Bedtime by age
What time should a 4 year old go to bed?
Between 7:00 and 8:00 pm for most 4-year-olds who wake up around 6:30. Four-year-olds need 10 to 13 hours a day, and with many of them done napping, nearly all of it has to come at night.
Lights out for a 4 year old
Lights out between 7:00 and 8:00 pm.
Tonight, counted back
An hour and a half out leaves room for a bath without rushing.
Or screens off, on a night without a bath.
What's different for a 4 year old
- Sleep
- 10 to 13 hours a day, naps included
- Naps
- Many have stopped
- Routine
- 30 to 40 minutes
- Fears show up around now: the dark, a shadow on the wall, a bad dream. A dim warm night light and a short, boring check-in work better than a long talk about monsters.
- Four-year-olds can run their own routine from a picture chart, and they like being the one in charge of it.
- A bedtime pass, good for one trip out of the room a night, takes care of most of the stalling.
- If late afternoon falls apart around five every day, lights out is probably too late. Try 15 minutes earlier for a week.
Bedtime chart for a 4 year old, by wake-up time
How much sleep: the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children 3 to 5 years old sleep 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours, naps included. Each window below counts back 10½ to 11½ hours of night sleep from wake-up, rounded to the nearest 15 minutes. The later end is the least sleep, so lean early if they take a while to fall asleep or woke up tired.
| Up at | Lights out | Aim for |
|---|---|---|
| 5:30 am | 6:00–7:00 pm | 6:30 pm |
| 6:00 am | 6:30–7:30 pm | 7:00 pm |
| 6:30 am | 7:00–8:00 pm | 7:30 pm |
| 7:00 am | 7:30–8:30 pm | 8:00 pm |
| 7:30 am | 8:00–9:00 pm | 8:30 pm |
| 8:00 am | 8:30–9:30 pm | 9:00 pm |
Sleep hours come from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's consensus statement on how much sleep children need (Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2016), which the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed. The lights-out windows are our own arithmetic inside that range, not medical advice. Every kid is a little different. If you're worried about how your child sleeps, ask their pediatrician. For any age and wake-up time, use the bedtime calculator.
Knowing lights out is the easy part. Nightlight plans the two hours before it: a dinner that fits the energy you have left, then every step, timed back from 7:30.
Plan tonightFree, no account, and what you tap stays on your phone.
On an iPhone? Nightlight is on the App Store, with a nudge at every step of the evening.