How much sleep does a toddler need?

[Artechim]

My 2.5 year old DS used to sleep for 11 hours at night with no day nap, but now try as we might he has dropped down to about 10 hours of sleep per day.

His bedtime is supposed to be 8pm, but that doesn't happen very often and is more often around 9pm. He wakes at 7am. If by some miracle we actually get him to bed at 8pm, he will wake around 3-4am and isn't tired enough to get back to sleep so I put him in the lounge with a dvd and he watches that and plays with his cars. After a few hours he will go back to bed for a nap for a couple of hours but it always ends up being a total of 10 hours slept.

So my question is: How likely is it that he will need more sleep as he gets older? I hate to think of him wanting to go to bed even later, I want some kid free time!!

[sangie]

Does he seem tired Art? Doesn't sound like a lot of sleep for his age but I guess they are all different. Is he a really active kid? Maybe try some activities that will get him really tired lol! DD is a few months older than your DS and she sleeps 11-12 hours overnight and between 1-1.5hrs after lunch most days. She does skip her day sleep maybe 1-2 days a week but has it every other day.

Hopefully he will sleep longer overnight when he goes to kindy/school! That should tire him out lol! Your poor thing, I can definitely understand the need for kid free time!

[AnyDream]

Arte - I'm not going to tell you how much E sleeps cos it will just make you depressed.

BUT...I remember when DD1 got to an age when she seemed to need less sleep, I still enforced 'quiet times' alone in her bedroom...45m - 1hr in the afternoon...rules were she had to be QUIET and stay on/near her bed (ie looking at books, quietly playing with toys, listening to story on a tape in a semi-reclined fashion in a darkened room). Worked alright. Also, of an evening, if she wanted to play quietly after 'lights out' then good and well, but she had to stay in her room (with minimal light) and be quiet. Once she got the idea it worked quite well, she enjoyed her down time.