The Ideal Sleep Schedule: One Pattern Doesn't Fit All

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Medically Reviewed On: June 24, 2004

If you're a parent who thinks that dragging your teenager out of bed at 8:30 on a Saturday morning is good for them, think again. Research shows that our biological clock shifts throughout life, resulting in different sleep patterns at different stages of life. Due to forces beyond their control, teenagers aren't usually ready for bed until the wee hours of the morning, which means they need to sleep in the next day to get the rest they need.

It turns out babies, teenagers, adults and older adults each have their own ideal sleep schedule, not all of which fit the clock the world runs by. Below, Sonia Ancoli-Israel, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, discusses how our sleep patterns evolve over time, and what you can do to sleep better.

What is the common sleep pattern for infants?
Infants have a sleep pattern that's very unique to them and the stages of sleep are different than what we see in adults. They need to sleep about 10 to 12 hours throughout the 24 hours. Most infants nap around four or five times throughout the day, and their sleep is disrupted at night because they need to get up, primarily to eat.


As they grow into little boys and girls, the sleep pattern changes. The number of naps will decrease throughout those early years. By around age 3, children will be taking maybe only two naps. By age 5, they've stopped their napping. But they still need about 10 hours of sleep at night.

What is the natural sleeping pattern for teenagers?
Adolescents still need about 10 hours of sleep at night. I don't know too many teenagers who get that amount of sleep, but that's what they need to feel refreshed and to be able to really function and be alert throughout the day.

The other thing that happens to adolescents is that the timing of their sleep changes. Their circadian rhythms, or the biological clock, shifts. While most children go to bed around 9 pm at night, teenagers don't get sleepy until maybe 1 to 2 in the morning. They still need their 10 or 11 hours of sleep, which now means they're not going to wake up until maybe 10 or 11 in the morning.

Most parents think, "My child is being lazy." But in fact, it's a very normal pattern for adolescents to experience. We call this a delayed sleep phase because their whole pattern is delayed when compared to the clock we live by.

This sleep pattern can be a real problem for adolescents in terms of getting to school on time or even being alert enough for early morning classes because their bodies and brains aren't quite awake yet. There is actually a movement around the world to start high schools a little later in the morning, specifically because of this problem.


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