What’s normal? A baby sleep chart based on scientific research

© 2008 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

Here it is: The latest, state-of-the-art, baby sleep chart published in the influential journal, Pediatrics. It’s based on the average sleep times associated with a large sample of babies born in Switzerland.

If that sounds very culture-specific, consider that all sleep charts are based on the behavior of very specific populations.

At least, that’s true of the evidence-based charts.

Most of the published sleep charts that I’ve seen don’t cite any scientific evidence at all in support of their claims. Moreover, there are NO charts that can tell you exactly how much sleep your baby needs to be healthy.

When pediatricians recommend sleep times, they are making guesses based on what is normal or average. Nobody yet has done any medical research on the optimal amount of sleep for babies—-let alone the personal needs of your baby.

So until such research becomes available, these are the best data available--the records of 493 Swiss children tracked from birth (Iglowstein et al 2003). Over a 24-hour period, total sleep time for these kids were approximately as follows:

Interpreting the chart

For instance, breast-fed babies sleep less than formula-fed babies (Quillin and Glenn 2004). And a 2004 survey by the National Sleep Foundation suggests that American babies are getting less sleep than did the Swiss infants in the baby sleep chart above. For more details—including help interpreting this baby sleep chart—please check out this article on baby sleep requirements.

References

Quillin SI and Glenn LL. 2004. Interaction between feeding method and co-sleeping on maternal-newborn sleep. J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs 33(5): 580-588.