Български
How much sleep do my baby needs? This is a question that many parents ask, especially those who got their baby very recently. The truth is that there’s no exact number of sleep hours that should be relevant for all babies. Each child is different, let’s not forget that – some need more sleep, others like to stay awake longer and are not so fond of long hours of sleeping. Anyway, there are some limits that mark the healthy sleep hours for the children in different ages. The common principle is the following: as younger the child is, as many more sleep hours it needs. When growing up, the need of sleep starts to decrease.
For instance, the newborn babies still haven’t built their biological clock. They can’t make difference between day and night sleep time. Their sleep usually is guided by the periods when the baby eats and right after that it fall asleep. For sleep regime we can talk at least around the third month after the birth. This is when they already know when the night starts and they are able to relate this part of the day with longer sleep. The daily naps for the younger babies are happening more often and are quite long; with the bigger babies there are only one or maximum two daily naps – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. When the children get around one and a half year, their morning nap disappears and some children around 4-5 years old stop sleeping in the afternoon as well.
We present you a table that marks the healthy sleep hours for the children in different ages.
- Newborn 0-4 weeks – 15 to 17 sleep hours per 24-hours period; at least 3 daily naps
- Baby 1-4 months – 13-15 sleep hours per 24-hours period; 3 daily naps
- Baby 4-11 months – 12-15 sleep hours per 24-hours period; 2 (rarely 3) daily naps
- Child 1-3 years old – 11-14 sleep hours per 24-hours period; 1 (rarely 2) daily naps
- Child 3-6 years old – 10-13 sleep hours per 24-hours period; 1 daily nap
And we would like to remind you one more time that your child is unique and it’s sleep hours could be quite different compared to the sleep hours of your best friend’s baby.