Alice Park @aliceparkny
June 13, 2016
Sleep experts combed through hundreds of studies to determine how much children
of different ages should sleep to be at their healthiest
It s no secret that adults aren t getting enough sleep, and that s a problem
since more research is confirming that poor sleep can have lasting effects on
health, including things like obesity and heart disease.
And the same is true for children. While kids with bed times have an easier
time of getting enough sleep than adults, the intrusion of smartphones and
tablets and social media, not to mention growing pressures at school, are also
keeping kids up at night.
To help parents know how much sleep is enough, a group of 13 sleep experts
convened by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have issued sleep
recommendations that have been endorsed by a number of health groups, including
the American Academy of Pediatrics. Based on what they found in 864 studies
that tracked children s sleep and their health outcomes, they found that
children sleeping the recommended amounts below on a regular basis enjoyed
fewer attention, behavior and learning problems as well as lower rates of
obesity, hypertension and depression. But there was a limit to the benefit; too
much sleep was associated with higher rates of diabetes, obesity and mental
health issues.
Here s how much sleep they recommend for children at different ages:
Babies 4 to 12 months 12 to 16 hours
Children 1 to 2 years 11 to 14 hours
Children 3 to 5 years 10 to 13 hours
Children 6 to 12 years 9 to 12 hours
Teens 8 to 10 hours