An 11-month-old needs 12 to 16 hours of total sleep per day, split between nighttime sleep and daytime naps. Most babies this age get around 10 to 12 hours at night and another 2 to 3 hours across two naps during the day.
Total Sleep and How It Breaks Down
The recommended range of 12 to 16 hours covers a wide spread because every baby is different. Some 11-month-olds land closer to 12 hours and function perfectly well, while others genuinely need the full 16. What matters more than hitting a single number is that your baby is getting consistent, restorative sleep across both night and day.
At this age, nighttime sleep typically makes up the largest chunk. Most 11-month-olds sleep 10 to 12 hours overnight, with an additional 2 to 3 hours of daytime napping. If your baby consistently falls below 12 hours total or seems irritable and wired despite what looks like enough sleep, the schedule itself may need adjusting rather than the total amount.
Naps: How Many and How Long
Most 11-month-olds take two naps per day. Each nap should last at least 60 minutes to be restorative. A common pattern looks something like a morning nap around 9:30 or 10:00 and an afternoon nap around 2:00 or 2:30, with each running roughly 1 to 1.25 hours.
You may notice your baby starting to resist one of those naps, especially the second one. That can look like readiness to drop down to a single nap, but it probably isn’t. Most children aren’t ready for a consistent one-nap schedule until at least 14 months. At 11 months, what often helps more is stretching the awake time between naps rather than eliminating one entirely. Babies this age typically need wake windows of 3 to 4 hours between sleep periods, and sometimes simply extending from 3 hours to 3.5 or 4 hours builds enough sleep pressure to make both naps work again.
Dropping a nap too early tends to backfire. Overtired babies have a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep, which leads to more night waking, earlier morning wake-ups, and increased fussiness during the day.
Signs Your Baby Is Ready for Sleep
At 11 months, your baby’s sleep cues may be subtler than they were a few months ago. Some babies rub their eyes or ears, others get clingy or lose interest in toys. Yawning is the obvious one, but it often shows up late in the process.
If you miss the window and your baby tips into overtiredness, the signs shift. Instead of getting drowsy, overtired babies often become hyperactive or wired. This happens because the stress hormone cortisol spikes when a baby stays awake too long, along with adrenaline, which amps them up instead of calming them down. You might also notice louder, more frantic crying than usual, or even unusual sweating. Watching the clock alongside your baby’s behavior helps. If you know their wake window is around 3 to 4 hours, you can start winding things down before the overtired spiral kicks in.
Night Waking Is Still Normal
If your 11-month-old still wakes up at night, you’re in good company. Research tracking over 5,700 babies found that nighttime wakings persist throughout the entire first year, with wide variation from baby to baby. Some sleep through consistently, others wake multiple times. Both ends of that spectrum fall within the range of normal development.
One factor worth examining is night feeding. Most babies at 10 to 12 months can get all the calories they need during the day, meaning night feeds are often more habit than nutritional necessity. Breastfed babies this age may still take zero to two feeds overnight, and formula-fed babies zero to one. If your baby is still feeding frequently at night, those calories can suppress daytime appetite, which in turn keeps the cycle going. Gradually shifting more calories into daytime meals can help, though the process takes patience.
Why Sleep Gets Disrupted Around 11 Months
Eleven months is a busy time developmentally, and that busyness spills directly into sleep. Your baby may be learning to pull up to standing, cruising along furniture, or even attempting first steps. Cognitively, they’re figuring out that you still exist when you leave the room, imitating sounds, and possibly saying their first intentional words. All of this brain activity can make them resist naps, wake more often at night, or take longer to settle.
This is sometimes called a sleep regression, though it’s really a sign of progression. Your baby’s brain is working overtime to consolidate new skills, and that processing doesn’t stop just because it’s bedtime. You might find your baby practicing standing in the crib at 2 a.m., too excited about their new abilities to lie back down. These disruptions are temporary. They typically resolve within a few weeks as the new skills become less novel and more automatic.
Putting a Schedule Together
A practical schedule for an 11-month-old often looks something like this: wake around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m., first nap roughly 3 to 3.5 hours later, second nap about 3 to 3.5 hours after waking from the first, and bedtime 3.5 to 4 hours after the second nap ends. That puts bedtime somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. for most families.
The specific clock times matter less than the spacing. Keeping wake windows consistent helps your baby build enough sleep pressure to fall asleep without a fight, while preventing the overtiredness that makes everything harder. If your baby is regularly getting less than 10 hours of nighttime sleep on a two-nap schedule, it may be worth experimenting with slightly longer wake windows or an earlier bedtime before making bigger changes like dropping a nap.
Some days will go off-script, especially during developmental leaps, teething, or illness. A single rough day doesn’t mean the schedule is broken. Consistency over the course of a week matters more than perfection on any given day.