How much sleep does a baby need - Guide from 0-24 months

As babies grow, their total sleep requirement decreases. Daytime sleep diminishes, and a larger portion of their sleep happen at night (daysleep decreases).

This guide will cover the recommended number of hours of sleep for each age and what the sleep pattern for both daytime and nighttime sleep might look like at various ages.

How Many Hours Are Enough?

Research links adequate sleep in babies to several health benefits, including:

• Improved concentration

• Memory

• Learning

• Behavior

• Emotional regulation

• Mental health

• Physical health

Babies between 4-12 months should sleep a total amount of 12-16 hours per 24 hours.¹ At the Stanford medicine of children health these amount of hours are considered common at each age:

Source: Stanford medicine, Childrens health

How Much Should a Baby Sleep During the Day?

Babies under two years of age fulfill a portion of their total sleep requirement during the day. Around 2-3 months of age, babies typically develop a clearer circadian rhythm, beginning to sleep more during the night. However, they continue to need daytime sleep to meet their total sleep needs.

Source: Stanford medicine, Childrens health

Sleep Needs for Newborns (0-3 months)

A newborn's body has not yet fully developed the ability to regulate sleep according to the time of day, light, or darkness. They also need to eat frequently due to their small stomachs and limited reserves.

Sleep is often spread over 24 hours although breast milk contains melatonin at night and cortisol during the day, which can help regulate a nursing baby's sleep rhythm.²

No specific recommendation has been established for newborns as it has for babies over 2 months old. Typically, a newborn sleeps about 8-9 hours during the day and 8 hours at night, though not consecutively.¹ A newborn usually wakes up at least every 3 hours to feed.⁴ For a newborn, food is such a central issue in the beginning that it is the first thing to try to address if the baby does not seem satisfied or cannot sleep.

A newborn baby usually sleeps 1-2 hours at a time during the day. After about 1-2 hours of wakefulness, a newborn needs to sleep again.¹

From around 2 months, you can begin using Napper to log your child's sleep, but the app is most effective from 4 months.

Can a newborn sleep too much?

The very first stretch of sleep after the baby is born and has been awake for some time and fed for the first time can often be 5-6 hours long. A healthy, full-term baby is born with energy reserves to handle this if they have fed before falling asleep. After that, however, it is normal for a newborn to wake up approximately every 2-3 hours during the first few weeks to feed actively.⁴

In the beginning, it is important to ensure that breastfeeding or bottle feeding gets started and that the baby is gaining weight. Then, it is not recommended to let the child sleep more than about 3 hours between meals.⁴

If a breastfeeding baby repeatedly wakes up but doesn't manage to breastfeed properly (or falls asleep without breastfeeding), you should seek medical advice to help make sure you baby have the energy to breastfeed "actively."⁵

In some cases, supplementary feeding may also be necessary in the first days to raise blood sugar levels so that they have the energy to breastfeed. Fatigue that prevents the baby from waking up or eating properly can also have other underlying causes.⁴

Contact healthcare if you suspect that your newborn baby is too tired, seems dissatisfied, or is not eating properly to get guidance and advice.

Sleep Needs for Babies Between 4-12 Months

Babies between 4-12 months often begin to develop a sleep rhythm where more sleep is allocated to nighttime. However, they still need to nap several times during the day to recover and maintain a good mood.¹

A baby between 4-12 months needs to sleep about 12-16 hours per day on average (including naps).

Some babies may start sleeping through the night around 6 months, but it's also common for them to wake up one or a few times during the night. Sometimes, sudden changes in sleep patterns— so-called sleep regressions —can occur.¹ The number of naps can usually look something like this:

Source: Napper

Napper allows you to create a sleep schedule tailored to your baby. The app calculates changes in real-time based on when your baby woke up that day and grows with your baby without needing to change settings.

Sleep Needs for Babies Between 1-2 Years

A baby between 1-2 years typically needs to sleep about 11-14 hours per day (including naps).¹ They usually nap 1-2 times a day until about 16 months. Sometime during the second year, they transition to one nap a day.

Source: Napper

Creating a Sleep Schedule

By following existing recommendations, you can create a sleep schedule for your baby. A sleep schedule helps establish regular sleep times and ensures your baby gets enough sleep.⁶ It can also make planning your day easier and help you anticipate nap times before overtiredness sets in.⁷ A sleep schedule should consider:

• Your desired wake-up time in the morning

• The recommended amount of daytime and nighttime sleep for your baby's age

• The recommended optimal wake window for your baby's age

• Your baby's individual development

The sleep schedule also needs to be updated as your baby grows.⁶

Given the many factors to consider and the changing sleep needs over time, using a digital tool to calculate a sleep schedule can often be easiest. Napper provides a tailored sleep schedule by logging your baby's sleep, automatically updating the schedule as your baby grows based on your baby's logged data, scientific recommendations, and data from millions of logged sleep sessions from other babies of the same age.