NORMAL SLEEP PATTERNS: TODDLERS AND PRESCHOOLERS
Toddlers
By the time children are 1-2 years of age, their sleep patterns tend to be geared to household routines. Most will be awake for lengthy periods during the day, and have a nap in the afternoon, though some may still need two naps a day. Sometimes they will be very tired and not relaxed enough to go to sleep. Some will have fears and phobias which affect sleep patterns, and many will not have learnt adequately how to get themselves off to sleep because of inconsistent parental handling of sleep problems, which are exceedingly common at this age. Parents who always stay with their child until he is asleep will inadvertently teach him to always require a parental presence to fall asleep — he may end up not being able to fall asleep on his own.
Children of this age sleep on average between 10 and 12 hours a night, and some will only nap occasionally, depending on family routine, attendance at daycare or kindergarten, and their individual temperament characteristics.
Most school age children will sleep between 8 and 12 hours, with great individual variation, and by the time they reach adolescence their sleep requirement will have reduced further to between 7 and 10 hours per night. Sleep patterns are often erratic in later childhood, especially in adolescence, when staying up late is often the norm, and actual times of sleep fluctuate wildly between schooldays and weekends or holidays. Children of this age begin to establish their own sleep patterns based on their particular temperament and lifestyle, and become increasingly independent of family routines or preferences.
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