Bedtime Calculator by Age
Add your kid and the time they need to wake up, and get a bedtime worked backwards from it: the screens-off, lights-out and asleep-by times that add up to enough sleep for their age.
Your kids
Name is optional. “Up at” is the time this child needs to wake up — the bedtime is calculated backwards from it. Got a wake-up time from our morning routine builder? Use it here.
Free, no signup, no email gate. The names, ages, and times you enter stay on your device.
Want the daytime chores handled too? See how Twiggly works →
How this bedtime is worked out
Most bedtime trouble comes from treating “bedtime” as one moment. It isn't. Falling asleep takes a child around fifteen minutes, and the half hour before that needs to be screen-free so the body can wind down. So the tool works backwards from the wake-up time through three points: screens off, then lights out, then asleep by. That last one has to land early enough for the night to add up.
How much sleep is “enough” depends on age, and it's a range, not one number. The calculator starts from the middle of that range for each age and lets you nudge it up or down, because two kids the same age can differ. If a suggested time looks impossibly early, the fix is usually an earlier wind-down and fewer screens before it, not a later target.
The idea is the same one behind our guide to rebuilding kids' routines after summer: a routine sticks when the structure does the reminding, not the parent. Laying out tomorrow's clothes and packing the bag belong in the wind-down for the same reason: they're the night-before decisions that make the morning calm.
Sources (checked August 2026): nightly sleep-need ranges follow the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's consensus recommendations, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Typical time to fall asleep for school-age children is around 15 minutes. This tool is general guidance, not medical advice; talk to your pediatrician about a child's specific sleep concerns.
Frequently asked questions
What time should my child go to bed?
It depends on two things: when they need to wake up, and how much sleep they need for their age. Work backwards from the wake-up time: a 9-year-old who's up at 6:45 and needs about 10.5 hours should be asleep by roughly 8:15 p.m., which means lights out a little earlier and screens off earlier still. This calculator does that for each of your kids at once.
How much sleep does my child actually need?
As a nightly range: 9 to 12 hours for ages 6 to 12, and 8 to 10 hours for ages 13 and 14. Where a child falls in the range varies, so the tool lets you nudge the target up or down. The clearest sign of too little sleep is a child who's hard to wake and irritable in the morning; if that's happening, move bedtime earlier before changing anything else.
Why does the tool show three times instead of one bedtime?
Because “bedtime” usually gets treated as a single moment, which is why kids end up asleep far later than parents intend. Falling asleep takes most children about fifteen minutes, and the half hour before that should be screen-free so the body can wind down. So the number that matters, asleep by, is the last of three: screens off, then lights out, then asleep. Aim at the first one and the rest follows.
Do you collect the ages and times I enter?
No. There's no signup, no email gate, and no account. Everything you enter stays in your browser. The page runs the same anonymous visit analytics as the rest of the site (only if you accept cookies), with no form data attached.
Is there an app that gets my kid to bed?
Not really, and be wary of one that tries. A screen at bedtime is the single thing most likely to push sleep later, so the honest answer — from people who make a kids' app — is that a consistent, screen-free wind-down beats any bedtime app. Where an app does help is the daytime side: Twiggly handles chores, points and rewards, and a job like “tidy your room and lay out tomorrow's clothes” can be one of the chores that becomes part of the evening wind-down.
Bedtime is one routine. The rest of the day is the real work.
A screen-free wind-down handles the night. Twiggly handles the rest: chores your kids actually do, points toward real rewards, streaks they don't want to break, and a quick approval instead of one more reminder.
