How Much Sleep Do Toddlers Need?

As your child passes their first birthday, sleep continues to be the primary brain activity. By 2 years of age, the average child has spent 9,500 hours—or about about 13 months—of their life asleep versus 8,000 hours awake. Between 2 and 5 years of age, the amounts of sleep and awake time become about the same.

How much sleep do toddlers really need?

How much sleep do kids need? From 1 to 5 years old, kids should sleep 12 to 14 hours a day, including naps and nights. You can expect your 2-year-old to nap about 2 hours a day and your 3-year-old to nap 1 hour a day.

Toddler Sleep: Sample 2-Year-Old Sleep Schedule

Toddler Sleep: Sample 4-Year-Old Sleep Schedule

In a worrying trend, toddler sleep has dropped by 3 to 40 minutes per night over recent years. It appears that morning wake time has stayed the same, but bedtime has shifted later and later. Most toddlers wake around 7:30am and go to bed around 9pm—give or take 30 minutes.

According to a Sleep in America poll, almost half of toddlers and one-third of preschoolers call out for help some nights (5 to 10% do it more than once a night). Most parents (about 60%) return to the bedroom to give reassurance…usually staying 15 minutes until their little sweetie is back asleep. And it usually takes parents at least another 15 minutes to turn off their minds and fall back to sleep.

Night waking may be caused by the problems you've wrestled with before, like teething, growth spurts, or your child's dependency on "hands on" sleep cues like rocking or nursing.

But new sleep struggles can emerge for your toddler. Their busy minds can become infested with worries and fears or their sleep may be jolted by night terrors or sleep apnea, or even pinworms.

For more help with toddler sleep, consider SNOObie—an all-in-one white noise machine, nightlight, and OK-to-wake sleep trainer. Learn more about SNOObie!

Disclaimer: The information on our site is NOT medical advice for any specific person or condition. It is only meant as general information. If you have any medical questions and concerns about your child or yourself, please contact your health provider.