little girl sleeping

Image courtesy of pixabay.com

If you’re in your 40s, you should be sleeping between seven and nine hours every night, but the chances are fairly good that you don’t. How much sleep we need so we function at the top of our game varies by age. Obviously, a toddler needs more sleep than his 30-something parents. But how much more? The National Sleep Foundation tapped the wisdom of six sleep experts, as well as 12 experts from several medical associations, including the American Neurological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Physiological Society, to update its guidelines on how much sleep we need based on our age. This is how much sleep we need by age:

Newborn (0-3 months): 14-17 hours (previously: 12-18 hours)
Infant (4-11 months): 12-15 hours (previously: 14-15 hours)
Toddler (1-2 years): 11-14 hours (previously: 12-14 hours)
Preschool (3-5 years): 10-13 hours (previously: 11-13 hours)
School age (6-13 years): 9-11 hours (previously: 10-11 hours)
Teen (14-17 years): 8-10 hours (previously: 8.5-9.5 hours)
Young adult (18-25 years): 7-9 hours (new category)
Adult (26-64 years): 7-9 hours (no change)
Older adult (65+ years): 7-8 hours (new category)