Most healthy one-year-olds are physically capable of sleeping through the night without a feeding, but many still wake up. The reasons are almost always developmental rather than medical: separation anxiety, teething, new physical skills, or simply never having learned to fall back asleep independently. The good news is that each of these has a practical fix, and most families see improvement within one to four weeks of consistent changes.
Why Your One-Year-Old Still Wakes Up
Around 12 months, several developmental shifts collide at once. Your child is learning to stand, cruise, or walk. Language is starting to click. Emotional awareness is sharpening. All of this brain and body growth creates restlessness and overstimulation that spills into nighttime sleep.
Separation anxiety is the biggest sleep disruptor at this age. It peaks between 10 and 18 months, and one of its hallmark signs is a baby who previously slept through the night suddenly waking and crying. Your child isn’t manipulating you. Their brain has developed enough to understand you exist when you leave the room, but not enough to feel confident you’ll come back. That’s a genuinely distressing feeling, and it tends to hit hardest in the dark.
Teething adds another layer. Many one-year-olds are cutting their first molars, which are larger and more painful than the front teeth. The discomfort tends to worsen at night because there are fewer distractions. If your child is drooling heavily, chewing on everything, or has swollen gums, teething is likely contributing to the wake-ups.
How Much Sleep to Expect
Children between 12 and 24 months need 11 to 14 hours of total sleep per day, including naps. Most one-year-olds get about 10 to 12 hours at night and 2 to 3 hours during the day, split across one or two naps. If your child is getting significantly less than 11 hours total, the wake-ups may be partly a scheduling issue rather than a behavioral one.
Build a Predictable Bedtime Routine
A consistent bedtime routine is the single most effective tool for helping a toddler settle. It works because repetition signals the brain that sleep is coming, giving your child time to wind down before you expect them to close their eyes. Start about 20 minutes before the target bedtime and keep the steps the same every night: a bath, brushing teeth (or wiping gums), putting on pajamas, then a quiet activity like reading a book or singing a song together.
The key is keeping it calm and keeping it predictable. Avoid screens, roughhousing, or anything stimulating in that final stretch. Dim the lights in the room where you do the routine. And aim for the same bedtime each night, even on weekends. One-year-olds don’t adjust well to shifting schedules, and an inconsistent bedtime is one of the most common hidden causes of night waking.
Teach Independent Sleep Skills
The core issue for most families is that the child doesn’t know how to fall asleep without a parent present. If your one-year-old needs to be rocked, nursed, or held to sleep at bedtime, they’ll need the same thing every time they naturally wake between sleep cycles overnight. Teaching them to fall asleep on their own at bedtime is what ultimately eliminates those middle-of-the-night calls for help.
Two approaches work well at this age. The graduated method (sometimes called the Ferber method) involves putting your child down awake, leaving the room, and returning to briefly check on them at increasing intervals. Most families see results within 7 to 10 days. You might check after 3 minutes, then 5, then 10, keeping each visit short and boring: a pat, a quiet phrase, then leave again.
If that feels too abrupt, the chair method is gentler but slower. You sit in a chair next to the crib while your child falls asleep, then move the chair a little farther away each night until you’re outside the room. This can take up to four weeks, but some parents find it more comfortable emotionally. The trade-off is that progress is more gradual and there’s more opportunity for the process to stall.
One important note for toddlers specifically: unlike younger babies, a one-year-old has a voice and strong opinions. Crying may be louder and more persistent than it would have been at six months. That’s normal and doesn’t mean the approach isn’t working. Consistency matters more than which method you choose. Switching strategies every few days resets the clock and extends everyone’s frustration.
Phase Out Night Feedings
By 12 months, most children are getting enough nutrition during the day that night feeds are no longer necessary for growth. If your child is healthy and gaining weight normally, it’s reasonable to start night weaning. For breastfed babies, this is generally appropriate from 12 months onward. Formula-fed babies can be weaned from night feeds even earlier, since formula digests more slowly and hunger is rarely the reason for overnight waking after six months.
The simplest approach is to gradually reduce what you offer. If you’re nursing, shorten each session by a minute or two every few nights. If you’re bottle feeding, reduce the volume by about half an ounce every few nights. As the feeding shrinks, your child will naturally stop waking for it. You can also try offering water instead, which removes the caloric incentive without leaving your child thirsty.
Get the Nap Schedule Right
A nap schedule that’s off, even slightly, can wreck nighttime sleep. Most one-year-olds still need two naps a day, but somewhere between 13 and 18 months they’ll transition to one. Pushing this transition too early is a common mistake that leads to overtiredness and more night waking, not less.
Signs your child is genuinely ready to drop to one nap include consistently fighting or refusing one of the two naps, taking very short naps, needing a very late bedtime to fit both naps in, or experiencing new night wakings or early morning wake-ups. Look for these signs to persist for at least one to two weeks before making the switch. A few bad nap days in a row during a developmental leap doesn’t mean it’s time to change the schedule.
If your child is still solidly on two naps, make sure the second nap ends early enough that there are at least four hours of awake time before bed. A nap that runs too late into the afternoon pushes bedtime later, which creates a cascade of overtiredness the next day.
Optimize the Sleep Environment
Your child’s room should be dark, cool, and boring. Use blackout curtains if streetlight or early morning sun comes in. A white noise machine set at a consistent volume helps mask household sounds and provides an auditory sleep cue. Keep the room between 68 and 72°F (20 to 22°C).
At 12 months, the safe sleep guidelines still apply. Use a firm, flat mattress with a fitted sheet and nothing else in the crib: no pillows, loose blankets, stuffed animals, or bumper pads. If you’re worried about warmth, a wearable sleep sack is the safest option. Your child should sleep on their back in their own sleep space.
Handling Separation Anxiety at Night
Because separation anxiety peaks right around this age, you may need to address it directly. During the day, practice short separations: leave the room for a moment, come back cheerfully, and gradually extend the time. This builds your child’s confidence that you always return.
At bedtime, keep your goodbye brief and warm. A long, drawn-out departure actually increases anxiety. Say the same short phrase each night (“Goodnight, I love you, see you in the morning”), then leave. If your child cries, use whatever check-in method you’ve chosen, but resist the urge to pick them up and start the whole bedtime routine over. That teaches them that crying long enough reverses the separation, which makes the anxiety worse over time rather than better.
When Night Waking Signals Something Else
Most night waking in one-year-olds is behavioral or developmental, not medical. But certain patterns are worth paying attention to. Snoring or pauses in breathing during sleep can indicate obstructive sleep apnea, which is treatable but won’t resolve on its own. Excessive restlessness, repetitive movements, or frequent night terrors (episodes where your child screams inconsolably but doesn’t seem awake) are also worth mentioning to your pediatrician. These are uncommon at this age but not impossible, and they require different solutions than the behavioral strategies above.
If your child’s sleep doesn’t improve after three to four weeks of consistent effort with the strategies here, or if you notice breathing irregularities during sleep, that’s a good reason to bring it up at your next visit.