Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine on the Recommended Amount of Sleep for Healthy Children: Methodology and Discussion.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Expert consensus statement developed via modified RAND Appropriateness Method
PubMed 27707447 · doi:10.5664/jcsm.6288
What was done
Members of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine developed consensus recommendations for sleep duration needed to promote optimal health in children and adolescents using a modified RAND Appropriateness Method following a review of 864 published articles.
What was found
The panel established the following recommended 24-hour sleep durations on a regular basis: infants 4 to 12 months, 12 to 16 hours (including naps); children 1 to 2 years, 11 to 14 hours (including naps); children 3 to 5 years, 10 to 13 hours (including naps); children 6 to 12 years, 9 to 12 hours; and teenagers 13 to 18 years, 8 to 10 hours. Recommended sleep durations were associated with improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health. Sleeping fewer than recommended hours was associated with attention, behavior, and learning problems, as well as increased risks of accidents, injuries, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, depression, and adolescent self-harm and suicidal behavior. The abstract reports no numerical risk metrics or effect sizes.
Why it matters
This consensus statement provides standardized, age-specific target sleep ranges widely used in pediatric clinical practice, public health guidelines, and developmental screening.
Limits
The recommendations represent expert consensus synthesis rather than an empirical trial or quantitative meta-analysis. No numerical effect sizes, statistical bounds, or risk ratios are provided in the abstract. Sleep duration recommendations were not developed for infants under 4 months of age.
Cited by
- supports There are no scientific studies indicating that children require less than 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night.