Child sleep rate: how much should children of different ages sleep?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Any person understands that only with a long and sound sleep, strength is fully restored - physical and spiritual. This is especially important for children. But at the same time, not all parents know what the norm of a child’s sleep is. This is a serious omission. You need to know how much sleep children have at a given age, and see if your son or daughter spends enough time in bed.

How much does a baby sleep in the first months of life

First, let's tell you what is the norm of a child's sleep by months.

In the first month, it's easier to tell how long he's awake. Because a he althy child who is not bothered by anything has only two modes at this time - food and sleep.

He sleeps about 8 to 10 hours a night. Moreover, during this time, he manages to wake up two or three times in order to properly refuel with mother's milk. During the day, he also sleeps 3-4 times, and sometimes more. So if a child who is not yet a month old sleeps 15-18 hours a day, this is a completely normal indicator. Worse, if he sleeps much less - perhaps some discomfort, pain or hunger interferes with him. You should definitely see a doctor to check it out. Sometimes the problem lies in a short frenulum - the child cannot fully suckle the breast, eats very slowly, spending a lot of energy on it. As a result, he lacks sleep, which affects his nervous system.

In two months, the situation is almost the same. The child may well sleep 15-17 hours. But for some time he has already been looking around, studying the world around him. Although his main activities are still sleeping and eating.

By three months, the picture changes slightly. In general, a baby sleeps for about 14-16 hours a day. Of these, 9-11 fall at night. He sleeps 3-4 times a day. He spends quite a lot of time not only eating, but simply looking around the world, licking his fingers and any objects that he can put in his mouth, makes various sounds, smiles.

Counting sleep up to a year

Now we will try to find out the norms of sleep and wakefulness of a child up to a year.

The time spent sleeping is decreasing gradually but constantly. From 4 to 5 months, babies sleep about 15 hours at night, and another 4-5 hours during the day, dividing this time into 3-4 periods.

From 6 to 8 months, a little less is allocated for sleep - 14-14.5 hours (about 11 at night and 3-3.5 during the day). The child sits confidently, crawls, explores the world around him in every possible way, actively eats various complementary foods, although mother's milk remains the basis of the diet.

Further, if we talk about the norms of sleep for children up to a year by months, the period from 8 to 12 months follows. At night, the child still sleeps 11 hours (plus-minus thirty minutes). But during the day she goes to bed only a couple of times, and the length of each sleep session is not too long - from 1 to 2 hours. In total, approximately 13-14 hours are accumulated per day - it is quite enough for the growing body to have a good rest, recharge with energy and successfully develop in all respects.

Baby up to 3 years

Now that you know the sleep norms for children up to a year by months, you can move on to the next item.

At two years old, a child sleeps about 12-13 hours at night. There may be two daytime sleep sessions, but most often children are limited to one, usually before lunch or immediately after it - and they sleep relatively little, rarely more than 1.5-2 hours. Which is understandable - the body is already a little stronger, and there are a lot of toys around with which you can have a great time, actively developing.

By the age of three, night sleep is reduced to 12 hours. There is only one daytime sleep, it is advisable to adjust it to the period after dinner, so that the child does not run on a full stomach, but sleeps peacefully, assimilating the substances received during meals. Sleep during the day is already quite short - about 1 hour, rarely an hour and a half.

And older

At four years old and older, the child is already quite strong, he does not need as much sleep as before. In addition, there are various development options. And one month does not play such a role as in infancy, when the child and his needs change surprisingly quickly.

For example, some children between the ages of 4 and 7 feel best if they sleep 10-11 a nighthours and absolutely do not take a daily break for sleep. Such a schedule does not suit others - in the middle of the day they become lethargic, do not want to play, act up until they fall asleep for at least an hour. But thanks to such a break, night sleep is reduced to 9-10 hours.

From 7 to 10 years old, children almost never go to bed during the day if they have enough night sleep - this period should be at least 10-11 hours.

By the age of 10-14, a child is already very close to an adult. Therefore, he usually sleeps 9-10 hours.

Finally, after fourteen years, he ceases to be a child, becoming a teenager, and in some cases an adult. This is where individual needs come into play. Some adults need 7 hours of sleep, while others can only be productive if they spend 9-10 hours a day in bed.

So that each parent can easily remember these data, we will indicate the sleep rates of children in the table below.

How to calculate how much baby sleeps

Many practical parents enter the child's rest time into self-made tables. Children's sleep norms have been presented above. With such data, it is possible to determine how correctly and harmoniously a child develops.

You can start such a table from the very first days of life. Just write down what time he fell asleep, what time he woke up, and then summarize the results and compare with the data above.

The main thing is to accurately determine the compliance of your child's daily routine with sleep normschildren under one year old. The table must be kept not for one day, but for at least a week, and preferably two. In this case, you can accurately determine how much the average child sleeps per day. After all, there is always the possibility that the child was frightened by an extraneous sound, or that he simply had a stomach ache from something, which prevents him from sleeping peacefully. But having data for a significant period of time, you will get the most accurate result.

