It remains a recurring question:How much sleep does a child need † Of course this varies per child, but there is certainly a common denominator when it comes to the amount of sleep a child needs per night. Furthermore, there are plenty of statements on the internet about the hours of sleep that your child should get per night, but research has also been done into too much sleep per night. We'll list everything for you!
Table of contents
We previously wrote an article about the best bedtimes for children and adults, but that didn't really address the amount of sleep you need as a child and how you can promote good sleep in your children (and yourself). Because you can say that they have to go to bed at a certain time, but that does not mean that they also sleep well (and well). So do not only pay attention to the bedtimes, but also to the tips below to help your child sleep better, such as the type of duvets, fresh air and the like.
Good sleep is in any case important to give your child a good start the next day. He or she must be able to start the day well rested in the morning to be able to properly process the new impressions.
The above statements about how much sleep a child needs, you come across a lot on the internet. All with roughly the same basics. One of the principles is that a 6 year old child goes to bed at 7pm goes and that 15 minutes to 20 minutes are added every year † If you calculate that, at 12 years old you should be in bed by 8.30 pm.
But for a child who is going to secondary school, being in bed at 8.30 pm may be a bit early. Although it is of course true that children of this age need enough sleep to perform well. And don't forget that the first year of secondary school - especially in the beginning - is quite a difficult period for your child.
In other states you also come across that a child of 11 should go to bed around 9 pm, which sounds like a great time to me. However, research also shows that too much sleep is also not good for a child. Children between the ages of 10 and 12 perform best if they sleep between 9 and 9.5 hours per night obtained, according to this study. Between the ages of 12 and 16, they have 8 to 8.5 hours sufficient and above (16 to 18 years) provides 7 hours of sleep apparently the best results.
If you calculate back with the above rule, then a 12-year-old child who gets up at 7:30 AM would not have to go to bed until around 10 PM in the evening to get enough sleep. So that is 1.5 hours later than in the normal states.
Looking at the maxim that an adult needs about 8 hours of sleep per night, it appears that children between the ages of 16 and 18 perform better with an hour less sleep. No wonder that adolescents like to go to bed later than their parents 😉 .
Bottomline:sleep differs per child and per person , find out what works best for you.
To really know how many hours of sleep you need and what is best for your child, it is smart to test. Just experiment with how your child reacts and behaves when he or she goes to bed at a set time for a week (or two). Is your child still happy when getting up in the morning † Is there still good performance at school † Doesn't your child yawn all day long † Is your child not quick to step on their toes or moody while playing with other children † Then it could just be that you have found the right time for your child to go to bed.
Tip:clearly agree in advance that you will try to test together how much sleep your child needs. And that you can also reduce the agreed bedtime if it turns out that this doesn't work.
As a result of changes in their lives, such as the transition to a new school, your child may (temporarily) need more sleep than before. That's not weird at all. Try to find a mode together so that your child still gets enough sleep in these situations (or especially in these situations).
A good sleep schedule is essential for children and adults. Sleeping well is just as important as going to bed on time. With these tips you can be sure that your children not only get to bed on time, but that they also get as much sleep as they need:
One of the questions we regularly struggled with in the past is how much sleep our children need. We live quite late ourselves, so we don't usually eat at 5 pm. We're lucky if we sit at the table at 6:00 PM, but usually it's even later.
That also means that the evening starts 'late', but on the other hand, the day is long. The children can still play nicely after school and we only start the evening ritual after 19.00, when we have finished eating.
With a daughter of 7 and a son of 11, those times are still manageable, although my daughter only goes to bed between 19.30 and 20.00, which is perhaps a bit late for her age. Especially if you look at the standard 'bed rule'. Yet she doesn't seem to be bothered by this at all and usually gets up with a sunny mood. From that I conclude that this bedtime suits her perfectly (see also the test tips above).
My son usually went to bed at 9 pm, but at one point he 'trumped' us that he could go to bed at 9:30 pm. Still, I doubt very much whether that is not too late for an 11-year-old child and whether he is getting the sleep he needs.
Since we now have more escalations at home, the question arises whether these are the result of sleeping problems and a structural lack of sleep. Could my son be more irritated and angry because of too little sleep? Or is it just the period in his life he's going through right now? Of course he can have his puberty just like any other child. But if this is because we give him too many freedoms or just don't make smart choices, then that is also useful background information.
Testing the amount of sleep for adolescents is therefore not always easy, since their hormones may have more to do with their mood than the amount of sleep or possibly sleep deprivation. In addition, an adolescent is not often open to reason, especially if you turn down his bedtime again.
We had agreed that he would go to bed again at 21.00 to see if he gets the amount of sleep he needs. But you can already feel it coming:that doesn't help. It even seems to backfire rather because he feels punished. Questions such as 'why do you always have to care about other people' to 'I always get punished from you, why?' are discussed here on a daily basis. We don't feel this way ourselves, but I understand that this is a thing for him.
The only question is… how do we deal with this? What's smart to do? But back to 21.30 on his 11th year? How much sleep do you think a child needs at that age? We have chosen to go back to 21.30 anyway. Funnily enough, at age 13, he still went to bed at 9:30 PM. Without grumbling. Although it was also regularly 10 pm because he only took a shower at 9:30 pm, for example. The adolescent is now 15 and goes to bed (or shower) at 10 pm. So you see that in recent years not much has changed in how much sleep our child needs.
It is clear, however, that he is now well-rested at breakfast. So that bedtime… it's a mustache.
