How Much Should My Baby Sleep? A Nap and Bedtime Guide by Age

If you've ever found yourself scrolling baby sleep forums at 2 a.m., bleary-eyed and wondering whether your little one's naps are "supposed" to look like this, you're in very good company. Sleep is one of the most-Googled topics in the first year of parenthood, and for good reason — it changes constantly, and just when you think you've cracked the code, your baby grows and the code changes again.

The good news is that baby sleep isn't random. It follows a fairly predictable developmental arc, even if it doesn't always feel that way at 4 a.m. In this guide, we'll walk through what to expect at each age and stage, from the wonderfully unpredictable newborn weeks to the more structured naps of toddlerhood, so you can set realistic expectations and know roughly what's typical for your child's age.

Think of the charts below as a compass, not a set of instructions. Your baby is the expert on your baby — these numbers are simply here to help you recognize what's normal and notice when something might be worth a closer look.

When Can You Expect Your Baby to Sleep on a Schedule?

In the earliest weeks, sleep is beautifully, maddeningly chaotic. Newborns don't yet have a functioning internal clock, so their sleep isn't organized around day and night the way ours is — they sleep in short, scattered bursts around the clock, and a "nap" might last 20 minutes or 3 hours with no real pattern to it. This is completely normal, and trying to force a schedule this early usually causes more frustration than it solves.

Somewhere around 3 to 4 months, most babies' circadian rhythms start to mature, and sleep begins to consolidate into more recognizable chunks — typically a longer stretch at night and a handful of naps during the day. Even then, naps may still be short and inconsistent for a while. Most families find that a true "by the clock" schedule, with predictable nap and bedtimes, doesn't really click into place until closer to 6 months.

Even before your baby is ready for a formal schedule, there's one thing you can start right away: a short, calming bedtime routine. It doesn't need to be elaborate — a bath, a few minutes of quiet cuddling, a dim room — but doing the same few steps in the same order every night sends a powerful signal that sleep is coming. Many parents find this is the single most useful habit they build in the whole first year, because it travels with you through every nap transition and sleep regression that follows.

Baby Sleep Schedule by Age: Nap and Sleep Chart

If it feels like your baby's sleep needs shift every few weeks, that's because they genuinely do — especially in the first 12 to 18 months. The charts below break sleep down by age, so you have a general sense of what's typical but treat every number as a starting point rather than a target to hit exactly.

A quick but important caveat: every baby is different, and these are population-level averages, not a report card. A baby who sleeps a bit less or naps a bit differently than the chart suggests isn't necessarily doing anything wrong — the better gauge is how your baby seems day to day: generally, content, feeding well, hitting other developmental milestones, and not chronically overtired. If you have real concerns about your child's sleep, or notice signs that worry you, your pediatrician is always the right person to loop in.

The First Year

The first year covers the most dramatic sleep changes your child will ever go through — from a newborn who sleeps in scattered bursts to a baby who's settled into two predictable naps a day. Expect several transitions along the way as your baby's wake windows lengthen and their daytime sleep needs shrink.

Newborn (0–2 months)

At this age, expect very little structure. Your newborn's naps and night sleep blend together into one long, loosely organized stretch of sleep and wake periods, largely driven by hunger rather than a clock. Rather than watching the time, watch your baby: fussiness, yawning, or a glazed-over stare are usually better cues than the clock for when it's time to try for sleep.

0–3 weeks	16–17 hours	Varies	45–60 minutes
1 month	15.5–16.5 hours	Varies	45–60 minutes
6 weeks	15–16 hours	4–5	60–75 minutes
2 months	14.5–16 hours	4–5	60–90 minutes

3–5 months

This is often when things start to feel a bit more manageable. Many babies begin sleeping in longer, more identifiable naps, and a rough day-and-night rhythm starts to emerge. It's common for babies to shift from 4 naps a day down to 3 during this window, though the exact timing varies quite a bit from baby to baby. This is a great age to start loosely anchoring nap times around wake windows rather than the clock, without worrying yet about hitting exact times.

