Sleep Cycle Calculator Kids’ bedtime calculator
Enter your child’s age and the time they need to wake up, and get a recommended bedtime range based on pediatric sleep guidelines.
7:45 PM – 10:00 PM
Kids this age generally need 9 to 12 hours of sleep. To be up by 7:00 AM, bedtime should fall in this window.
Recommended bedtimes if your child wakes at 7:00 AM
This is the single most common school-day wake-up time, so here is a quick-reference table for it. Use the calculator above if your child’s wake-up time is different.
| Age | Recommended sleep | Bedtime range (7 AM wake-up) |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 years | 11-14 hours | 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM |
| 3-5 years | 10-13 hours | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM |
| 6-12 years | 9-12 hours | 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM |
| 13-17 years | 8-10 hours | 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM |
Want the full age-by-age sleep chart? See sleep needs by age →
Why younger kids need an earlier, longer night
Sleep need drops steadily through childhood. A toddler’s brain and body are doing an enormous amount of growth and consolidation overnight, which is why a 2-year-old needs close to twice as much sleep as a teenager. As kids move through elementary school, bedtime can drift later and total sleep need edges down, but the drop is gradual, not sudden, so a 6-year-old still needs meaningfully more sleep than a 12-year-old. Working backward from a fixed, non-negotiable wake-up time (school start, an early practice) is usually the most reliable way to land on the right bedtime, rather than guessing forward from “lights out.”
Frequently asked questions
For a 7:00 AM wake-up, a 6 year old generally does best going to bed between 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM, since school-age kids (6 to 12 years) need about 9 to 12 hours of sleep. A 6 year old sits at the younger end of that bracket, so aiming for the earlier part of the window usually works better.
Preschoolers (3 to 5 years) need about 10 to 13 hours of sleep. For a typical 7:00 AM wake-up, that puts bedtime somewhere between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM, with most 4 year olds who still nap doing well closer to the earlier end.
A 10 year old is still in the school-age bracket (6 to 12 years, 9 to 12 hours). For a 7:00 AM wake-up, that means a bedtime between about 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM, usually toward the middle of that range rather than the very earliest edge.
Thirteen is the start of the teen bracket (13 to 17 years, 8 to 10 hours). For a 7:00 AM wake-up, that works out to a bedtime between roughly 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM. In practice, early school start times mean many teens fall short of this, which is worth keeping an eye on.
Both matter, but for most families the wake-up time is fixed (school, work schedules) while bedtime is the variable you can actually control. The most reliable approach is to pick the wake-up time first and count backward using your child’s age bracket, rather than setting an arbitrary bedtime and hoping it is enough.
Keeping bedtime and wake-up time within about an hour of each other, school nights and weekends alike, tends to produce better-rested kids than large swings. A big weekend shift can make Monday mornings noticeably harder, similar to mild jet lag.