Every bedtime recommendation on this site traces back to a specific, publicly available sleep study or guideline. Here they are, named directly.
A panel of sleep specialists reviewed the pediatric sleep literature and reached consensus on age-based sleep duration ranges: infants 4-12 months should get 12-16 hours (including naps); 1-2 years, 11-14 hours; 3-5 years, 10-13 hours; 6-12 years, 9-12 hours; and teens 13-18 years, 8-10 hours. These are the figures this calculator's age bands are built on.
An independent multidisciplinary expert panel reached closely aligned age-based sleep duration ranges using a separate review methodology - corroborating the AAP/AASM consensus figures used elsewhere on this site.
The NHS publishes practical bedtime and wake-time guidance for UK families that aligns with the AAP/AASM duration ranges, with additional emphasis on routine consistency and screen-free wind-down time before bed.
We don't invent our own sleep targets. The calculator takes your child's age and desired wake-up time, maps the age to the published consensus sleep-duration range, and works backward to a bedtime window. Nothing is estimated beyond what the cited research defines, and no data is stored - the calculation happens entirely in your browser.
If any of these consensus statements are formally revised, we update the calculator's figures to match.