How much sleep do children actually need at each age?
Sleep need falls steadily through childhood, and the widely used guidance from sleep research organisations gives ranges rather than fixed numbers — individual variation is genuinely large.
Typical totals per 24 hours, including daytime naps:
- Newborn (0–3 months) — 14 to 17 hours, in fragments of two to four hours around the clock
- Infant (4–11 months) — 12 to 15 hours, consolidating overnight with two or three naps
- Toddler (1–2 years) — 11 to 14 hours, usually one nap by around 18 months
- Preschool (3–5 years) — 10 to 13 hours; naps commonly stop somewhere in this window
- School age (6–13 years) — 9 to 11 hours
- Teenager (14–17 years) — 8 to 10 hours
Two things worth knowing about these figures:
They are ranges for a reason. A child at the bottom of the range who wakes rested, is even-tempered during the day and does not need to be woken is getting enough. Chasing the midpoint because a chart says so causes more bedtime conflict than it solves.
The signs of insufficient sleep in children often look nothing like tiredness. Overtired children are frequently hyperactive, irritable, emotionally volatile and unable to concentrate rather than visibly sleepy. Difficulty settling can itself be a symptom of being overtired, which is why an earlier bedtime sometimes fixes a child who "won't go to sleep".
Teenagers are a special case. Adolescence shifts the circadian rhythm later by a genuine biological mechanism, so a teenager who cannot sleep at ten and cannot wake at seven is not simply being difficult.
Persistent snoring, long pauses in breathing, or severe daytime sleepiness warrant a GP appointment.