Getting a good night’s sleep is vital to your health. Sleep becomes a major part of your life from the minute you are born. Your sleep patterns can affect your mood, your ability to complete everyday tasks, and your emotional health. Every living creature needs to sleep. The amount of sleep required each night in order to function properly changes from infancy to adulthood.  

• Newborns (1 – 2 months): The sleep-wake cycle for newborns is very irregular because of the need to be fed, changed and nurtured. Newborns typically sleep a total of 10 to 18 hours each day, spending only about one to three hours awake each sleep period. The sleep period can last from a few minutes to several hours. Sleep is very important for babies because it directly impacts mental and physical development.
  
  
• Infants (3 – 11 months): By the age of three to six months, an infant’s sleep-wake cycle starts to become regular. Infants are generally able to sleep through the night by the age of six months because nighttime feedings are usually not necessary. Infants typically sleep nine to 12 hours during the night and take 30 minute to two-hour naps, one to four times a day, although social and developmental issues can affect sleep at this age. According to Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, author of “Sleepless in America,” 40 percent of infants and toddlers nationwide are sleep-deprived.
  
  
• Toddlers (1 – 3 years): According to the National Sleep Foundation, by the age of two, most children have spent more time asleep than awake, spending approximately 40 percent of his or her childhood asleep. Toddlers require about 12 to 14 hours of sleep during a 24-hour period. When they reach about 18 months of age, naps are decreased to once a day, lasting from one to three hours. Because nightmares are very common in this stage, sleep is often interrupted.
  
  
• Preschoolers (3 – 5 years): Preschool-aged children typically need about 11 to 13 hours of sleep each night. Most do not nap after the age of five. Like toddlers, many children this age experience nightmares and difficulties falling asleep. Not to mention, sleepwalking and night terrors peak during the preschool years. According to Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, author of “Sleepless in America,” preschoolers sleeping less than 10 hours a day are 86 percent more likely to have accidents that require emergency-room treatment.
  
  
• School-aged Children (5 – 12 years): School-aged children require approximately 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night. Because of an increasing demand on their time from school, extracurricular and social activities – not to mention an increased interest in TV, video games and caffeine products – these children may have difficulty falling asleep, as well as sleep disruptions during the night. According to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation, 60 percent of school-aged children said they felt fatigued during the day. Sleep problems and disorders become prevalent at this age.
  
  
• Teens (13 – 18 years): Teens require at least eight hours of sleep each night. According to TeensHealth, during the teen years, the body’s circadian rhythm (an internal “clock” regulated by light and temperature) is reset. This change is the reason why many teens stay up late at night, and sleep in late in the morning. The change may be due to the fact that melatonin (a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle), is produced later at night in teens than it is for kids and adults, making it harder for teens to fall asleep early.
  
  
• Adults (18+ years): Adults require seven to nine hours of sleep each night, yet according to a survey by the National Sleep foundation, many are getting less than seven hours. Adults spend less time in deeper sleep than younger people, and by age 65 many adults experience a significant decrease in the proportion of time spend in delta sleep (the deepest sleep). Although older adults spend less time in deep sleep, average total sleep time increases slightly after age 65. However reports of difficulty falling asleep coincide with the increase in sleep time. As you age, sleep becomes shallower and fragmented – a reason why the elderly wake more frequently than younger adults.

Sources: National Sleep Foundation, Better Sleep Council, TeensHealth, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, M.A., Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep? (2006), HarperCollins Publishers.