How much sleep does a school-age child need?

What the evidence says

How much sleep a school-age child needs depends a bit on their exact age, but Canadian health guidelines give a clear target. For children aged 5 to 13, the recommendation is 9 to 11 hours of sleep every night. Once kids reach 14 to 17, that drops slightly to 8 to 10 hours a night.

These numbers come from the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, a national guideline developed by Canadian researchers and health organizations. It looks at sleep alongside physical activity and screen time, because all three affect a child's health together, not separately.

The guidelines also stress that consistency matters, not just the total number of hours. Going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time every day, including weekends, is part of healthy sleep, not just hitting a target number of hours.

Despite these clear targets, surveys show a lot of Canadian kids fall short. National data suggest about one in four children are not getting enough sleep, and this has been linked to more reported hyperactivity, stress, and poorer mental health in kids who sleep too little.

A related US expert group, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, gives a very similar but slightly wider range: 9 to 12 hours for ages 6 to 12. The small difference between countries is minor and both agree that most school-age kids need somewhere close to 9 to 11 hours nightly for their best health.