Babies need significantly more sleep than adults, but the exact amount changes quickly during the first two years of life. A newborn may sleep 14 to 17 hours in a 24-hour period, while a one-year-old needs closer to 12 to 14 hours total. Here’s what to expect at each stage, how naps fit in, and what’s actually happening in your baby’s body during all that sleep.
Sleep Totals by Age
Newborns (0 to 3 months) typically sleep 14 to 17 hours per day, but almost never in long stretches. Most of that sleep comes in short bursts of two to three hours, broken up by feedings around the clock. There’s no real difference between day and night sleep at this stage because newborns haven’t developed the internal clock that tells them when it’s daytime.
Between 4 and 12 months, babies typically get 12 to 16 hours of sleep over the course of 24 hours. By around six months, that usually breaks down to about 10 hours overnight and four to five hours during the day spread across naps. This is when sleep starts to consolidate into longer nighttime stretches, which is a noticeable shift for most parents.
Toddlers ages one to two generally need 11 to 14 hours of total sleep, including one or two naps. As they approach their second birthday, most toddlers settle into a single afternoon nap.
How Naps Change in the First Year
After the newborn period, most babies nap at least twice a day: once in the morning and once in the early afternoon. Many also take a third, shorter nap in the late afternoon. Around nine months, that third nap usually drops off naturally. By 10 to 12 months, many babies also drop the morning nap, leaving just one longer midday or afternoon nap.
The timing of naps matters almost as much as the duration. Babies who miss their window of drowsiness can become overtired, which paradoxically makes it harder for them to fall asleep. When a baby is too tired, their body releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline that amp them up instead of calming them down. The result is a wired, fussy baby who fights sleep even though they desperately need it.
Recognizing When Your Baby Is Tired
Catching early sleep cues helps you put your baby down before they hit that overtired wall. The first signs are subtle: yawning, droopy eyelids, rubbing their eyes, pulling on their ears, or staring into the distance. Some babies start sucking their fingers or turning away from stimulation, losing interest in toys, the bottle, or even your face. Fussiness, clinginess, and a kind of prolonged whining (sometimes called “grizzling”) are also early indicators.
If you miss those cues, the signs escalate. An overtired baby often cries louder and more frantically than usual, may start sweating from the cortisol surge, and can shift from calm to inconsolable in what feels like seconds. Learning your baby’s early cues and responding quickly makes both naps and bedtime significantly smoother.
Why Babies Need So Much Sleep
Newborns can’t distinguish between day and night. Their circadian rhythm, the internal clock that regulates sleep-wake cycles in adults, hasn’t matured yet. It takes weeks to months for this system to develop, which is why newborn sleep feels so chaotic. You can help the process along by keeping your baby in bright or sunny spaces during the day and dimming lights at night.
Sleep also drives physical growth in a very direct way. The body increases its release of growth hormone after sleep onset and during deep sleep stages. A study published through the American Academy of Sleep Medicine was the first to link sleep duration to infant growth spurts, finding that the hormonal changes during sleep could stimulate bone growth. This connection may even explain the “growing pains” that wake some children at night. Beyond physical growth, sleep is when the brain processes and consolidates everything a baby learned while awake, from recognizing faces to developing motor skills.
Night Feedings and Sleep Stretches
One of the biggest factors in how long your baby sleeps at a stretch is whether they still need to eat overnight. Newborns wake every two to three hours for feeds regardless of the time. By around three months, many babies begin sleeping in longer stretches of four to five continuous hours at night, which can feel like a breakthrough after months of fragmented sleep.
For most breastfed babies, sleeping through the night without a feed doesn’t happen until after six months, and some continue needing nighttime feeds until close to their first birthday. Bottle-fed babies tend to drop night feeds earlier, often around six months. These are averages, not deadlines. A baby who still wakes to eat at eight months is still within the range of normal.
Sleep Regressions
Just when sleep starts to feel predictable, many parents hit a stretch where their baby suddenly wakes more often, fights naps, or takes longer to settle. These periods are commonly called sleep regressions, and while people often pin them to specific ages (four months, eight months, twelve months), they’re less about the calendar and more about what your baby is going through developmentally.
The most widely recognized regression happens around four months, when a baby’s sleep architecture shifts to include more adult-like sleep cycles. Other regressions often coincide with physical milestones like rolling over or pulling up to stand. Babies sometimes want to stay awake and practice their new skills. Separation anxiety, which tends to peak around nine months, is another common trigger. Sleep regressions are temporary, usually lasting a few weeks, though they can feel much longer in the moment.
Setting Up a Safe Sleep Space
The current safe sleep guidelines, based on the AAP’s 2022 recommendations and supported by the CDC, are straightforward. Place your baby on their back for every sleep, both naps and nighttime. Use a firm, flat mattress in a safety-approved crib or bassinet, covered only by a fitted sheet. Keep blankets, pillows, bumper pads, and soft toys out of the sleep area entirely.
Room sharing (not bed sharing) is recommended for at least the first six months. This means your baby sleeps in their own crib or bassinet in your bedroom. Other protective steps include avoiding overheating (if your baby is sweating or their chest feels hot, they’re too warm), not smoking or allowing smoking around your baby, and offering a pacifier at nap and bedtime. If you’re breastfeeding, you may want to wait until breastfeeding is well established before introducing a pacifier.