How Much Sleep Does My Child Need?

How much sleep does my child need?

The short answer?

It depends!

Sleep needs vary from child to child. While general recommendations exist, every child is unique. Some may need more or less than the average guidelines. Sleep needs also shift due to growth, developmental leaps, teething, activity levels, life changes, and illness.

Rather than focusing solely on numbers, watch your child’s behavior. Are they:

  • Generally happy and alert when awake?
  • Easy to soothe?
  • Growing and meeting developmental milestones?
  • Falling asleep within 15-20 minutes at bedtime?

If these signs are present, your child is likely getting the sleep they need—even if their total sleep doesn’t match the guidelines exactly.

It’s also important to reflect on your expectations around sleep needs. In my experience, many parents think their children need much more sleep than they do.

The total sleep in 24 hours according to age as depicted in this chart is based on the recommendations from The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) [1]. The AASM does not make specific recommendations for newborns. However, newborns generally need 16-18 hours of sleep in 24 hours [2].

Again, these are general guidelines and may need to be adjusted depending on your unique child.

References

[1] Paruthi, S., Brooks, L. J., D’Ambrosio, C., Hall, W. A., Kotagal, S., Lloyd, R. M., Malow, B. A., Maski, K., Nichols, C., Quan, S. F., Rosen, C. L., Troester, M. M., & Wise, M. S. (2016). Consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine on the recommended amount of sleep for healthy children: Methodology and discussion. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(11), 1549–1561. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27707447/

[2] Kirsch, D. B. (2022). Stages and architecture of normal sleep. UpToDate. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/stages-and-architecture-of-normal-sleep