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Knowing how much sleep your baby needs can be confusing when your neighbor’s newborn baby sleeps 17 hours a day and your friend’s a toddler sleeps 13 hours a day. Setting your expectations is an important first step.
Baby and Toddler Sleep Needs Chart
| Age | Total Amount of Nighttime Sleep | Total Amount of Naptime Sleep | # of Naps | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newborns to 3 month olds | 10-11 hours at night | 4-5 hours per day | 4-5 naps | Short naps are common |
| 4 to 5 month olds | 10-12 hours at night | 2-4 hours per day | 3-4 naps | At least two 1+ hour naps |
| 6 to 8 month olds | 11-12 hours at night | 2-3 hours per day | 2-3 naps | Two 1+ hour naps and 1 short one |
| 9 to 17 month olds | 11-12 hours at night | 2-3 hours per day | 1-2 naps | 1+ hour long each nap |
| 18 month olds to 3 years | 10-12 hours at night | 1-3 hours per day | 1 nap | |
| 3 to 5 years old | 10-11 hours | 0-3 hours | Sometimes 1 nap, but most lose between 3 & 4 years old) | If napping, the nap is usually ~1-3 hours long |
| 5 years+ | 9-10 hours | 0 hours | No nap |
Keep in mind that these are just average baby sleep needs, so some babies will naturally fall below these sleep amounts, and some above. If your baby is sleeping a lot more and you are concerned, you should talk to your doctor. Some babies may just need a lot of sleep, but since that is less time to learn and play, you’ll want to make doublecheck with your pediatrician if your baby’s sleep needs are excessively high.
How much sleep your baby gets and whether your baby gets enough sleep will depend on quite a few factors, including your diligence in keeping your baby’s routine, providing the opportunity for enough sleep, and your baby’s personality / willingness to sleep. We can’t *make* our babies sleep; we can only provide the opportunity.
Here are a few tips to make sure your baby gets the sleep she needs:
- Keep in mind the average amount of sleep appropriate for your baby’s age.
- Know your specific baby’s average by logging your baby’s sleep for a week or two.
- Don’t fall into the trap that later bedtime or keeping babies up longer will promote longer naps or better night sleep or waking later in the morning. Over-tiredness is the #1 reason babies take short naps, have more night-wakings, and wake earlier in the morning. Strange, but true. Consider reviewing our sample baby sleep and feeding schedules.
- Don’t fall into the trap thinking your baby doesn’t need more sleep because she’s happy all the time. Some babies get cranky without enough sleep and others don’t. Even if your baby is happy, she may still need more sleep than you are offering.
- If your baby is sleeping less than the averages and is happy, then don’t stress too much that you are forcing more sleep than she can sleep. If you know HER average and she’s getting close to that AND she’s happy, breathe a sigh of relief.
- Adjust how much sleep your baby needs as she gets older. Most of the time, babies will not need two hours less sleep overnight. However, your baby will slowly need less over time. This should only decrease at a slow rate, though.
Knowing how much sleep your baby needs is the first step to better sleep. Figuring out how to get that much sleep is a whole other matter. 😀 Hopefully these tips help get you on the right path.
How Much Sleep Does Your Baby Need and How Old is Your Baby?
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Filip says
We have 16 month old twin boys. They were never good sleepers: preemies, colic in both until almost 6 mo, reflux until 10mo. Last 2 months they sleep worse again. Putting them both to sleep takes us 2-3 hours each day.
One sleeps more, usually one nap 2 to 3 hours, then another 8 hours in night (of course he wakes up 2-3 times over night).
Second one takes nap around one hour during the day (sometimes it’s only 15 minute nap ), usually around 12 to 1 pm, and then keep running until 11 pm or longer. And wakes up around 6:30 to 7 am. So he has total (night plus nap) 8-9 hours of sleep most of the days.
Is this OK?
Janelle Reid says
@Filip, I am so sorry to hear you are struggling with your twin boy’s sleep. While some babies do not need as much sleep as others, it does sound like your boy’s aren’t getting as much sleep as they should and are fighting you on it when you try. That can be so challenging, so hang in there!
Here is a link to a sample schedule for a toddler (you will see options with 1 nap or 2): https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/toddler-schedule/
If you need additional help with getting a schedule that works for your boys and implementing it, I would recommend looking at our Personalized Consultation Packages here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services
Our sleep consultants have worked with many families with multiples and would be happy to help create a plan that works for your family as well.
Thank you for commenting!
Kristin says
Hi all! I am having such an issue with getting my 13 month old back on a good schedule. He is only sleeping 10 Hours a night and sometimes completely skips his afternoon nap. He is having huge separation anxiety right now and sometimes I put him down for his nap and he just cries and cries until I come back. He just got over being sick so he is all screwed up. I want sleep! Please help!!
Jessica Diller says
@Kristin, Thank you for commenting. I am sorry that your little guy has been having such trouble with sleep lately! It must be very difficult when he skips his nap, as it creates an overtired situation, and may make separation anxiety seem worse. Illness can definitely have a negative affect on sleep, especially if any sleep associations were developed during that time. However, you can overcome it! I recommend reading this article about how illness affects sleep: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-needs/how-illness-affects-baby-toddler-sleep/ Also, we have a great article about how to get your child on a good schedule: https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/how-to-get-baby-on-schedule/ Hopefully this was just a temporary setback in his sleep, and that you can get him back on track very soon. Best of luck to you!
Sarah says
My almost 4 year old sleeps about 10 hours at night and doesn’t nap.
