If a child is struggling to breathe, is floppy or will not wake, or their skin, lips or tongue look blue or grey: call 999 now. Colour changes are harder to see on brown and black skin, so check the palms, soles, lips and tongue. If you are worried but it is not an emergency, call NHS 111. In Northern Ireland use your GP out-of-hours service.

MarionSleep help for families

How much sleep, by age

The hours children need, and how to tell yours is getting enough.

The short version

  • If your baby is growing, alert and happy when awake, they are getting enough sleep.
  • The range is the point, not the middle: a child at the bottom of a range and a child at the top are both normal.
  • NHS hours are totals across 24 hours, naps included, and the bands for different ages overlap heavily.
  • Night-waking ranges start at zero and run high, and everything between is ordinary.
  • Tell your health visitor or GP if your child's daytime wellbeing suffers, their breathing in sleep worries you, sleep changed suddenly, or exhaustion affects you.

The rest of this page explains where this comes from. You do not have to read it tonight.

About 3 minutes to read

How much sleep, by age

Here is the NHS guide to total sleep in 24 hours, naps included. One thing matters more than the numbers: the range is the point, not the middle of it. A child at the bottom of a range and a child at the top are both normal. There is no target.

NHS guide to total sleep in 24 hours, including daytime naps. Both ends of each range are normal.
AgeTotal sleep in 24 hours
0 to 4 months8 to 18 hours
4 to 12 months12 to 16 hours
1 to 2 years11 to 14 hours
3 to 5 years10 to 13 hours
6 to 12 years9 to 12 hours
13 to 18 years8 to 10 hours
Normal sleep ranges by age, drawn as overlapping bars Six horizontal bars showing the NHS range of total sleep in 24 hours for each age band. Nought to four months spans eight to eighteen hours, four to twelve months spans twelve to sixteen hours, one to two years spans eleven to fourteen hours, three to five years spans ten to thirteen hours, six to twelve years spans nine to twelve hours, and thirteen to eighteen years spans eight to ten hours. The bars are wide and overlap each other heavily, showing that a single child's normal amount of sleep cannot be read off from their age alone. Every bar below is a normal range. Both ends of it are normal. 0 to 4 months 4 to 12 months 1 to 2 years 3 to 5 years 6 to 12 years 13 to 18 years 8 to 18 hours 12 to 16 11 to 14 10 to 13 9 to 12 8 to 10 8h 10h 12h 14h 16h 18h Total sleep in 24 hours, naps included
The same NHS figures drawn to scale. Each bar is wide and they overlap heavily: a ten-week-old sleeping nine hours and one sleeping seventeen hours are both normal, and a one-year-old, a four-year-old and an eight-year-old can all sleep the same amount. Age tells you less about an individual child than people assume.

The research agrees. Galland and colleagues pooled 34 studies of children aged 0 to 12 in a 2012 systematic review. Babies averaged 12.8 hours in 24, range 9.7 to 15.9. Toddlers and preschoolers averaged 11.9 hours, range 9.9 to 13.8. School-age children averaged 9.2 hours, range 7.6 to 10.8. The averages get quoted; the ranges rarely do.

The same review measured night wakings: 0 to 3.4 a night at 0 to 2 months, 0 to 2.5 a night at one to two years. The bottom of every range is zero, the top is high, and everything between is ordinary.

How to tell they are getting enough

You do not need a chart or an app. The NHS gives one simple test:

"If your baby is growing, alert and happy when they are awake then you can be assured that your baby is getting enough sleep."

Growing, alert when awake, content much of the time. That is the measure, not the hours, not the wakings, and not what anyone else's baby is doing. As the NHS says elsewhere, every baby is different, so try not to compare yours with others.

When it is worth mentioning to someone

Normal does not mean coping with it silently. Talk to your health visitor or GP if your child's sleep is affecting their daytime wellbeing, if their breathing during sleep worries you (pauses, gasping or heavy snoring), if sleep changed suddenly, or if the exhaustion is affecting your own health or mood. That last one counts on its own, for any parent, including fathers and non-birthing partners, and including if you are doing the nights alone. See when to get help.

If you came here hoping to be told your child is normal: on the evidence above, almost certainly, yes. If you would still like to change how nights go, that is a legitimate choice too. The options are on ways to help a child sleep.

Where this comes from

Last checked 1 August 2026. This page is general information, not medical advice. If you are worried about your child, speak to your health visitor or GP.