How Much Should A Child Sleep?
So how much should a child sleep?
It is very common for children to experience insomnia, and even more so when there is no routine to help them sleep. So we need to know exactly how much a child should sleep depending on their age. In this way we can avoid problems that they may have in the future due to lack of rest.
How much should a child sleep
Only when they get enough sleep can children develop properly on the physical and mental level. According to the recommendations of the United States Academy of Pediatrics in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine , the following would be the hours a child should sleep according to their age:
Children from 4 months to one year
A newborn baby should typically sleep between 16 and 17 hours. During the night it sleeps 9 hours, whereas the other hours are spread over the whole day.
As the child grows, these hours are reduced. At the end of the year, the child should sleep 11 hours at night and 3 hours during the day.
Children aged 1 to 2 years
If the child is between 1 and 2 years old, they should sleep 10 to 14 hours a day. When they’re between 2 and 3 years old, they begin to give up their nap. The most important thing in these early years is that children sleep at least 10 hours a day.
“During the first hour of sleep, 60% of growth hormone secretion is produced”
Children aged 4 to 5 years
In this phase, the child begins to sleep between 10 and 12 hours at night. From this point on, they also no longer need a nap, unless they are very tired. In this case, it doesn’t matter that they get some rest after eating. Children need to get enough sleep to perform well in school.
Children aged 6 years and older
As the child grows, the hours of sleep decrease. Between 6 and 8 years old, they need between 11 and 12 hours of sleep, and between 10 and 12 years old they need at least 10 hours of sleep.
For adolescents over 13 years of age , the required rest period is between 8 and 10 hours.
Benefits of getting enough sleep
Sleep is absolutely necessary for children and adolescents. If they sleep the specified hours, they will have the energy they need to complete their daily tasks and perform better in school. These are some of the benefits of getting enough sleep:
- Improve alertness
- Emotional regulation
- Better behavior
- Improves your quality of life
- More learning capacity
Consequences of not getting enough sleep
Just as getting enough sleep and hours of rest have many benefits, not getting enough sleep can have very negative effects on children. Your energy balance and your ability to learn can be severely affected. These are some of the consequences of not getting enough sleep:
- Children who sleep fewer hours than they should tend to perform poorly in school.
- Plus, they usually have much slower language development.
- If they don’t get enough sleep, some of their REM sleep is lost. This phase is essential for the child to store in their memory what they have learned during the day and so that their brain can recover.
- A sleep deficit can also affect the child’s immune system; which could make children more prone to colds, flu, and other infectious diseases.
- Children who only sleep 5 hours have a double risk of becoming overweight in adulthood.
Tips to help children sleep
It is very important for parents to know how much a child should sleep. If children have trouble falling asleep, or if they don’t have a set sleep routine and are getting enough sleep, we as parents need to help them establish a routine.
The following tips can help your child get enough sleep:
- It is important that the child sleeps in a comfortable bed, in an environment with little light and a comfortable temperature.
- It is better not to have visits, games or loud music that may disturb his sleep.
- Avoid caffeinated drinks after noon.
- Establish a bedtime routine.
- Always wake your child up at the same time in the morning and encourage them to sleep without the parents being around.
Now that we know how much a child should sleep according to their age, it is important to take steps to help our children fall asleep properly. Not getting enough sleep has many consequences, and with the habits mentioned above, we can avoid poor performance in the present and big problems in the future.
