A 12-year-old should go to bed around 8:45 PM if they wake at 7:00 AM, and no later than 9:45 PM. Children aged 6 to 12 need 9 to 12 hours of sleep a night, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. A 10-hour night is a good everyday target at 12, and 9 hours is the floor.
The tween years are when bedtime starts to slip. Middle school, a first phone, more homework and friends who "stay up till midnight" all pull later at once. The math is the easy part, so most of this page is about the rest.
Free toolSleep Needs by AgeRecommended hours for every age, from newborns to over-65s.Bedtime chart for ages 10 to 12
Pick the wake-up time, then read across. Each bedtime includes about 15 minutes to fall asleep.
| Wake-up time | 10.5 hours | 10 hours | 9 hours (latest) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6:00 AM | 7:15 PM | 7:45 PM | 8:45 PM |
| 6:30 AM | 7:45 PM | 8:15 PM | 9:15 PM |
| 7:00 AM | 8:15 PM | 8:45 PM | 9:45 PM |
| 7:30 AM | 8:45 PM | 9:15 PM | 10:15 PM |
| 8:00 AM | 9:15 PM | 9:45 PM | 10:45 PM |
The 9 to 12 hour range is the same from 10 to 12, so the targets below are sensible starting points, not separate rules. Your child's mood and how easily they wake tell you whether to nudge earlier. For a younger sibling, the bedtime chart for kids covers every age, and the sleep needs by age calculator handles any wake time.
What time should a 10-year-old go to bed?
A 10-year-old does well with a bedtime around 8:15 PM for a 7:00 AM wake-up, or 7:45 PM for 6:30 AM. That gives about 10.5 hours. The latest bedtimes that still reach 9 hours are 9:45 PM and 9:15 PM.
At 10, most kids still accept a parent-set bedtime, which makes this the easiest year to lock in a routine that carries into middle school. Reading in bed for 20 minutes is a good last step: it's calm, screen-free and something many kids look forward to.
What time should an 11-year-old go to bed?
An 11-year-old should go to bed around 8:45 PM for a 7:00 AM wake-up, or 8:15 PM for 6:30 AM, for about 10 hours. No later than 9:45 PM or 9:15 PM respectively.
Eleven is often the last year of elementary school or the first of middle school, and a new school can mean a new wake-up time. If the bus now comes 30 minutes earlier, bedtime needs to move 30 minutes earlier too. Shift it in 15-minute steps over the week or two before school starts rather than all at once on the first night.
What time should a 12-year-old go to bed?
A 12-year-old should go to bed around 8:45 PM for a 7:00 AM wake-up, 8:15 PM for 6:30 AM, or 7:45 PM for 6:00 AM. The latest bedtimes for those alarms are 9:45, 9:15 and 8:45 PM.
At 12, some children start to feel the later body clock of puberty, and may not feel sleepy until later than they used to. That's normal, and it's covered in what time should a teenager go to bed. It's also why morning daylight and a dim, quiet last hour start to matter more at this age.
Phones and screens at bedtime
The most useful single rule for tweens is that phones and tablets sleep outside the bedroom. A 2016 meta-analysis in JAMA Pediatrics pooled 20 studies of more than 125,000 children and teens. Using a portable device at bedtime was linked to roughly twice the odds of not getting enough sleep. Even having a device in the bedroom without using it was linked to shorter, poorer sleep and more daytime sleepiness.
A wider review of 67 studies found screen time was tied to later and shorter sleep in about 90% of them. These are associations, so they can't prove screens are the whole cause, but the direction is consistent.
What tends to work with this age group:
- A family charging spot in the kitchen or hallway, used by parents too
- A set "screens off" time about an hour before the bedtime in the chart
- An alarm clock instead of the phone, so there's no reason to keep it nearby
- Explaining the why. Tweens push back on rules that feel arbitrary, and accept ones with a reason
Homework, sports and sleepovers
When the evening is full, protect the 9-hour floor first and the target second.
- Homework. If it regularly runs past bedtime, that's worth a conversation with the teacher. Late-night work done tired is usually slower anyway.
- Late practices. A quick dinner, shower and lights out is fine on those nights. A screen-free wind-down can be 15 minutes instead of 45.
- Sleepovers. Expect a short night and a tired day after. Plan a normal bedtime the next night rather than a long lie-in that pushes Sunday night later.
If bedtime has already crept to 10:30 PM, how to go to bed earlier explains how to walk it back in small steps.
Signs your tween needs an earlier bedtime
If your child is hard to wake on most school days, it's worth trying a bedtime 15 to 30 minutes earlier for a week. Other signs include grumpiness or tears that peak in the late afternoon, trouble focusing in class, and sleeping 2 or more hours later on weekends.
Talk to your pediatrician if your child snores loudly or has pauses in breathing while asleep, is very sleepy during the day despite enough time in bed, or has trouble falling or staying asleep that goes on for weeks.