How Much Sleep do Babies, Children, Teenagers and Adults Need?

Sleep is important for our overall health, it allows our body and mind to recharge.

The amount of sleep that we need changes throughout our lifetime. The National Sleep Foundation has established guidelines for how much sleep babies, toddlers, adolescents and adults should sleep.

These are the suggested total sleep requirements by the National Sleep Foundation:

Newborn Sleep (0-3 months): 14-17 hours each day
Infants Sleep (4-11 months): 12-15 hours each day
Toddlers Sleep (1-2 years): 11-14 hours each day
Preschoolers Sleep (3-5): 10-13 hours each day
School age children Sleep (6-13): 9-11 hours each day
Teenagers Sleep (14-17): 8-10 hours each day
Younger adults Sleep (18-25): 7-9 hours each day
Adults Sleep (26-64): 7-9 hours each day
Older adults (65+): 7-8 hours each day

Children from 0 – 4 years old will often have sleep that is divided between night time sleep, and day time napping.

Over the past few months, I’ve been better at making sleep a priority. I will admit that there are still some nights that I stay up too late working, but I’m really trying to have a consistent bedtime. Have you been getting enough sleep?

This post was co-authored by Stephanie Liu, MD, MSc, CCFP, BHSc and Erin Manchuk, BScPharm, BCGP .

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