How much sleep does my child need every day?
So the amount of sleep your child needs varies according to their age. As you get older, you need less and less sleep. So, for example, a baby that's under two weeks of age needs about sixteen hours of sleep in twenty-four hours. From about six months of age, you need about fourteen hours of sleep and of course you've got to figure out when you say fourteen hours of sleep in twenty-four hours that includes nap time, of course. Between six months and two years about thirteen hours of sleep. When you get to about two years of age you need about twelve hours of sleep. Between three and five years you're down to about eleven. From about five to nine years about ten and a half hours of sleep. Then it kind of starts to change. Just about before you get to adolescence, you may get by, so in your middle school years on ten hours of sleep. Then we think, well we're teenagers, teenagers are notorious for not getting enough sleep and teenagers think that they can live without sleep. Most teenagers are getting, maybe if we're lucky, depending on how early they start school, six, maybe sometimes seven hours of sleep. Surprising thing is that teenagers need about nine and a quarter hours of sleep because their body physiologically actually requires more sleep than you need as an adult. Now even when I say teenagers I mean including seventeen, eighteen year olds even nineteen years olds need about nine and a quarter hours of sleep and we all know they are getting a lot less than that.
