What Is Considered Good Sleep?How Much Sleep Do Kids Need? An Age-by-Age Guide for Parents
Published October 21, 2026 · What Is Considered Good Sleep? editors
Quick answer: toddlers (1–2) need 11–14 hours including naps, preschoolers (3–5) need 10–13, school-age kids (6–12) need 9–12, and teens (13–18) need 8–10 hours. Those ranges come from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and are the ones the CDC uses.
Why kids need so much more sleep than adults
Kids are growing, learning and building memories at a pace adults don't match, and much of that work happens during sleep. A school-age child who needs 10 hours and gets 8 is missing a fifth of their night, which tends to show up as crankiness, trouble focusing and harder mornings.
A simple bedtime calculator
Work backward from wake-up time. If your 8-year-old has to be up at 6:45 a.m. and needs about 10 hours, lights-out should be around 8:45 p.m., plus 15–20 minutes to fall asleep. For a 15-year-old who needs about 9 hours and wakes at 6:30, that's roughly 9:30 p.m.
| Age | Hours | Wake at 6:45, lights out by |
|---|---|---|
| 3–5 | 10–13 | 7:00–8:00 p.m. (fewer hours if they still nap) |
| 6–12 | 9–12 | 7:45–9:15 p.m. |
| 13–18 | 8–10 | 8:45–10:15 p.m. |
Signs your child isn't getting enough sleep
- Hard to wake on school days, then sleeps in much later on weekends.
- Falls asleep in the car on short trips.
- Irritable, hyper or weepy in the late afternoon.
- Trouble concentrating or remembering at school.
Routines that work
The same four or five steps in the same order every night: bath or shower, pajamas, teeth, a story or quiet talk, lights out. Keep screens out of the last hour. Keep the room dark, quiet and on the cool side; the bedroom range Good Sleep cites from Cleveland Clinic and the Sleep Foundation is roughly 60–68°F. Warm pajamas and a warm blanket handle the rest in winter.
Teens are a special case
Teen body clocks naturally shift later, so a 10 p.m. bedtime can feel like 8 p.m. to them. Morning daylight, no phones in bed and a consistent wake time (yes, even on weekends) help the most. For more drug-free habits the whole family can use, see how to sleep better naturally.
And for the grown-ups
Parents need their 7+ hours too. If temperature is what keeps you up, especially if you and your partner disagree, Good Sleep's King topper is dual-zone, so each side is set independently between 62°F and 110°F. You can read more on whether water-cooled beds actually work.
Warm in winter, cool in summer
Good Sleep heats to 110°F and cools to 62°F on your existing mattress, with no app and no subscription.
See Good Sleep at trygoodsleep.com