Is your child getting enough sleep?

We receive more questions about sleep than almost any other subject here at Raisingkids.co.uk. Parents want to know whether their child is sleeping enough or too much. Often they wonder whether they themselves will ever sleep properly again (the answer - not until the kids leave home!).

While no baby, toddler or even teenager for that matter is the same, it's nevertheless helpful to have a rough idea of what sort of hours the average child sleeps.

The first of our two charts below indicates the amount of daytime and night time sleep that babies and toddlers should have. It's worth noting that there's a great deal of flexibility when it comes to daytime napping - particularly in relation to children aged two and over.

This second chart may prove surprising to anyone who's the parent of a teenager. Contrary to what you might think, rather than spending the best part of every day huddled under their duvet, by 15, teenagers are almost at the adult norm of needing just 8.25 hours sleep a night.

Related articles:

• Can babies sleep too much?
• Getting a 20-wk-old baby to sleep through the night
• Why can't my 10-yr-old sleep?
• What's the best bedtime for a 12-year-old?