The arrival of another school year means that it’s time for students to reset their bedtimes as the summer break comes to an end. To help identify the appropriate bedtime for children, teens, and adults, the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project has created an online Bedtime Calculator that is available at www.projecthealthysleep.org.
Project partners—including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Sleep Research Society (SRS)—developed the calculator as part of the “Make Time 2 Sleep” campaign to help families adopt routines that fit each individual’s unique lifestyle and sleep needs.
“Back-to-school time provides families with a perfect opportunity to re-evaluate their sleeping habits and establish healthy routines to ensure sufficient sleep,” says AASM president Ilene Rosen, MD, in a release. “No matter the age, children and adults report improved alertness, energy, mood, and physical well-being when enjoying healthy, consistent sleep.”
Personalized Bedtime Calculator
The online Bedtime Calculator allows schoolchildren, teens, and parents of young children to enter an age and wake time to identify an appropriate bedtime based on the sleep duration recommendations of the AASM:
- Infants 4 months to 12 months old: 12 to 16 hours (including naps)
- Children 1 to 2 years old: 11 to 14 hours (including naps)
- Children 3 to 5 years old: 10 to 13 hours (including naps)
- Children 6 to 12 years old: nine to 12 hours per night.
- Teenagers 13 to 18 years old: eight to 10 hours per night
Because everyone needs sufficient sleep, adults also can use the Bedtime Calculator to help them get the recommended 7 or more hours of nightly sleep.