3 months	14.5–15.5 hours	4	1.5–2 hours
4 months	14–15 hours	3–4	1.75–2.25 hours
5 months	13.5–14.5 hours	3	2–2.5 hours

6–8 months

By 6 months, most babies have settled into a fairly recognizable 3-nap rhythm, and many families find this stretch a little easier to plan around. Toward the end of this window, keep an eye out for a baby who starts fighting that third, late-afternoon nap — that resistance is usually the first sign that a transition to 2 naps is on the horizon, typically arriving around 8–9 months.

6 months	13.5–14.5 hours	3	2–2.75 hours
7 months	13.5–14.5 hours	2–3	2.25–3 hours
8 months	13–14 hours	2–3	2.5–3.25 hours

9–12 months

Most babies are now on two solid, fairly predictable naps a day, which tends to make outings and daily planning noticeably easier. Bedtime often becomes more consistent too, especially if morning wake time stays steady. If your baby is still working through the 3-to-2 nap transition at the start of this window, expect a short adjustment period before things settle.

9 months	13–14 hours	2	2.75–3.5 hours
10 months	12.75–13.75 hours	2	3–3.5 hours
11–12 months	12.5–13.5 hours	2	3–3.75 hours

The Second Year

Sleep tends to feel more predictable in the second year, though there's one major milestone still ahead: the move from two naps down to one. Most toddlers make this shift somewhere between 14 and 18 months, often with a wobbly in-between stretch where some days call for one nap and others for two.

13–17 months

Many toddlers start to outgrow their 2-nap schedule during this window, resisting one of their naps on and off. It's common — and totally fine — to keep offering 2 naps for a while even as your toddler starts skipping one here and there; consistency in the offer helps smooth out the transition. On short-nap or skipped-nap days, moving bedtime up by 30–45 minutes can help prevent overtiredness from building up.

13–14 months	12.5–13.5 hours	1–2	3.5–4.5 hours
15–17 months	12–13 hours	1–2	4–5 hours

18–24 months

By 18 months, most toddlers have landed on a single midday nap, generally kicking off about 5 to 6 hours after they wake up in the morning. If bedtime starts creeping later than you'd like on this new one-nap rhythm, an earlier bedtime — rather than a later nap — is usually the better fix, since a too-late nap can eat into the wind-down window before sleep.

18–20 months	12–13 hours	1	5–5.5 hours
21–24 months	11.5–12.5 hours	1	5.5–6 hours

Preschool Years (2.5–5 Years)

Between ages 2 and a half and 5, sleep tends to shift more gradually, but the changes are still significant — many kids stretch their single nap longer before eventually giving it up altogether, often somewhere between 3 and 5 years old. Bedtime routines that have worked well up to this point are worth holding onto, even as naps fade out, since an early, consistent bedtime does a lot of the heavy lifting once daytime sleep goes away.

2.5–3 years

Wake windows continue to stretch, and many toddlers this age start taking longer to settle at bedtime, simply because they're more aware and more resistant to the idea of stopping their day. Adding an extra 10–15 minutes of calm wind-down time — an extra book, a quiet chat about the day — can make a noticeable difference.

2.5 years	11.5–12.5 hours	1	6–6.5 hours
3 years	11–12 hours	0–1	6–7 hours

4–5 years

Napping tends to fade out for most kids somewhere in this range, though plenty of 4-year-olds still benefit from one on busy or high-activity days. If naps have stopped altogether, an earlier bedtime is usually the best way to make sure total sleep doesn't take a hit.

4 years	10.5–12 hours	0–1	Nap only if needed
5 years	10.5–11.5 hours	0	Prioritize early bedtime

Takeaway

Early sleep is unpredictable, and that's expected: Newborns don't yet have an organized sleep-wake cycle, so erratic naps and late "bedtimes" in the first couple of months are completely normal, not a sign that anything's wrong.

A schedule emerges gradually, not overnight: 

Most babies develop a more recognizable rhythm around 3–4 months and aren't ready for a true clock-based schedule until closer to 6 months, with nap transitions continuing well into toddlerhood.

Naps decrease steadily with age: 

Babies typically move from 4 naps a day as newborns down to a single nap by around 18 months and often drop naps entirely somewhere between 3 and 5 years old.

Use the chart as a guide, not a rulebook: Your child's mood, energy, and overall development are better indicators of whether they're getting enough sleep than hitting