As a new parent, you’re bound to wonder if your baby is getting enough sleep.
I find this to be a very common worry amongst parents and it’s often one of the main reasons they get in touch. It’s an understandable thing to worry about, especially since we know that sleep depravation can have so many negative consequences.
However I often find this worry comes from us. We seem to expect our babies to sleep more that they do because their sleep might not be convenient for us. Or we are comparing our baby’s sleep to another baby. And worst of all we are consulting Dr Google and getting confused by all the information.
The truth is – children have different sleep needs. Some have high sleep needs and sleep more, others have low sleep needs and need less sleep, and majority are somewhere in between.
How much sleep each individual baby gets will therefore vary. Bellow guide will give you a general idea about sleep requirements of infants, babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
The above table shows total recommended sleep per age group (source: The National Sleep Foundation).
You can see that the range is huge and there could be a few hours difference in total sleep for babies the same age. You will also find that some babies don’t fit this chart. And that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a sleep problem.
It’s important to remember that every baby is different, and your little one may need more or less sleep than suggested above. This are recommendations and there’s always some wiggle room on either side of the range.
If your baby is happy and content, if he’s developing normally, wants to play and interact, he is most likely getting enough sleep.