And here it is desirable to avoid rounding. Did the child sleep for 82 minutes during the day? So write it down, not limited to the vague wording "one and a half hours." Losing 10-15 minutes at each session of daytime and nighttime sleep, you may well miscalculate for an hour and a half, and this is an extremely serious error that will necessarily affect the reliability of observations.

Also, many parents are interested in the rate of heart rate in children during sleep. In fact, this indicator can vary significantly even in one child - from 60 to 85 beats per minute. It depends on the position of the body, the presence of diseases, the phase of sleep (rapid or deep) and other factors. So in a quarter of an hour, such drops are quite possible - you should not worry about this.

Do you always need to meet the standard

Some people are very concerned about a child's sleep rate by age. After scrupulous calculations, it turns out that their child does not get enough sleep (or vice versa, sleeps) for an hour, or even two. Of course, this can cause panic.

However, in fact, there is no cause for concern in most cases. The main thing is to watch how the child behaves after waking up. If he is fresh, cheerful, plays with pleasure, reads, draws and walks, and eats well at the appointed time, then everything is in order. Remember - first of all, sleep should satisfy the needs of the child, and not tables compiled by experts for "average" children.

Track how the child breathes in a dream - the norm is 20-30 breaths per minute in children under 3 years old, about 12-20 in adolescents. Moreover, breathing should be even, calm, without sobs and groans.

So if the child feels comfortable with the sleep pattern he has chosen, there is definitely no need to worry.

How important is sleep?

But this point should be studied more closely. Everyone knows about the importance of sleep, but few can unequivocally say what threatens chronic lack of sleep in childhood and adolescence.

To begin with, children who sleep less than 7-8 hours are usually in the worst physical shape. They get tired faster, are not able to withstand significant loads.

In addition, it affects the intellectual abilities. Memory, intellect, the ability to analyze the facts presented suffer. And the worst thing is that even if sleep is restored with age, and a person sleeps as much as necessary, missed opportunities will not be returned - if the potential inherent in the child is not revealed at the right time, then it will never be revealed.

Of course, lack of sleep and the nervous system are detrimental. Adults who slept little or poorly during childhoodbecome more fearful, insecure, more likely to become depressed, prone to stress.

So the importance of a child's sleep cannot be overestimated.

What affects the duration of sleep

As you noticed, one child needs 15 hours a day for he althy sleep, while his peers need 12-13 hours.

This is due to various factors. First of all - the fortress of sleep. After all, if you sleep in a dark room, in comfort and silence, you can sleep in less time than in a noisy room, which is relatively brightly lit, on an uncomfortable bed.

Heredity also plays a role. If 6-7 hours of sleep is enough for parents to feel great, you should expect that the child will approach these indicators over time.

Finally, lifestyle is very important. It is quite clear that a child who attends a couple of sports sections and spends a huge amount of energy will sleep longer (and, we note, more soundly - which has a positive effect on the nervous system) than his peer who spends the whole day at the computer.

What time to put the baby to bed

Another important question is how to choose the optimal sleep schedule. In infancy, a child often confuses day and night. He can oversleep all daylight hours and play or just mumble, look around all night long. But with age, he enters a certain schedule - it largely depends on the parents.

Experts believe that it is better for a child, like for any person, earlygo to bed and get up early. As practice shows, people who go to bed at 9 pm and wake up at 5-6 am are characterized by increased efficiency, do not get tired longer, and have an excellent memory. So if possible, try to adjust the child's schedule for this mode. Of course, for this, parents will have to change their usual way of life.

Signs of sleep deprivation

Be sure to check for signs of sleep deprivation.

The main one is increased tearfulness. A child who usually behaves perfectly begins to cry, get upset at every occasion.

You should also be wary if the child sometimes goes to bed 2-3 hours earlier than usual - the body tells him that sleep is clearly not enough.

Children aged 1 and older falling asleep and waking up crying are also a warning sign. They definitely need to sleep more, and parents should not only study the sleep norms of children after a year, but also provide a dark room, a comfortable bed and silence.

Do I need medication?

But here you can definitely say - no. The child is a tool with surprisingly flexible tuning. And any medicines, even those that, according to doctors, are harmless, can cause great harm to his he alth.

If a child is often upset and cries over trifles, he is sleepy, then just give him the opportunity to get enough sleep. Sometimes scandals in the family are the cause of lack of sleep - try to protectchildren from this scary side of adulthood.

A child sleeps less than peers, but at the same time feels great, is not inferior to friends in physical and intellectual development? This means that you should not worry at all - all processes in the body are going normally, and the son or daughter just sleeps as much as they need. Any attempts to correct the established schedule will only bring unnecessary problems.

Conclusion

Now you know the norms of sleep and wakefulness of a child up to a year and older. Therefore, you can easily calculate the optimal schedule, protect children from any he alth and developmental problems caused by chronic sleep deprivation.