How much sleep does a teenager need?
Teenagers, 13 to 18 years need
8 to 10 hours a night
A range, from a consensus statement
Adolescent circadian timing shifts later by one to three hours at puberty, which is a biological change and not a behavioural one. A teenager who cannot fall asleep at 10 pm is usually not being difficult, and an early school start subtracts from the wrong end of the night.
What the recommendation is and is not
The figure comes from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's pediatric consensus statement, which was arrived at by a panel reviewing the published evidence on sleep duration and health outcomes rather than by measuring what children actually sleep. It is a range within which outcomes are good, not a prescription, and a child consistently at either end of it is not doing anything wrong.
Every age band
| Age | Per day | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Babies, 4 to 12 months | 12 to 16 hours | Including daytime naps |
| Toddlers, 1 to 2 years | 11 to 14 hours | Including daytime naps |
| Preschoolers, 3 to 5 years | 10 to 13 hours | Including daytime naps |
| Children, 6 to 12 years | 9 to 12 hours | Night sleep |
| Teenagers, 13 to 18 years | 8 to 10 hours | Night sleep |
| Adults, 18 and over | 7 or more hours | Night sleep |
Working out a bedtime from it
| Wake at | Asleep by, for 8 hours | In bed by |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 am | 10:00 pm | 9:45 pm |
| 6:30 am | 10:30 pm | 10:15 pm |
| 7:00 am | 11:00 pm | 10:45 pm |
| 7:30 am | 11:30 pm | 11:15 pm |
| 8:00 am | 12:00 am | 11:45 pm |
Common questions
- How much sleep does a teenager need?
- 8 to 10 hours per day. Adolescent circadian timing shifts later by one to three hours at puberty, which is a biological change and not a behavioural one. A teenager who cannot fall asleep at 10 pm is usually not being difficult, and an early school start subtracts from the wrong end of the night.
- Where does that figure come from?
- The American Academy of Sleep Medicine pediatric consensus statement, published in 2016 after a panel review of the evidence linking sleep duration to health outcomes.
Related pages
- How much sleep does a baby need? 12 to 16 hours
- How much sleep does a toddler need? 11 to 14 hours
- How much sleep does a preschooler need? 10 to 13 hours
- How much sleep does a child of primary-school age need? 9 to 12 hours
- How much sleep does an adult need? 7 or more hours
- What a sleep cycle actually is Stages, lengths and the 90-minute average
Sources
- Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations: A Consensus Statement — Paruthi et al., Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine 12(6), 2016