours of sleep. (1) At this age, your little one is likely venturing out into the world (kindergarten), learning to read, and expanding their social circle. With so much going on, their mental and emotional skills understandably grow by leaps and bounds at this early stage of their development.  (12)

7-Year-Old Sleep Needs

By age 7, kids need 9 – 12 hours of sleep daily. (1) Their physical, social, and emotional skills continue to develop quickly as the world around them unfolds. At this point, kids can typically dress themselves and tie their shoes. (12)

8-Year-Old Sleep Needs

By their eighth birthday, kids still require 9 – 12 hours of sleep each day. (1) By age eight, your child is learning the basics of math (addition and subtraction), their reading skills continue to develop, and friendships, teamwork, and social acceptance become even more important. (12)

Preteen Sleep Needs

The preteen years are a time of incredible and rapid change, so your child’s sleep needs remain relatively high at 9 – 12 hours per night. (1) Physically, puberty and all that it entails make its appearance (deepening voices and facial hair for boys, periods and breast development for girls). Emotionally, your child is basically on a roller-coaster — moodiness, concerns over body, and peer pressure are all par for the course. (13)

Teenager Sleep Needs

Rounding the corner into their teen years, kids need 8 – 10 hours of sleep each night. (1) During this age and stage, hormones continue with their volatility, friend groups are often precarious, and adulthood looms large. 

A common misconception about teens and sleep is that they need less, can get by on less, or turn into night owls around age 13, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Many teens experience significant changes to their sleep health and patterns — and it’s purely a matter of biology. Teen circadian rhythms (or internal clocks) shift later during puberty — often by as much as 2 to 3 hours. (14) They often don’t start to power down (and their brains don’t begin melatonin production) until 11 p.m. or even midnight. As a result, teens typically go to bed later and still wake up as expected to make their school start times. Ultimately, this means that many teens fall short of their sleep requirements. (14) 

Why Do Kids Need Sleep? 

While 14 to 16 hours of sleep per day for babies and 10 hours of sleep per night for teens may sound excessive, keep in mind that sleep plays a crucial role in their behavioral and neural development.

More specifically, Schneeberg explains that sleep 

• Helps the brain prune, categorize, and store what was learned that day (15)
• Improves memory, alertness, and concentration (16, 17) 
• Enhances mood and helps process emotions (18) 
• Sleep powers muscle and tissue repair and allows them to grow and develop normally. (19)
• Strengthens the immune system (20)

Insufficient sleep among kids has been linked to obesity, poor mental health, learning deficits, impaired cognitive functioning, and behavioral issues. (21, 4)

Is My Kid Getting Enough Sleep?

While dragging a sleepy kid out of bed each morning is a common and accepted cultural trope, excessive sleepiness upon waking could be a sign that your child isn’t meeting their daily sleep requirements.

Signs your child is getting enough sleep may include:  

• Waking on their own in the morning and appearing refreshed and recharged (22)
• Having enough energy in the daytime until naptime or bedtime rolls around (22)
• The ability to stay focused and pay attention in school (22)
• Maintaining control over their moodiness and irritability (as appropriate for their age) (4)

What to Know About Kids and Napping

Your child’s early years are a time of exponential growth, so naps are not only normal — they’re a crucial part of your child’s growth and development. (3) And when little bodies and brains do such hard work day after day, you can bet naps are part of the equation. Essentially, naps give the little ones time to rest and recharge so they can resume anything and everything they were up to. (3) Moreover, some studies support the benefit of naps on learning and emotional regulation in preschool children, while others indicate that naps support mood, cognition, problem-solving skills, and memory consolidation. (3, 23, 24)

Nap Tips for Kids

“Having a well-rested child will make bedtime and nighttime so much better, and the first step to getting a child to nap is to get the timing right,” says Macall Gordon, M. A. and senior lecturer for the Department of Applied Psychology at Antioch University in Seattle. “Try a shorter wake window before you try a longer one. If contact or motion (e.g., stroller) naps work (and these are the norm for babies under six months), do that.” 

