There isn’t a widely recognized sleep regression at exactly 22 months, but that doesn’t mean your toddler’s sudden sleep struggles are imaginary. Sleep regressions in toddlers most commonly occur around 18 months, 2 years, and 3 years. At 22 months, your child is close enough to the 2-year regression that many kids hit it early, and several developmental and physical changes converging at this age can explain why sleep falls apart.
Why 22 Months Is a Common Trouble Spot
The 2-year sleep regression isn’t a switch that flips on a child’s second birthday. It’s driven by developmental milestones that can emerge anytime in the months leading up to that mark. Between 18 and 26 months, toddlers are going through massive cognitive shifts: they’re learning that their voice can influence what happens around them, following two-step commands, building memory, and starting to test limits. Physically, they’re mastering jumping, climbing, and more focused play like puzzles and stacking towers. All of this brain activity can push sleep to the back burner.
Growing independence plays a central role. Your toddler now has the language skills to ask for “one more story,” another cup of water, or a trip to the potty at bedtime. These stall tactics aren’t random. They reflect a genuine desire to control their own schedule and keep you close. Separation anxiety, which is a normal developmental stage, often involves wanting a parent next to them at bedtime and typically doesn’t fully resolve until around age 2 or 3.
Molars May Be Part of the Picture
The timing of second molars is worth knowing about. Lower second molars typically begin erupting between 23 and 31 months, and upper second molars between 25 and 33 months. At 22 months, your child could be right on the leading edge of this process, even before a tooth visibly breaks through. Teething at this stage causes irritability, difficulty sleeping, red and swollen gums, increased drooling, and loss of appetite. If your toddler is suddenly waking at night and seems uncomfortable rather than defiant, molars are a likely culprit.
What This Regression Looks Like
The 2-year regression typically lasts 2 to 6 weeks. During that stretch, you might see bedtime resistance that didn’t exist before, night waking, early morning wake-ups, or nap refusal. Some toddlers experience all of these at once, while others have trouble in just one area.
Nap refusal is especially common and often the most alarming part for parents, because it can feel like your child is done napping entirely. They’re almost certainly not. Most toddlers need a nap until around age 4. At 22 months, the recommended total sleep is 11 to 14 hours in a 24-hour period, with roughly 10 to 12 hours at night and 1.5 to 3 hours during the day. A few rough nap days doesn’t mean the nap should go away.
When Nap Refusal Is Just a Phase
If your toddler starts fighting naps, look at their overall sleep patterns before making changes. A child who is consistently taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep at naptime or bedtime may need a schedule adjustment, like a slightly later nap or a shorter wake window before bed. But a child who was napping fine two weeks ago and suddenly refuses is more likely going through a regression than outgrowing the nap.
Keep offering the nap. Even if your toddler doesn’t sleep, quiet time in a dim room still provides rest. Most nap strikes at this age resolve on their own within a few weeks if you stay consistent with the routine.
How to Get Through It
The core strategy is straightforward: help your child fall asleep independently and hold consistent limits. Research on pediatric sleep problems consistently supports behavioral approaches built around these two goals.
In practice, that means keeping your bedtime routine predictable and relatively short. If your toddler has started making repeated requests after lights-out, decide in advance how many you’ll honor. One return trip for water is reasonable. Five is a pattern that will extend the regression. Respond to the requests calmly but briefly, and avoid introducing new sleep associations like lying down with your child or bringing them into your bed unless you want those to become permanent fixtures.
For night waking, the same principle applies. Brief, boring check-ins reassure your toddler that you’re there without turning the middle of the night into something stimulating enough to stay awake for. If teething pain seems to be driving the wake-ups, addressing that discomfort before bed can help everyone sleep longer.
Don’t Rush the Crib-to-Bed Switch
One of the biggest triggers for sleep disruption around this age is moving to a toddler bed too early. The crib provides a physical boundary that helps toddlers stay in their sleep space, and removing it during a regression makes everything harder. Unless your child is actively climbing out of the crib with the rail fully raised, or the crib rail only reaches their nipple line (making climbing easy), there’s no safety reason to switch yet.
If you do need to transition, a mattress directly on the floor is a practical option that eliminates fall risk. Going straight to a full-size bed is fine too, but protect all sides from potential falls. Avoid bunk beds until age 6. And if possible, don’t make the switch during an active regression. Changing the sleep environment while your toddler is already struggling with sleep adds a second disruption on top of the first.
What About Nighttime Fears?
Parents sometimes wonder if their 22-month-old is developing a fear of the dark or having nightmares. True fear-based sleep disruption tied to imagination tends to peak later, between ages 3 and 5, when creative brain growth accelerates and imaginative play becomes more complex. At 22 months, what looks like fear is more often separation anxiety or general protest about being alone. The distinction matters because the response is different: separation anxiety calls for brief reassurance, while fear of the dark in older children may benefit from a nightlight or a specific comfort object.