Children's sleep habits are often a mystery. Some children seem to never sleep, others refuse naps at a young age, and then there's those small babies that start sleeping through the night at only a few weeks old.
Sleep is important for children in that it impacts their mental and physical development. And as any parent will tell you, it also has a huge impact on their mood!
Every child will have different sleep needs. Some parents claim that "sleep begets sleep" meaning one bad night of sleep can negatively affect the next day's sleep, while a good nap during the day will lead to a good night of sleep. Whether or not that is true, withholding a nap from your child so that he will sleep longer that night probably will not work. For young children naps are necessary, and will last anywhere from 1/2 hour to two hours. Children generally stop taking naps between the ages of 2-5. After the age of five, if a nap is still necessary, ask your child's doctor if there may be an underlying cause. (source)
Here's a chart that can help you determine how much sleep your child will need:
0-2 months: 10.5-18 hours
2-12 months: 14-15 hours
1-3 years: 12-14 hours
3-5 years: 11-13 hours
5-12 years: 10-11 hours
All children are different, as are their needs for sleep. If your child is outside the range recommended and this concerns you, don't hesitate to bring it up at your child's next well visit.
If you're not too sleepy, visit Alison at This Wasn't In The Plan
photo by N. Maynard
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So, if I post this chart where they can see it, will they start following it?
Yeah, my 20 month old almost never naps. Not a fan of that, but if he naps, it is bad for the bedtime.
I knew I was a 4 year old in a 40 year old's body.
Okay, according to this, I'm a child somewhere between 5 and 12. I can live with that if I get to sleep 10 hours a day:)
Great post! Research also indicates that 9 – 11 year-olds need 10 – 11 hours of sleep each night to learn. One's brain actually "learns" at night during sleep for that is when the input from the day is consolidated with prior knowledges and neural pathways are created within the brain.
Nearly everyday I ask a student how much sleep he/she got the night before and remind my class how important sleep is to their learning.
This post is rather timely… my daughter JUST turned 1 last week and sleep (or lack of it) is still an issue for us.
Thanks for the age/time reminder! School starts for us today—I think my children squeaked in for the right amount of sleep!
We're also finding that a "wind down" period must be worked into our go-to-bed deadline. Two of my children enjoy reading in bed before lights-out.
All of this has gone out the window with the 15 yr-old…I hope he can reset his internal clock for a successful school year!