How Much Sleep Does My Baby Need? (With Sleep Charts!)
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Sarah Mann Certified Baby Sleep Consultant and Mom of Seven  |
Is your little one getting enough sleep?
Does your baby seem alert and content?
How much sleep does a baby or toddler actually need?
Did you know that getting enough sleep is incredibly important for your baby?
And it’s not just me saying this (based on my own exhausting experience with five rather sleepless babies)—there are plenty of studies out there that confirm it.
To clear up any confusion and guesswork about how much sleep your baby needs, I’ve gathered all the essential information on this topic.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- Why it’s important to know your child’s sleep needs
- The „golden rule of baby sleep“
- How your child benefits from enough sleep
- A comprehensive overview: „Baby and Toddler Sleep Needs“
- Tips: How to help your baby get more sleep
Baby Sleep Needs: A Golden Rule
So how can you tell if your little one is getting enough sleep?
The time before bedtime can give you valuable clues…
Is it calm and pleasant? Is your baby or toddler fairly balanced until the very end? (Aside from a normal amount of restlessness and „processing the day,“ which is especially common in very young babies…)
Or does it look more like this?
It’s 9:00 PM, and it’s another battle! Your little one seems very tired but just can’t settle.
Feeding, rocking, bouncing—and then starting all over again. Your baby cries and fusses, and you find yourself wondering (yet again): Why won’t my baby just fall asleep peacefully? And why are evenings always so exhausting?
I can’t even count how many times I’ve had evenings like this over the years. (So I truly understand how you feel in those moments.) So often, by the time the night was almost over, I would collapse onto the couch or straight into bed, completely exhausted.
(That’s why I created a fantastic—and free!—Baby Sleep Course. Take a look: Go to the Course.)
So I was quite surprised when I started researching baby sleep in depth and kept coming across one crucial piece of advice. Again and again. A piece of advice that often goes against parental intuition but is considered the golden rule of baby sleep by many experts!
What is it?
„Sleep promotes sleep.“
Simply put: The more your baby or toddler sleeps, the better they will sleep overall!
Overtiredness is one of your biggest enemies when it comes to helping your baby or toddler develop good sleep habits.
The old belief that keeping babies or toddlers awake longer will help them sleep better is usually NOT true.
In fact, the opposite is often the case!
Try the other way around: Let your child sleep more and put them to bed earlier. (Of course, as your baby gets older, you’ll want to make sure they’re not napping too long during the day, as this can affect nighttime sleep.)
Ensure your baby gets enough sleep, and you’ll have a happier, more balanced child.
When you think about it, this makes perfect sense. After all, it’s the same for us adults… Sleep research increasingly confirms the negative effects of sleep deprivation—weight gain is just one of them.
So, as parents, it’s our responsibility to understand our little one’s sleep needs and make sure they get the rest they require!
We should never underestimate how incredibly important sufficient sleep is for babies! And it’s not just my opinion (shaped by my own exhausting experience with five rather sleepless babies)—it’s confirmed by leading sleep researchers worldwide. And, of course, we parents should also make sure we’re getting a healthy amount of sleep every day.
How Your Baby Benefits from Enough Sleep
Your baby and toddler need sufficient sleep for optimal development.
According to studies, adequate sleep positively impacts your baby’s development in the following ways:
- Improved learning and cognitive abilities
- Healthy appetite and normal weight
- Greater frustration tolerance
- Fewer emotional outbursts
- Longer attention span
- Better social skills
- Fewer fussy and crying phases
- Optimal motor development
- Brain development
- Cell renewal
- Stronger immune system
That’s plenty of good reasons to understand your baby’s optimal sleep needs—and to make sure your little one spends enough time in dreamland.
These points also prove that wanting to improve your baby’s sleep is not selfish—it’s essential and healthy for your child! Sleepless nights take a toll not only on you but also on your little one…
Tired? Exhausted? Feeling lost?
SIGN UP NOW FOR THE FREE BABY SLEEP COURSE.
Feedback from Emily:
You hear and read a lot about sleep training programs and tips for falling and staying asleep. But in this course, you receive a daily email with step-by-step guidance in the right direction. At the same time, everything can be individually adapted to your baby and your family situation. It has helped us so much—our baby now sleeps several hours longer at a stretch. Naps during the day take no more than 5 minutes to settle, and bedtime in the evening takes at most 30 minutes. Thank you so much for this course!
Overview: How Much Sleep Does My Baby Need?
When babies don’t get enough sleep, it often affects their mood. Many babies (though not all) become fussier, less focused, and more easily frustrated.
The „witching hour“ in the evening could also be a sign that your baby or toddler needs more sleep or a different daily routine. (However, in the first few months, an evening fussy phase or even crying spells are often normal.)
Below, you’ll find a helpful overview of your baby’s sleep needs. This will make it easy to check whether your little one is getting enough rest or if some adjustments might be needed.
Important: The values in the table are averages and do not represent uninterrupted sleep periods. For preemies, use their due date as a reference. If your baby was born significantly earlier or later than expected, this may also apply.
