Babies need between 12 and 16 hours of sleep per day during their first year, with newborns sleeping even more. The exact amount depends on age, and those hours include both nighttime sleep and naps. Here’s what to expect at each stage and why all that sleep matters so much.
Sleep Needs by Age
The American Academy of Pediatrics endorses the following daily sleep totals, including naps:
- Newborns (0 to 3 months): 14 to 17 hours, spread across day and night in short bursts
- Infants (4 to 12 months): 12 to 16 hours
- Toddlers (1 to 2 years): 11 to 14 hours
These are ranges, not targets. A 6-month-old who sleeps 12.5 hours total and seems happy and alert during the day is doing fine, even if that’s on the lower end. Consistently falling well below these ranges, or a baby who seems drowsy and irritable even after a full night, is worth bringing up with your pediatrician.
Why Babies Sleep So Much
Sleep isn’t downtime for a baby’s brain. It’s when some of the most critical development happens. Growth hormone secretion peaks shortly after sleep onset, which is one reason newborns, who are growing faster than at any other point in life, need so many hours.
Sleep also plays a direct role in memory. Researchers have found that infant sleep helps consolidate new memories, turning fragile, freshly formed connections into stable ones that resist forgetting. Every time your baby practices reaching for a toy or recognizes your voice, sleep is what locks those experiences into place. The brain structures responsible for regulating sleep cycles are the same ones maturing alongside cognitive development, so the two processes are deeply intertwined.
How Baby Sleep Differs From Adult Sleep
About half of a newborn’s sleep is spent in REM, the stage associated with dreaming in adults. Compare that to older children and adults, who spend far less time in REM. This heavy dose of REM sleep is thought to support the rapid brain development happening in the first months of life.
Newborns also lack a circadian rhythm. For the first 8 to 12 weeks, they have no internal clock telling them the difference between day and night, which is why their sleep is scattered across 24 hours in seemingly random stretches. Around 6 to 8 weeks, the brain begins developing its own internal timing system. By 3 to 4 months, a baby starts producing melatonin (the hormone that signals sleepiness in response to darkness), and sleep patterns become noticeably more structured. This is typically when parents see the first hints of a predictable schedule emerge.
How Naps Change Over the First Year
Newborns don’t really “nap” in any organized sense. They cycle between sleeping and waking throughout the day and night, often in stretches of one to three hours. Once a baby reaches about 4 months, a more recognizable pattern takes shape: at least two naps a day, usually one in the morning and one in the early afternoon. Many babies also take a third, shorter nap in the late afternoon.
By around 9 months, most babies are ready to drop that third late-afternoon nap. Holding onto it too long can push bedtime later and make it harder to fall asleep at night. Most toddlers transition from two naps to one sometime between 12 and 18 months, though the timing varies widely.
Breastfed vs. Formula-Fed Sleep Patterns
There’s a common belief that formula-fed babies sleep longer, but research tells a more nuanced story. A study tracking sleep patterns from infancy through preschool found that fully breastfed babies actually had longer total nighttime and overall sleep durations than formula-fed babies at multiple time points through the first two years. The catch: breastfed babies also woke up more often at night between 6 and 12 months. So the individual stretches of sleep may feel shorter, even though the total adds up to more.
Partially breastfed babies showed no significant differences from fully breastfed babies in sleep duration. And daytime sleep was essentially the same regardless of feeding method. If you’re formula feeding and your baby sleeps differently than a breastfed baby you know, neither pattern is a problem on its own.
Recognizing When Your Baby Needs Sleep
Babies give off a sequence of cues when they’re getting sleepy, and catching them early makes a real difference. The first signs are subtle: staring into the distance, yawning, droopy eyelids, or furrowed brows. You might notice your baby rubbing their eyes, pulling on their ears, or turning away from stimulation like sounds, lights, or even the breast or bottle. That turning away is easy to mistake for disinterest in feeding when it’s actually drowsiness.
If those early signals get missed, babies tip into overtiredness, which paradoxically makes it harder for them to fall asleep. An overtired baby’s body releases cortisol and adrenaline, stress hormones that amp them up instead of calming them down. The signs shift from quiet cues to louder, more frantic crying, clinginess, arching the back, clenching fists, and sometimes visible sweating from the cortisol surge. Pediatricians note that parents sometimes get frustrated when a baby seems to cry for food but refuses to eat. That’s often a sign the baby is overtired, not hungry.
Safe Sleep Basics
The AAP’s safe sleep guidelines are straightforward. Place your baby on their back, in their own sleep space, with no other people in the bed. Use a crib, bassinet, or portable play yard with a firm, flat mattress and a fitted sheet. Keep loose blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, bumpers, and other soft items out of the sleep area entirely.
Avoid letting babies sleep on couches, armchairs, or in devices like swings and car seats (car seats are fine while actually in the car, but not as a sleep surface once you’re home). These guidelines apply to every sleep, including naps, not just nighttime.