Most babies transition from two naps to one nap between 13 and 18 months old. This is one of the biggest sleep schedule shifts in the first two years, and it rarely happens overnight. The transition typically unfolds over several weeks, with some days looking like a one-nap schedule and others clearly still needing two.
Signs Your Baby Is Ready
Age alone isn’t enough to go by. A 13-month-old who still takes two solid naps and sleeps well at night doesn’t need a schedule change. The real signals come from your child’s behavior, and you want to see them consistently for at least one to two weeks before making the switch. Isolated bad nap days don’t count.
The signs to watch for include:
- Nap resistance: Your baby regularly protests, stalls, or flat-out refuses one of their two naps, usually the afternoon one.
- Trouble falling asleep: Naptime or bedtime takes significantly longer than it used to.
- Short naps: Naps that were once 60 or 90 minutes shrink to 30 or 40.
- Night wakings or early mornings: Sleep pressure builds unevenly, causing your baby to wake at 5 a.m. or pop up in the middle of the night.
- Bedtime creep: Fitting two naps into the day pushes bedtime so late that it cuts into nighttime sleep.
If you’re seeing several of these together for two weeks straight, your baby is likely ready. If it’s just one sign, or it comes and goes, you may be looking at a developmental leap, teething, or a temporary regression rather than a true readiness to drop a nap.
Why Transitioning Too Early Backfires
It’s tempting to drop the second nap the moment your baby fights it once or twice. But cutting a nap before a child is physiologically ready creates a sleep debt that compounds quickly. Research published in Neurobiology of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms found that toddlers who missed a daytime nap fell asleep faster that night (about 12 minutes versus 37 minutes) and slept roughly 30 minutes longer, but their brains showed significantly increased deep-sleep activity, a marker of built-up sleep pressure. In other words, the body was working overtime to compensate for lost daytime rest.
That compensation sounds harmless for one night, but when it happens day after day, it shows up as crankiness, difficulty regulating emotions, and paradoxically worse sleep. Overtired toddlers often fight bedtime harder and wake more frequently, creating a cycle that’s tough to break. If your child is under 13 months and resisting naps, adjusting wake windows or capping morning naps is almost always a better first move than dropping to one nap.
How to Make the Switch
The smoothest approach for most families is alternating between one-nap and two-nap days rather than switching cold turkey. Start by choosing one day a week to try a single nap. Keep your child busy and distracted through the morning, aiming to put them down after about five to six hours of wakefulness. If the nap goes well and nighttime sleep stays on track, try another one-nap day a few days later. If the nap is too short or night sleep falls apart, go back to two naps for the rest of the week and try again the following week.
Gradually increase the number of one-nap days each week. Most children settle into a full one-nap schedule within a few weeks, though some need a month or more. Expect some bumpy days during the transition. That’s normal and temporary.
What a One-Nap Schedule Looks Like
Once your toddler is fully on one nap, the daily rhythm shifts substantially. Wake windows stretch to four to six hours on either side of the nap, which is a big jump from the three-hour windows most babies had on a two-nap schedule.
A typical one-nap day looks something like this: wake up around 7:00 a.m., nap from noon to 2:00 or 2:30 p.m., bedtime around 7:00 p.m. As your toddler gets older, the nap may shift slightly later, to 12:30 or even 1:00 p.m., with bedtime adjusting to 7:30. Pushing the nap past 1:00 p.m. generally isn’t recommended because it can delay bedtime too much.
The single nap should ideally last two to two and a half hours. Anything under 90 minutes usually isn’t enough to carry a toddler through the afternoon without significant overtiredness. If naps are consistently short in the first week or two, that’s common while the body adjusts. It can take a week or more for the nap to naturally lengthen as your child’s sleep pressure consolidates into one longer stretch.
Total Sleep to Aim For
Toddlers between 12 and 24 months need roughly 11 to 14 hours of total sleep in a 24-hour period, including naps. On a one-nap schedule with a two-hour afternoon nap, that means about 10 to 12 hours of nighttime sleep. Most toddlers in this age range land around 11 total hours of nighttime sleep plus the nap, though individual needs vary.
If your child is consistently getting less than 11 hours total and seems tired, cranky, or wired in the late afternoon, the schedule may need adjusting. An earlier bedtime is the simplest fix during the transition period. Moving bedtime up by 30 minutes on one-nap days helps bridge the gap while your toddler’s body adapts to longer stretches of wakefulness.
When One Nap Sticks Around
Most children stay on a one-nap schedule until somewhere between age 3 and 5, making this the longest-lasting nap stage. Once the transition is complete, you can expect a fairly predictable routine for a year or more. The nap may gradually shorten from two-plus hours down to 90 minutes as your toddler approaches the preschool years, but the midday timing tends to stay consistent. Enjoy the predictability while it lasts.