Bedtime Calculator
Every bedtime calculator tells you the same thing: lights out at 7:40. Which is useless, because by 7:40 you are meant to be finishing, and the bath has not happened. The number a parent can actually use is the one nobody gives you — what time to start.
So this one works backwards from the morning. Tell it when they have to be up and how old they are, and it gives you the time to begin, with the whole routine laid out from there.
The recommendations are per 24 hours and include daytime sleep, so a nap comes off the night.
The honest version: it's a window
Children of the same age genuinely need different amounts of sleep, which is why the published figures are ranges. For 3 to 5 years it is 10–13 hours per 24 hours. Against a 7:00 am wake-up, lights-out lands anywhere between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm.
The time above is the middle of that window, which is where to start. Then let your child tell you which way to move: earlier if they wake groggy and hard to rouse, later if they lie awake for ages after the light goes off.
Ten minutes of that routine is the story. If you want tonight's to star your own child — their name, their world, read aloud — that takes about thirty seconds.
Make tonight's story free →Or browse 64 free bedtime stories to read straight off the page.
What time should my child go to bed?
It depends on when they have to get up, not on the clock. Work backwards: the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 10–13 hours per 24 hours for ages 3–5 and 9–12 hours for ages 6–12, so a six-year-old who has to be up at 7am needs to be asleep somewhere between 7pm and 10pm. Subtract any daytime nap, then subtract the routine — bath, teeth and a story are rarely under half an hour.
Why does this give a range instead of one time?
Because sleep need genuinely varies between children of the same age, which is why the published recommendations are ranges rather than single figures. The honest answer is a window. Start in the middle of it, then move earlier if they wake groggy and hard to rouse, or later if they lie awake for a long stretch after lights-out.
What time should bedtime actually start?
Earlier than most people plan for. Lights-out is the end of bedtime, not the beginning — a bath, pyjamas and teeth, and a story together usually run 40 to 60 minutes. That gap is why bedtime so often overruns: the routine gets started at the time it was supposed to finish. The start time is the number you can actually act on, which is why it is the one this calculator leads with.
Should I count naps?
Yes, for the under-fives. The published recommendations are per 24 hours and include daytime sleep, so a toddler who naps for two hours needs two hours fewer at night. This calculator subtracts the nap for the age bands where naps are included, and ignores it for older children. For a child who has dropped naps, set it to none.
My child fights bedtime every night. Would an earlier bedtime help?
Often, counter-intuitively, yes — an overtired child is usually harder to settle rather than easier. But bedtime resistance has many causes and no calculator can tell you which one you have. If bedtime is a nightly battle, or your child snores, wakes repeatedly, or is exhausted during the day, that is worth raising with your pediatrician rather than solving with a timetable.
Where do these sleep times come from?
The consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine on the recommended amount of sleep for healthy children (Paruthi et al., 2016), which the American Academy of Pediatrics endorses. The figures are ranges per 24 hours. The routine timings — bath, teeth, story — are ordinary household estimates rather than clinical ones, and you can change them here.
Sleep durations from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine consensus statement on the recommended amount of sleep for healthy children (2016), endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Routine timings are ordinary household estimates, not clinical ones. This is a planning tool and nothing here is medical advice — for sleep problems, snoring, or a child who is tired during the day, ask your pediatrician.