We know sleep is important, and when you’re a new parent, sleep becomes a depleted resource that we wish we hadn’t taken for granted in our pre-kid days.
While it’s important for parents to get their sleep, it’s even more vital that our kids get enough sleep.

When children are young, naps are an important part of their daily routine (and a much needed break for the parent), but many of us aren’t always aware how much sleep our kids need.

The need for sleep and naps gradually reduces as our child grows. The NHS in the UK has put together a guide that parents can use as a reference to work out how much sleep their child should be getting for their age.

Maryanne Taylor from The Sleep Works told The Huffington Post UK, “A general average is helpful for parents to get a general idea of sleep needs for their child’s age but they should consider this as a ball-park than an exact number of hours and assess based on their child.

“For the first week, babies sleep around 16-18 hours in total, with around half during the night and half during the day.

“In the early weeks, the length of the nap is less relevant, but focus is more on trying to avoid the baby getting overtired.

“Short naps of 30-40 minutes are common, but regularity of these naps are more important.”

There is a lot of information on the internet and social media about how much sleep a child should be getting which can overwhelm parents which forces them to reinforce routines that may not work for the child.

“Every baby is different in their sleep needs and there is a lot of pressure on parents these days to ensure their baby fits a certain ‘mould’,” she said.

“Some babies and children show clear sleep cues when they are tired – rubbing their eyes, yawning, pulling their ears, not making eye contact, whinging, or losing interest in what they are doing.

“Another signal that a parent may have missed a sleep window is difficulty getting their child to sleep.

“If a child is crying a lot when trying to settle them, then this is potentially down to over-tiredness.”

Here are the recommended hours of nap and night time sleep children require for their age.

1 week
•daytime: 8 hours
•night time: 8 hours, 30 minutes

4 weeks
•daytime: 6 to 7 hours
•night time: 8 to 9 hours

3 months
•daytime: 4 to 5 hours
•night time: 10 to 11 hours

6 months
•daytime: 3 hours
•night time: 11 hours

9 months
•daytime: 2 hours, 30 minutes
•night time: 11 hours

12 months
•daytime: 2 hours, 30 minutes
•night time: 11 hours

2 years
•daytime: 1 hour, 30 minutes
•night time: 11 hours, 30 minutes

3 years
•daytime: 0 to 45 minutes
•night time: 11 hours, 30 minutes to 12 hours

4 years
•night time: 11 hours, 30 minutes

5 years
•night time: 11 hours

6 years
•night time: 10 hours, 45 minutes

7 years
•night time: 10 hours, 30 minutes

8 years
•night time: 10 hours, 15 minutes

9 years
•night time: 10 hours

10 years
•night time: 9 hours, 45 minutes

11 years
•night time: 9 hours, 30 minutes

12 years
•night time: 9 hours, 15 minutes

13 years
•night time: 9 hours, 15 minutes

14 years
•night time: 9 hours

15 years
•night time: 9 hours

16 years
•night time: 9 hours

Do you kids get this amount of sleep for their age?