An 8-month-old typically sleeps about 6 to 8 hours at night in their longest stretch, with a total of 12 to 16 hours of sleep per day including naps. Some babies this age sleep through the night in one solid block, but many still wake once or twice, and that’s normal too.
Nighttime Sleep vs. Total Sleep
The 12 to 16 hours recommended for babies aged 4 to 12 months covers everything: nighttime sleep plus daytime naps. At 8 months, most babies are taking two naps a day, which means roughly 2 to 3 hours of daytime sleep and 10 to 12 hours at night. The longest unbroken stretch at night is usually 6 to 8 hours, though plenty of healthy babies fall on either side of that range.
Between naps, 8-month-olds do best with wake windows of about 2.5 to 4.5 hours. The shortest window is usually in the morning after they first wake, and the longest falls before bedtime. If your baby fights a nap or takes forever to fall asleep at night, the wake window before that sleep period may be too short. If they’re melting down well before their usual nap or bedtime, it’s likely too long.
Why Your 8-Month-Old May Be Waking More
If your baby was sleeping well and suddenly isn’t, you’re probably in the middle of the 8-to-10-month sleep regression. This isn’t a step backward. It’s a side effect of your baby’s brain and body doing a lot of new things at once. Around this age, many babies start crawling, pulling to stand, sitting independently, and teething. Their brains are so busy processing these skills that sleep takes a hit. Some babies will even practice crawling or standing in their crib at 2 a.m. simply because they can.
Separation anxiety also tends to appear or intensify around 8 months. If your baby cries the moment you step away from the crib, that’s a developmental milestone, not a sleep problem. They’re learning that you exist even when they can’t see you, and that realization can make bedtime feel more stressful for them. Greater awareness of their surroundings can also lead to overstimulation, making it harder to wind down.
Sleep regressions at this age are temporary. They typically last 2 to 6 weeks, and the best thing you can do is stay consistent with your existing bedtime routine rather than introducing new habits you’ll need to undo later.
Night Feedings at 8 Months
Whether your baby still needs to eat overnight depends partly on how they’re fed. Breastfed 8-month-olds may still need up to 3 feedings per night, while formula-fed babies at this age generally need zero to one. Most formula-fed infants are naturally weaning off nighttime feeds by now, and experts suggest that both breastfed and formula-fed babies can drop night feeds around 8 to 9 months if it works for both parent and child.
The key is making sure your baby gets enough calories during the day. If a baby fills up at night, they eat less during the day, which makes them hungrier at night again. Breaking that cycle means gradually shifting calories toward daytime meals and milk feeds. At 8 months, your baby is eating solid foods alongside breast milk or formula, so there’s more opportunity to get those daytime calories in.
How Infant Sleep Cycles Differ From Yours
Babies cycle through sleep stages faster than adults do, and they spend less time in deep, dreaming sleep. These shorter cycles mean more opportunities to wake up between them. Adults transition between cycles without fully waking, but babies are still learning that skill. This is one reason night wakings are so common at this age even when nothing else is wrong. Each time your baby reaches the end of a sleep cycle, they may briefly surface to full consciousness before (ideally) drifting back to sleep.
Keeping the Crib Safe
At 8 months, your baby’s crib should still have nothing in it except a firm mattress with a fitted sheet. No blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, crib bumpers, loveys, or weighted sleep products. Even items that seem small or lightweight are linked to suffocation, entrapment, and strangulation. A bare crib looks sparse, but it is the safest sleep environment for a baby this age. If you’re worried about warmth, a wearable sleep sack is a safe alternative to loose blankets.
Your baby should also continue sleeping on their back when you place them down. If they roll onto their stomach on their own during the night (which most 8-month-olds can do), you don’t need to keep flipping them back as long as they got there independently.