Night Sleep and Total Sleep Needs
| Night Sleep | Total Sleep Needs in 24 Hours | |
| Newborns | 8-10 hours (with multiple interruptions) | 16-18 |
| 1-2 months | 8.5-10 hours | 14.5-16 |
| 3 months* | 9-11 hours | 14-15 |
| 4 months* | 10-12 hours | 14-15 |
| 5 months | 10-12 hours | 14-15 |
| 6-8 months | 10-12 hours | 14-15 |
| 9-10 months | 11-12 hours | 13.5-14.5 |
| 11-12 months | 10-12 hours | 13-14 |
| 1-1.5 years | 10-12 hours | 13-14 |
| 1.5-3 years | 10-12 hours | 12-13 (depending on age) |
| 3-5 years | 10-12 hours | 11-12 (depending on age) |
Daytime Sleep and Wake Windows
| Total Daytime Sleep | Number of Naps | Wake Windows | |
| Newborns | 5-8 hours | varies | 30 – 90 minutes |
| 1-2 months | 6-7 hours | varies | 1-2 hours |
| 3 months* | 5-6 hours | 3-5 | 1-2 hours |
| 4 months* | 3-5 hours | 3-4 | 1.5-2.5 hours |
| 5 months | 3-4.5 hours | 3 (sometimes 4) | 1.5-2.5 hours |
| 6-8 months | 2-4 hours | 2-3 | 2-3 hours |
| 9-12 months | 2-3 hours | 2 | 2.5-3.5 hours |
| 1-1.5 years | 2-3 hours | 1-2 | 3-4 hours |
| 1.5-3 years | 2-3 hours | 1 | 4-4.5 hours |
Notes: *The fourth month is often known as the dreaded „catnap phase,“ where babies usually take only one longer nap while the rest last just 30-45 minutes. This is completely normal! By 6 months, most babies settle into a three-nap routine, making days more predictable and manageable. Once your baby is on three naps, introducing a structured yet flexible daily routine can be very helpful for everyone.
Valuable Insights on Optimal Sleep Needs
Of course, the table above only provides average values (though experience shows that most babies actually follow these sleep patterns).
Some parents believe their baby needs significantly less sleep—but in most cases, this isn’t true (unless your baby is consistently happy, well-rested, and has no trouble falling and staying asleep 😉).
Naturally, some babies and toddlers will be at the lower end of the sleep range, while others need more rest. Some babies also sleep more during the day and less at night. However, experts widely agree that children under 2 years should get at least 10 hours of night sleep to ensure proper recovery and growth.
It’s also important to note that „night sleep“ in this overview does not mean uninterrupted sleep but rather the total amount of nighttime rest.
Most sleep experts and parenting guides suggest that babies around 6 months (and certainly by 9 months) can sleep through the night without a feeding. (Personally, I would expect this transition between 9-12 months.)
How Does Sleep Need Change in the First Years?
You may have noticed that babies have a very high sleep requirement in the first year and that this need decreases only gradually. What changes more noticeably is the number and length of naps your baby needs.
From the table, we can observe the following trends:
- Newborns sleep up to 18 hours in 24 hours, with many interruptions day and night.
- By the end of the first month, this decreases to around 16 hours.
- Babies aged 4 to 11 months need about 14-15 hours of sleep in 24 hours.
- By age two, total sleep drops to about 12-13 hours.
- By age four, most children need 11-12 hours of sleep in 24 hours.
Naturally, older toddlers and preschoolers may sleep less at night if they still take naps during the day (e.g., at daycare).
IMPORTANT: Babies and toddlers go through phases of major developmental leaps, during which they may sleep poorly for 2-4 weeks. These sleep regressions are usually temporary and not a cause for concern.
Each of my children had very different sleep needs.
I still remember that two of my babies took an extreme number of short naps for a very long time. No matter what I tried, they were my „40-minute babies.“ I could literally set my watch by them. My friends even made jokes about it. (I, on the other hand, could think of funnier things. :-)) Longer daytime naps just weren’t an option.
One of my children, however, was what I called the „Queen of Naps.“ For the first eight months, I had to wake her up regularly—otherwise, she would sleep the entire day away and be wide awake for hours at night. She slept so much during the day that she only got 10-11 hours at night (on a good day!). That meant short nights, but at least my days were calm—giving me more time for my other kids.
One of my middle children still needed an occasional nap at nearly five years old. Kindergarten routines wore him out, and his bedtime with the older kids was always just a little too late for him. In contrast, one of my daughters decided—right on time for her second birthday—to completely drop her nap, which was very early and unusual. Even today, she needs the least sleep of all my kids. She wasn’t in daycare at the time and is probably just a natural night owl (just like her mama ;-)).
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Helpful Tips
If you suspect (or have now confirmed) that your baby could use more sleep, here are some practical tips to help make that happen.
Step 1: Keep a Sleep Log
To get a clear picture of your baby’s sleep patterns, it’s highly recommended to track their sleep for a few days.
Write down when and how long your baby sleeps.
I usually created a weekly sleep log (just a simple A4 sheet) and kept it in a central place with a pen nearby. Throughout the day, I marked down the times my baby slept. After a week, I had a great overview—and a much better idea of when my baby got tired or wanted to feed.
You can then compare these 24-hour averages with the total sleep needs listed in the table above.
Step 2: Analyze the Results
What do your notes reveal? Is your baby sleeping significantly less than the recommended amount?
If so, your little one might be overtired, and you may need to focus on helping them get more high-quality sleep.
How?
Step 3: Make Adjustments
By responding to their sleep cues more quickly, moving their bedtime earlier, and creating an ideal nap environment with a dark, calm setting. (Be sure to check out: „How to Help Your Baby Fall Asleep Independently“.)
Let’s Get Started…
Every child’s sleep needs are different—that’s only natural. But a guide like the one above can be incredibly helpful in understanding your baby’s individual requirements.
If you often feel that your baby or toddler isn’t well-rested, I encourage you to take a closer look at their sleep and track their sleep times for 3-5 days. Then, compare your notes to the table above.
Yes, it takes a little effort—but it’s absolutely worth it. For you (and your evenings). For the rest of your family. And most importantly, for your little one (remember all the amazing benefits of sufficient sleep!).
Start today! I’m excited to hear how your evenings improve. And who knows—maybe you’ll have a little super sleeper at home soon! 😉
Wishing you all the best and restful nights!
Sarah
