TIME TABLE FOR BABY TO SLEEP (NIGHT & DAYTIME)
As a new parent, that's probably one of your biggest
questions.
Below are some general guidelines as to how many hours of sleep the
average child requires at various ages. Of course, every child is
different — some need up to two hours more or less sleep than others.
| Age |
Nighttime
Sleep |
Daytime
Sleep * |
Total
Sleep |
| 1 month |
8 1/2 |
7 (3) |
15 1/2 |
| 3 months |
10 |
5 (3) |
15 |
| 6 months |
11 |
3 1/4 (2) |
14 1/4 |
| 9 months |
11 |
3 (2) |
14 |
| 12 months |
11 1/4 |
2 1/2 (2) |
13 3/4 |
| 18 months |
11 1/4 |
2 1/4 (1) |
13 1/2 |
| 2 years |
11 |
2 (1) |
13 |
| 3 years |
10 1/2 |
1 1/2 (1) |
12 |
| * number of
naps in parentheses |
Keep in mind that most children need lots of sleep. Often, says
BabyCenter sleep expert
Jodi Mindell,
author of
Sleeping Through the Night,
if a child has poor sleep habits or refuses to go to bed before 11 at
night, his parents will think that he just doesn't need a lot of sleep.
That's probably not true — in fact, it's likely that such a child is
actually sleep-deprived. To see whether your child falls into that
camp, ask yourself these questions:
• Does your child fall asleep almost every time he's in a car?
• Do you have to wake your child almost every morning?
• Does your child seem cranky, irritable, or overtired during the day?
• On some nights, does your child seem to crash much earlier than his
usual bedtime?
If
you answered "yes" to any of these, your child may be getting less
sleep than he needs. To change this pattern, you'll need to help him
develop good sleep habits and set an appropriate bedtime. "Then he'll
get all the sleep he needs to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," Mindell
says.
As
he gets older, your child will probably stop napping and start doing
all of his sleeping at night. Preschoolers and young elementary school
students still need up to 10 or 11 hours of sleep a night, but that
amount will gradually decrease. By the time he's a teenager, your child
will need only about nine or 10 hours of shut-eye per night.
(by babycenter.com -
BABY.TopResource.NET Reference) HOME ARCHIVES
