Ideal Bedtime: How to Decide What Time Your Child Goes to Bed

The battle between children and their parents over bedtime is eternal. And parents are ever struggling with it. Just when is a good time for bed for their kids? How much sleep is necessary? Does it matter when the kiddos lay down to sleep, or only how much sleep they eventually get? And naps play a role as well; too much napping will reduce the nighttime sleep, and even make it harder for the child to fall asleep come the night.

The medical community has standard recommendations for children’s sleep needs, and of course schedule pressures such as school and lifestyle commitments will play a role, but it’s ultimately on parents to make the final decision.

Some sources offer easy to interpret charts parents can utilize to settle on bed and nap times for their children. Indexed by age, the charts allow parents to simply reference that information to determine what the general recommendations are for both nap and bed sleep periods. By using some very simple math against the twenty-four hour clock that describes day and night, parents can determine when a good point in the day for naps would be, and when during the evening their children should be ushered off to the bedroom for dream time.