Below are some general guidelines as to how many hours of sleep the average child requires at various ages. But remember that every child is different and hence some need more or less sleep than others.

       
Most children need lots of sleep. Often if a child has poor sleep habits or refuses to go to bed before 11 at night, his parents think that he just doesn't need a lot of sleep. But that's probably not true. In fact, it's likely that such a child is actually sleep-deprived. To see whether your child falls into that camp, ask yourself these questions:
 

• Does your child fall asleep almost every time he's in a car?

• Do you have to wake your child almost every morning?

• Does your child seem cranky, irritable, or overtired during the day?

• On some nights, does your child seem to crash much earlier than his usual bedtime?

If your answer is "Yes" to any of these, your child may be getting less sleep than he needs. To change this pattern, you'll need to help him develop good sleep habits and set an appropriate bedtime. Then he'll get all the sleep he needs to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

As he gets older, your child will probably stop napping and start doing all of his sleeping at night. Preschoolers and young elementary school students still need up to 10 or 11 hours of sleep a night, but that amount will gradually decrease. By the time he's a teenager, your child will need only about nine or 10 hours of shut-eye per night.