My 22 month old sleeps 10 hours at night and takes an hour nap, if I’m lucky. (Not today, d’oh!)
I think my kids are just on the low end of sleep needs, unfortunately! 🙁
heather says
Great info, thanks so much.
My 13-month-old recently started waking earlier and earlier each morning. For a while it was 6amish, this morning it was 4:15! He’s wide awake. I try to convince him to fall back asleep and sometimes even take him into bed with us (bad precedent to set?) but he’s not having it. We get up with him for a few hrs then he’s super tired and goes back down again for a few hours.
We’ve tried moving his bedtime a little later, a little earlier, etc, but nothing seems to change. He still takes two naps (at least an hour each). Is it possible he’s ready for just one nap per day? I’m worried about him (and us!) getting enough sleep.
AmyR says
Are there any common signs that a baby is ready to move from 2 naps to 1 nap?
My son is just turning 11 mos and he has 2 naps per day. However, they have been getting shorter for the past few weeks (down to 45-60mins from 1.5 hrs each). And today, Nap#1 was 1.5 hrs (just like old times!) but then he refused to take another nap. So he was awake from 10am until I put him down for a super early bedtime at 5:15pm.
I know some babies move to 1 nap before they reach 12mos….but how can I be sure my son is ready?
thanks
amy
junko says
Hi Nicole,
I’ll chime in with the two others above. My son just crossed 9 months and is waking up INCESSANTLY at night. He has always used the pacifier to fall asleep (naps and bedtime), and I haven’t really tried to break the habit. He usually falls asleep quite easily with the paci. So far, if he woke at night (usually once or twice), he would readily go back to sleep after I gave him the paci. That still interrupts my sleep every night, but it was better than what we have now! For about 2 weeks now, he wakes up at least 4 or 5 times (sometimes more), and at least half the time he won’t go back to sleep even after I give him the paci. He pulls himself up to standing and yells and throws the paci out of his mouth. Since he has his last bottle between 6 & 6:30pm, I usually cave and give him a bottle between 3 and 4:30 am (though he has done 10 hours straight before feeding in the past).
btw, we also live in Cameroon where its warm all the time. The house is air conditioned, so it doesn’t really matter what its like outside. I have also tried to make the room warmer after he started waking so frequently (but it doesn’t seem to have changed anything).
Like the others, I’ve had practically NO sleep for the last 2 weeks. And this after not having had a full night’s sleep ever since he was born! I’m truly at my wits end and could use any help! Many thanks.
Kimberly says
@Adrienne- 30-45 minute naps are common for some babies but it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s all they need. The 30-45 minute mark is often where babies start to go into their light sleep cycle and then will wake up and not know how to get themselves back to sleep to finish their napping. It could be that he needs some help learning how to get through that light sleep cycle in order to extend his naps.
@Kelli- It would be hard to say if that is the reason or not without really knowing more about your specific daytime and nighttime schedules. It could be they slept better while traveling because the travel itself and being in a new environment was making them more tired.
@Kelly- It sounds like she needs to learn to sleep through her light sleep cycle and learn to resettle. Have you considered Nicole’s ebook, Mastering Naps and Schedules? You can read more about it here: http://babynapswell.com
@Junko- At this point he has a sleep association with the pacifier and he has not learn how to fall asleep on his own or to go back to sleep when he wakes. I know you must be exhausted but this is really about creating and implementing a sleep coaching plan for him to teach him how to fall asleep without the pacifier. I’d recommend that you check out these posts to start: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/sleep-association/ and https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/sleep-training-from-no-cry-to-cry-series-part-1/. You might also consider Nicole’s e-book, The 3 Step System to Help to Help Your Baby sleep. It can be found at http://babysleepswell.com
Kelly says
Hi Nicole,
my 11 month old girl has a very routine day but can oly get her 2 naps of 40 mins a day. I know she needs more but I can’t get her to resettle after that first 40 mins. She goes to sleep on her own however I do have to put her dummy in sometimes overnight. She usually settles in about 5 mins for her sleeps it is resettling that I am having problems with. At night she is sleeping 11 hours sometimes longer but not unbroken with a couple of dummy visits for me.
Please help how can I get her to nap longer. Current nap times are 9.50 and 1.50 both only 40 mins.
Thanks Kelly
kelli says
Hi Nicole, Greetings from Tanzania East Africa. We have been living in Africa for the past 6 years and have had both our boys (3 years old and 9 months old) while living here. I just read something that said during the summer kids will sleep less. Since we are living in summer weather all year round Im wondering if this is one of the reasons my boys don’t sleep as much as when we are visiting family back home. We returned from a visit almost 3 months ago and I have not had one full night sleep since! I’m very tired and looking hard to find the reason for my 9 month old not wanting to sleep like he did before. Thank you so much for your help and encouragement it has really helped!
Adrienne says
I have an almost 9 month old who averages about 10-11 hours a night but rarely naps for over 30-45 minutes at a time ( he usually takes 2 naps a day. I am always worried he isn’t getting enough sleep during the day. Should I be worried? Is it normal for kids his age to have such short naps?
T says
Hi, Nicole. How long should the older children’s naps be? I have a 20 month old son who sleeps 9-10 hours at night and takes 1 nap for 2 hours during the day. Thanks!
Nicole says
@T When a toddler is taking just one nap, that nap should be 1 to 3 hours long. I’ll update the article to reflect that. Two hours sounds perfect! Thanks for commenting and asking the question.