For parents hoping their child will put themselves down for a nap, Gordon says, “Work on nighttime sleep skills first. Once they’ve got the hang of putting themselves to sleep at bedtime, you can work on getting them to do that at naptime, too.” 

Other ways to help your child nap:

• Look for naptime cues like a slowdown in their pace, yawning, eye rubbing, and fussiness
• Be sure to follow an age-appropriate nap schedule
• Maintain a consistent naptime routine 
• Take care to put your child down for a nap when they’re sleepy, not exhausted
• Like bedtime, be sure nap spaces are cool, dark, and quiet (25)

When Do Kids Transition To One Nap? 

“Children usually transition to one nap around the 12-18 month mark,” says Schneeberg. (26) She explains (and research corroborates) that as kids develop, they’re simply able to stay awake for longer and longer periods until two naps evolve into one. (26)

When Do Toddlers Stop Napping?

While only a small portion of kids stop napping before age two, 94 percent will break from their daytime naps by age five. (26) Existing research indicates that the end of napping is likely a combination of the child’s innate ability to stay awake longer and a nod to their neural and cognitive development. (26)

If you’re unsure where your child is in the process, the following cues are signs that daytime naps may be coming to an end. 

• Difficulty falling asleep at nap time 
• They don’t meltdown or get cranky if they skip a nap
• Difficulty falling asleep at bedtime

Sleep Hygiene for Kids: Tips for Bedtime

From falling asleep on their own and soothing themselves to sleep when they wake at night, sleep is a skill that must be learned. “If you want them to go back to sleep without your help in the middle of the night, you have to help them set that template at bedtime,” says Gordon. She adds that if a child is struggling to fall asleep on their own at bedtime, they’re unlikely to be able to do it in the middle of the night. They’ll likely look to repeat their regular bedtime winddown process — with you. Ahead, we’ve outlined some tips for parents to help kids sleep better. 

Have a Consistent Bedtime Routine

A consistent bedtime routine is a big part of healthy sleep. When children go through the same processes (like dimming the lights, having bathtime, and reading) before bed night after night, they eventually associate those rituals with bedtime and sleeping. Eventually, those cues become so ingrained in them that they automatically associate those routines with bedtime. (25)

Keep Their Sleep Environment Dark, Cool, and Quiet

One of the most important rules of good sleep hygiene is to keep your sleep environment cool, dark, and quiet. This goes for kids, too. Parents should do their best to ensure that when it’s time for lights out, their little one goes down in a cozy room that’s ready for a good night’s rest. (25)

Try More Soothing Activities Before Bed

Every parent hopes that getting their little one to sleep is as easy as flipping the light switch on the wall, but that’s not always the case. If your child isn’t quite settled enough to sleep, there’s no harm in leaving them with a quiet activity until they’re ready to turn in. Allowing your child to read a book or play quietly is perfectly fine; just make sure it’s not TV or video games. (27)

Ramp Up Their Physical Activity

At the end of the day, tired kids are sleepy kids, so be sure your little one is getting plenty of physical activity during the day. While a few hours at the park and play dates with friends are great, remember that mentally challenging them can also do the trick. (28)

FAQs

The Last Word From Sleepopolis

Sleep plays such a crucial role in our health and development, and our sleep requirements change over a lifetime. When we consider all segments of the population, kids need the most sleep — not surprising as their youth is characterized by change. Your child’s sleep may change from one year to the next, start later, or be fragmented at certain points, but as long as they meet their daily requirements, their sleep health should be just fine. 

Sources

Sharon Brandwein

Sharon Brandwein is a Certified Sleep Science Coach and a freelance writer. She specializes in health and beauty, parenting, and of course, all things sleep. Sharon’s work has also appeared on ABC News, USAToday, and Forbes. When she’s not busy writing, you might find her somewhere curating a wardrobe for her puppy.