![](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/sleep.jpg?w=620)
What time should children go to bed and how long should they sleep for depending on their age?
See the full breakdown of recommended bed times — from newborn babies to teens
See the full breakdown of recommended bed times — from newborn babies to teens
GETTING a good night's sleep is essential for a child's mental, physical, social and emotional development.
But bedtime can be a challenge for parents — here we examine how much sleep a child needs and when they should go to bed.
The question of what time children should go to sleep has more than one answer, and many parents take different approaches.
However, there is some consensus that a regular bedtime routine should be established when your babies are as young as four months old.
Child sleep consultants thesleepsisters.co.uk published their thoughts in a handy guide:
Another question parents may ask themselves is how many hours of sleep do their children need?
Children require a different amount of sleep depending on their age group.
Sleep.org has outlined this schedule for babies, all the way up to teenagers:
According to this sleep chart shared by people like teacher Stacy Karlsen, bedtimes should be based on your child's age, as well as how early they are getting up in the morning.
So for example, the chart suggests that children aged five should go to bed from 6.45pm to 8.15pm, depending on bedtime.
If your five-year-old will be getting up at 6.30am, they'll need to be going to sleep at 7.15pm.
But if they were up slightly later, at 7am, they'll be ready for bed at 7.30pm.
Whereas an eight-year-old getting up at 6.45am in the morning will be ready to go to sleep at 8.15pm.
But the same-aged child who woke later, at 7.30am, will be ready for bed at 9pm.
Kids aged 11 and 12 should be asleep anytime from 8.15pm to 9.45pm.
Co-founder of the Holistic Sleep Coaching Program, sleep expert Lyndsey Hookway says: “If a child is taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, consider whether the bedtime is unrealistically early."
The Sleep Foundation say: “Sleep plays a crucial role in the development of young minds”.
Sleep also has a “direct effect on happiness” for children, and research shows that sleep impacts cognitive performance, alertness and attention, mood, resilience, vocabulary learning, and memory.
Frequent naps are necessary for toddlers to support “memory consolidation, executive attention, and motor skill development”.
Quality and length of sleep also have an impact on physical growth, particularly in early infancy.
Lucy Askew, sleep expert at Hillarys, shared five tips to help kids get into a solid sleep routine, including banning technology at least an hour before bed to help them relax and fall into deep sleep.