After you take your baby home from the hospital, you can usually tell your sleep goodbye. Raising a baby is a lot of work and requires countless hours lost during the night, feeding, changing diapers and staying up with your little one.
Despite your lack of sleep, your baby is getting a lot of it. On average, babies sleep about 16 to 20 hours. Now that’s a lot of sleep!
After those countless nights, your baby slowly becomes a toddler; a question soon occurs: “How much sleep does your toddler need?”
It’s well known that babies need more sleep than toddlers and children; you’ve experienced this first hand, but just how much sleep do children actually need?
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How Much Sleep Do Kids Need?
Sleep is valuable. We all know that. It’s an essential part of maintaining good health, a strong immune system, a well-functioning brain… and it helps regulate weight, too.
As parents and as adults, sometimes we can’t help but hit the snooze because we just need some extra sleep. Coffee can only go so far.
We know that adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep, without naps (though no one can deny just how nice those can be!). But kids are a little more complicated.
Kids have yet to learn how to regulate their sleep and how to know just when they should hit the hay. This actually is where many parents make some mistakes (1).
Sleep varies among individual needs, but here’s the average amount of hours toddlers, children and teens need in order to get some proper shut-eye according to WebMD (2).
AAP Childhood Sleep Guide
1 – 2 Years Old
Toddlers need about 12 to 13 hours of sleep. Approximately 10 hours of this sleep comes from the night and the other 2 to 3 hours comes from a single nap. Where babies usually get 3 naps a day, toddlers will only need about one nap.
Typical waking time: 6 am – 8 am
Typical sleeping time: 7 pm – 9 pm
3 – 6 Years Old
Children in this age group need about 10 to 12 hours of sleep. They typically go to bed and wake up at the same time as age group 1-2, but require less nap time.
Typical waking time: 6 am – 8 am
Typical sleeping time: 7 pm – 9 pm
7 – 12 Years Old
This age group needs about 10 to 11 hours of sleep, though the average sleep time is 9 hours. School gets in the way of sleep time; kids usually go to bed a little after 9 pm.
Typical waking time: 6 am – 8 am
Typical sleeping time: 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
13 – 18 Years Old
Kids in this age group need about 8 to 9 hours of sleep. Because of school and friends, teenagers may not get enough sleep.
Typical waking time: 5 am – 9 am
Typical sleeping time: 9 pm – 12 am
The Trouble with Going to Bed
You may think that your toddler is getting enough sleep if he isn’t going to bed early, doesn’t want to take a nap or is hyper, but these may actually be signs that your child is overtired (1).
Here are some more signs that your child could be overtired.
- Falls asleep in places other than his bed
- Grumpy
- Groggy
- Can’t wake up in the a.m.
If your child doesn’t get enough sleep, he’ll most likely be hyperactive and troublesome. That’s why it’s important to stick to your guns, make sure they go to bed on time and that they get their daily naps (1).
Sleeping can be complicated, but if you enforce bedtime, are consistent and make sure that your kids are following along and getting their daily naps, then you’ll soon get the hang of things. So next time it’s nap time, your kids will be well rested. And next time it’s bedtime, your children will be in bed on time.
Citations:
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Baby Center: How Much Sleep Does Your Child Need (ages 2 to 4)
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WebMD: How Much Sleep Do Children Need