Sleep needs by age calculator

What the result means

Sleep needs change faster in the first years of life than at any other time, and the best-known recommendations come from two consensus statements of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). Both were made by expert panels using the RAND Appropriateness Method: a panel of 13 experts reviewed 864 published studies for the pediatric statement and voted in rounds over ten months, and a panel of 15 did the same for adults. The calculator reads your age, finds the matching group, subtracts any naps for children under six, and works backward from your wake-up time to the latest bedtime that still reaches the recommended minimum. It also shows the earliest bedtime that would reach the top of the range, which for children is the window to aim for.

The recommended hours

For infants and children through age 5 the range includes naps. The pediatric statement gives no range for babies under 4 months. The pediatric statement runs up to age 18 and the adult statement starts at 18; this page treats a person aged 18 as a teenager and 19 and older as an adult, so there is no gap or overlap.

A worked example

A school-age child. An 8-year-old who wakes at 6:45 AM and takes 20 minutes to fall asleep needs 9 to 12 hours. To get 9 hours, the child must be in bed by 9:25 PM; to get 12 hours, by 6:25 PM. So a bedtime window from 6:25 PM to 9:25 PM fits the range, and the child who is in bed at 9:00 PM has a margin.

A preschooler who naps. A 4-year-old needs 10 to 13 hours in 24. If the child naps 1.5 hours, the night has to supply 8.5 to 11.5 hours. Waking at 7:00 AM with 15 minutes to fall asleep, the child should be in bed by 10:15 PM to reach the minimum, and earlier than 7:15 PM would be more than the top of the range.

An adult. At least 7 hours with a 6:30 AM alarm and 15 minutes to fall asleep means being in bed by 11:15 PM. The table in the result shows 8 and 9 hours as well, but the AASM and SRS statement sets only the 7-hour floor.

Common mistakes

Counting time in bed as sleep. The ranges are hours of sleep, not hours between lights-out and the alarm. The “time to fall asleep” box adds that margin; children who lie awake for 45 minutes need an earlier bedtime, not a later alarm.

Forgetting naps for small children. A toddler’s 11 to 14 hours include the afternoon nap. Treating it as a night-only figure gives a bedtime that is too early.

Reading the ranges as nightly minimums for one night. The AASM wording is “on a regular basis”: the recommendation is about the usual amount of sleep, not about a single night.

Limits of this method

It is a population consensus, not a measurement of your child. The AASM panel reviewed evidence in seven health areas (general, cardiovascular, metabolic and mental health, immune function, development and performance) and drew ranges meant for healthy children. Individual needs differ inside the range and sometimes outside it.

The statements are from 2015 and 2016. They are the current AASM consensus as of this page’s writing, and the AASM says that future research on the effects of sleep duration on health may lead to revisions.

Quality and timing matter too. The AASM defines healthy sleep as adequate duration, good quality, appropriate timing and regularity, and the absence of sleep disturbances or disorders. A bedtime from this page fixes only the first of those.

How much sleep does my child need?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) consensus, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends per 24 hours, naps included for the youngest: infants 4 to 12 months 12 to 16 hours; children 1 to 2 years 11 to 14 hours; 3 to 5 years 10 to 13 hours; 6 to 12 years 9 to 12 hours; teenagers 13 to 18 years 8 to 10 hours. The AASM says regularly sleeping these hours is associated with better attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life and mental and physical health.

What about babies under 4 months?

The AASM deliberately gave no recommendation for infants younger than 4 months, because of the wide range of normal variation in the amount and pattern of sleep and because there was not enough evidence linking sleep duration at that age to health outcomes. The calculator therefore shows no range for them. Newborn sleep is a conversation for your pediatrician, and our diaper count and formula pages cover the feeding side of those first weeks.

How many hours of sleep do adults need?

The AASM and the Sleep Research Society recommend that adults sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health. They link sleeping less than 7 hours regularly with weight gain and obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and stroke, depression, impaired immune function, more pain, worse performance and a higher risk of accidents. The statement sets no upper limit: more than 9 hours may be appropriate for young adults, people recovering from sleep debt and people who are ill, and the evidence on risk from long sleep in others is uncertain.

Do the hours include naps?

For infants and for children up to age 5 the AASM ranges are for a full 24 hours including naps. For 6 to 12 years and teenagers the recommendation is the same kind of figure, per 24 hours, with no nap allowance stated. If your small child naps, enter the nap total in the calculator: it takes the naps off the range to show how much nighttime sleep is left. A 4-year-old who naps 1.5 hours needs, on the AASM range, about 8.5 to 11.5 hours at night.

Is this the same as the sleep calculator?

No. The sleep calculator counts back from a wake-up time in 90-minute sleep cycles, which suits a person who wants to wake between cycles. This page starts from the hours of sleep that the AASM recommends for the person’s age, and only then turns them into a bedtime. Use this one for children and teenagers, for a quick check of whether a bedtime leaves enough hours, and the cycle-based one if you like waking at the end of a cycle.

My teenager has to be up at 6 AM. Can they really sleep 8 to 10 hours?

With a 6 AM wake-up the AASM range of 8 to 10 hours means being asleep between about 8 PM and 10 PM. The calculator makes the arithmetic visible: enter the wake-up time and the 8-hour row is the latest bedtime that still reaches the minimum. If that bedtime is not realistic, the honest answer is that the schedule leaves less than the recommended sleep, not that the recommendation is wrong.

What if my child sleeps more or less than the range?

The range is a consensus for children in general, not a prescription for one child. The AASM says parents who are concerned that their child is sleeping too little or too much should consult their healthcare provider for evaluation of a possible sleep disorder. Regularly sleeping more than recommended may be associated with adverse outcomes such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and mental health problems, so a child who needs far more sleep than the range is also worth a conversation.

More: the sleep calculator (bedtime by 90-minute cycles), the caffeine in your body calculator, the diaper count calculator, the baby growth percentile calculator and the adjusted age calculator.

Sources: Paruthi S, Brooks LJ, D’Ambrosio C, et al. Recommended amount of sleep for pediatric populations: a consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. J Clin Sleep Med 2016;12(6):785–786, aasm.org/resources/pdf/pediatricsleepdurationconsensus.pdf (endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Sleep Research Society and the American Association of Sleep Technologists); Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, et al. Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. SLEEP 2015;38(6):843–844, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4434546. This calculator is not endorsed by or affiliated with the AASM, the AAP or the SRS.

For general information only — not medical advice. If you think you or your child may have a sleep disorder, see a doctor. How we check our calculators.