How Much Sleep Does Your Child Need?

Uh… I’m still sick and feeling under the weather. During the day everything seems to go okay but then night time hits and I’m exhausted. Even the early AM time to myself is slept away as I try to get over this illness. Now that my kids are all busy either in daycare, preschool or kindergarten they have also been needing more sleep at night.

Everyone seems to have their own magic number when it comes to how much they sleep need but there are general guidelines. According to The National Sleep Foundation, experts “estimate that preschoolers (3 to 5 years-old) need 11-13 hours of sleep, while school-aged children up to age 12 need approximately 10-11 hours of sleep.” [See table]

How much sleep a person needs will depend on “a person’s basal sleep need – the amount of sleep our bodies need on a regular basis for optimal performance – and sleep debt, the accumulated sleep that is lost to poor sleep habits, sickness, awakenings due to environmental factors or other causes.” If you watch your children closely and see how they perform on a certain amount of sleep you can get a good idea of what their basal sleep need is.

Make sleep a priority. It’ll make a big difference in how you and your child functions!

Sheila Cason, MD