The amount of sleep you need changes significantly across your lifetime, from roughly 16 hours a day as a newborn to at least 7 hours as an adult. These aren’t rough guesses. They come from guidelines developed by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC. Here’s what each age group needs, why the numbers shift, and how to tell if you or your child isn’t getting enough.
Newborns: 0 to 3 Months
Newborns need 14 to 17 hours of sleep per day, but that sleep looks nothing like adult sleep. It comes in short bursts of two to four hours, scattered around the clock, because a newborn’s internal clock hasn’t developed yet. About half of a newborn’s sleep is spent in REM (the dreaming stage), compared to roughly 20 to 25 percent in adults. That high proportion of REM sleep plays a critical role in the rapid brain development happening in the first months of life.
There’s no real distinction between “nighttime sleep” and “daytime sleep” at this stage. Newborns wake frequently to feed, and their sleep-wake pattern is driven almost entirely by hunger rather than light or darkness. Most babies don’t begin consolidating sleep into longer nighttime stretches until around 3 to 4 months.
Infants: 4 to 12 Months
Infants need 12 to 16 hours of total sleep per day, including naps. By around 6 months, many babies are capable of sleeping a longer stretch at night, typically 6 to 8 hours, though frequent waking is still normal. Most infants this age take two to three naps during the day, gradually shifting toward two naps by the end of the first year.
Toddlers: 1 to 2 Years
Toddlers need 11 to 14 hours per day, including naps. Somewhere between 18 and 24 months, most children transition from two daily naps to one. That single nap typically lasts one to two hours and remains a key part of their total sleep until at least age 3.
Sleep deprivation in toddlers often doesn’t look like tiredness. Instead, it shows up as hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and poor mood regulation. A toddler who seems wired and unable to sit still may actually be overtired, not full of energy.
Preschoolers: 3 to 5 Years
Children in this range need 10 to 13 hours per day, including any naps. Napping starts to fade during these years, but the timeline varies widely. About 60 percent of 4-year-olds still nap, dropping to 30 percent by age 5 and less than 10 percent by age 6. If your child resists a nap but becomes irritable or falls asleep on short car rides, they likely still need one.
School-Age Children: 6 to 12 Years
Children ages 6 to 12 need 9 to 12 hours per night. Most have dropped naps entirely by this point, so all of that sleep needs to happen overnight. Signs of insufficient sleep in school-age kids include trouble paying attention, low energy, falling asleep at school, and difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. These symptoms are easy to mistake for laziness or behavioral issues when the real problem is a bedtime that’s too late.
Teenagers: 13 to 17 Years
Teens need 8 to 10 hours per night, but biology makes this surprisingly hard to achieve. During puberty, the body’s internal clock shifts later. The onset of melatonin secretion, the hormone that signals sleepiness, gets pushed back, making it genuinely difficult for teenagers to feel tired before 10:30 or 11 p.m. This isn’t stubbornness or screen addiction (though screens make it worse). It’s a measurable change in circadian rhythm driven by pubertal development.
The problem is that school start times don’t shift along with the teenager’s biology. The mismatch between when a teen’s body wants to sleep and when they need to wake up for school creates a pattern of chronic sleep debt during the week. Many teens then compensate by sleeping in heavily on weekends, sometimes until noon or later. That pattern of weekday deprivation and weekend recovery is itself a sign that a teenager isn’t getting adequate sleep on school nights.
Adults: 18 to 64 Years
Adults need at least 7 hours of sleep per night. The CDC and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine both set this as the minimum for healthy adults ages 18 to 60, with the general recommendation landing between 7 and 9 hours. Some people genuinely function well at 7 hours, while others need closer to 9, but very few adults can consistently sleep less than 7 hours without consequences.
The health risks of short sleep are well documented. Sleeping fewer than 7 hours per night is associated with increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and depression. The metabolic effects are particularly notable: short sleep increases insulin resistance and promotes weight gain, which then feed into cardiovascular problems over time. Beyond chronic disease, insufficient sleep impairs reaction time and decision-making, raising the risk of car accidents, workplace injuries, and errors on the job.
On the other side, adults who consistently sleep 7 hours or more are less likely to smoke, more likely to be physically active, and less likely to be obese. Sleep doesn’t just prevent harm. It supports the behaviors that keep you healthy in other areas of life.
Older Adults: 65 and Up
Adults over 65 still need 7 to 8 hours of sleep, but the structure of that sleep changes in ways that can be frustrating. The deepest stages of non-REM sleep, the restorative phases that help with tissue repair and immune function, are frequently reduced or absent in older adults. REM sleep tends to be preserved, but overall sleep becomes more fragmented, with more frequent nighttime awakenings.
This fragmentation means an older adult might spend 8 hours in bed but only get 6 hours of actual sleep. Many compensate by napping during the day, which can further disrupt nighttime sleep. The result is a sleep-wake cycle that looks scattered: lighter, more interrupted sleep at night with periods of drowsiness during the day. This is a normal shift in sleep architecture, not a sign that older adults need less sleep. The need stays roughly the same. The ability to get it in one consolidated block is what changes.
Quick Reference by Age
- Newborns (0 to 3 months): 14 to 17 hours
- Infants (4 to 12 months): 12 to 16 hours (including naps)
- Toddlers (1 to 2 years): 11 to 14 hours (including naps)
- Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): 10 to 13 hours (including naps)
- School-age (6 to 12 years): 9 to 12 hours
- Teenagers (13 to 17 years): 8 to 10 hours
- Adults (18 to 64 years): 7 to 9 hours
- Older adults (65+): 7 to 8 hours
How to Tell You’re Not Getting Enough
In children, sleep deprivation often looks like a behavior problem rather than a sleep problem. Hyperactivity, impulsiveness, moodiness, and trouble paying attention are common signs. A child who naps past the age of 5 or 6, or who falls asleep within minutes of getting in a car, is likely not sleeping enough at night.
In adults, the signs are more straightforward but easy to normalize: needing an alarm to wake up every morning, relying on caffeine to function before noon, feeling foggy or irritable by midafternoon, or falling asleep almost instantly when you lie down. Falling asleep within five minutes of hitting the pillow might feel like a superpower, but it’s actually a reliable indicator of sleep deprivation. A well-rested person typically takes 10 to 20 minutes to drift off.
If you consistently sleep within the recommended range for your age and still feel exhausted, the issue may be sleep quality rather than quantity. Frequent awakenings, breathing interruptions, or restless legs can all undermine even a full night in bed.