Recommended Sleep Duration Chart
Author: National Sleep Foundation
Published: 2015/02/02 - Updated: 2020/10/15
Topic: Medical Calculators and Charts - Publications List
Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main
Synopsis: Recommended daily sleep time chart for infants, preschoolers, school children, teenagers, adults and seniors. The National Sleep Foundation is providing these scientifically grounded guidelines on amount of sleep needed each night to improve sleep health of individuals and parents who rely on this information.
Introduction
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF), along with a multi-disciplinary expert panel, issued its new recommendations for appropriate sleep durations.
Main Item
The report recommends wider appropriate sleep ranges for most age groups. The results are published in Sleep Health: The Official Journal of the National Sleep Foundation. The National Sleep Foundation convened experts from sleep, anatomy and physiology, as well as pediatrics, neurology, gerontology and gynecology to reach a consensus from the broadest range of scientific disciplines.
The panel revised the recommended sleep ranges for all six children and teen age groups. A summary of the new recommendations includes: (See Full Chart Below)
- Newborns (0-3 months): Sleep range narrowed to 14-17 hours each day (previous 12-18)
- Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range widened two hours to 12-15 hours (previous 14-15)
- Toddlers (1-2 years): Sleep range widened by one hour to 11-14 hours (previous 12-14)
- Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range widened by one hour to 10-13 hours (previous 11-13)
- School age children (6-13): Sleep range widened by one hour to 9-11 hours (previous 10-11)
- Teenagers (14-17): Sleep range widened by one hour to 8-10 hours (previous 8.5 - 9.5)
- Younger adults (18-25): Sleep range is 7-9 hours (new age category)
- Adults (26-64): Did not change, remains 7-9 hours
- Older adults (65+): Sleep range is 7-8 hours (new age category)
| Recommended Sleep Duration Times | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | Recommended | Appropriate | Not Recommended |
| Newborns 0-3 mths | 14 - 17 hrs | 11 - 13 hrs 18 - 19 hrs |
Less than 11 hrs More than 19 hrs |
| Infants 4-11 mths | 12 - 15 hrs | 10 - 11 hrs 16 - 18 hrs |
Less than 10 hrs More than 18 hrs |
| Toddlers 1-2 yrs | 11 - 14 hrs | 9 - 10 hrs 15 - 16 hrs |
Less than 9 hrs More than 16 hrs |
| Preschoolers 3-5 yrs | 10 - 13 hrs | 8 - 9 hrs 14 hrs |
Less than 8 hrs More than 14 hrs |
| Children 6-13 yrs | 9 - 11 hrs | 7 - 8 hrs 12 hrs |
Less than 7 hrs More than 12 hrs |
| Teens 14-17 yrs | 8 - 10 hrs | 7 hrs 11 hrs |
Less than 7 hrs More than 11 hrs |
| Youth 18-25 yrs | 7 - 9 hrs | 6 hrs 10 - 11 hrs |
Less than 6 hrs More than 11 hrs |
| Adults 26-64 yrs | 7 - 9 hrs | 6 hrs 10 hrs |
Less than 6 hrs More than 10 hrs |
| Seniors 65 yrs | 7 - 8 hrs | 5 - 6 hrs 9 hrs |
Less than 5 hrs More than 9 hrs |
"This is the first time that any professional organization has developed age-specific recommended sleep durations based on a rigorous, systematic review of the world scientific literature relating sleep duration to health, performance and safety," said Charles A. Czeisler, PhD, MD, chairman of the board of the National Sleep Foundation, chief of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. "The National Sleep Foundation is providing these scientifically grounded guidelines on the amount of sleep we need each night to improve the sleep health of the millions of individuals and parents who rely on us for this information."
A new range, "may be appropriate," has been added to acknowledge the individual variability in appropriate sleep durations. The recommendations now define times as either;
- (a) recommended
- (b) may be appropriate for some individuals
- (c) not recommended
"The National Sleep Foundation Sleep Duration Recommendations will help individuals make sleep schedules that are within a healthy range. They also serve as a useful starting point for individuals to discuss their sleep with their health care providers," said David Cloud, CEO of the National Sleep Foundation.
The recommendations are the result of multiple rounds of consensus voting after a comprehensive review of published scientific studies on sleep and health. The expert panel included six sleep experts and experts from the following stakeholder organizations:
- American Association of Anatomists
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American College of Chest Physicians
- American Geriatrics Society
- American Neurological Association
- American Physiological Society
- American Psychiatric Association
- American Thoracic Society
- Gerontological Society of America
- Human Anatomy and Physiology Society
- Society for Research in Human Development
- American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
"The NSF has committed to regularly reviewing and providing scientifically rigorous recommendations," says Max Hirshkowitz, PhD, Chair of the National Sleep Foundation Scientific Advisory Council. "The public can be confident that these recommendations represent the best guidance for sleep duration and health."
Full results and methodology of the report: sleephealthjournal.org
Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by National Sleep Foundation and published on 2015/02/02, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity. For further details or clarifications, National Sleep Foundation can be contacted at sleepfoundation.org NOTE: Disabled World does not provide any warranties or endorsements related to this article.