Baby Sleep Schedule by Age: Nap and Sleep Chart for Every Stage

Why baby sleep doesn't follow a schedule at first

If you're hoping for a tidy schedule in the newborn weeks, here's the honest answer: it isn't coming yet, and that's normal. Newborns haven't developed a circadian rhythm, the internal body clock that eventually tells us to feel sleepy at night and alert during the day. That clock starts forming around 6 to 8 weeks and becomes more reliable by 3 to 4 months.

Until then, the most useful tool isn't a clock, it's the wake window, the stretch of time a baby can comfortably stay awake before needing to sleep again. Watch the wake window instead of the wall clock, and the "schedule" tends to fall into place on its own as your baby grows.

The sleep chart: birth to 5 years

Every range below is just that, a range. Some babies sleep at the low end and thrive; some need the high end. Use this as a starting point, not a verdict on how you're doing.

0 to 3 months

Newborns sleep a lot in total, but in short, scattered bursts of 1 to 3 hours around the clock, day and night blurred together. Wake windows are tiny, often just 45 to 60 minutes at first, which is why naps can feel like they're happening every time you turn around. There's no real bedtime yet either; "night sleep" simply means the longest stretch tends to land sometime after dark, once it starts forming.

By 8 to 10 weeks, you'll usually start to see the first hints of a rhythm: a slightly longer stretch overnight, naps clustering into something closer to a pattern, and wake windows stretching toward 60 to 90 minutes.

3 to 6 months

This is when things start to look more like a schedule. Most babies settle into 3 to 4 naps a day, wake windows extend to roughly 1.5 to 2.5 hours, and an earlier bedtime, often between 6:30 and 7:30pm, tends to produce better nights than a later one. It's also the age where the 4-month sleep regression tends to show up, a permanent shift in sleep architecture rather than a phase that simply passes.

6 to 12 months

Naps consolidate further during this stretch, typically dropping from 3 to 2 by around 7 to 9 months. Wake windows now run 2 to 3.5 hours depending on time of day (mornings are usually shorter than afternoons). This is also a common window for the 8 to 10 month sleep regression, driven by new motor skills like crawling and standing rather than anything going wrong with sleep itself.

1 to 2 years

Somewhere between 13 and 18 months, most toddlers make the 2-to-1 nap transition, dropping the morning nap and shifting to one longer midday nap. Total daytime sleep drops, but a single nap often runs 1.5 to 2.5 hours once it stabilizes. Bedtime usually stays in a similar window to the months before, though overtiredness can creep in faster if the single nap runs short.

2 to 5 years

The nap itself starts to become optional somewhere in this stretch, with most children dropping it entirely between 3 and 5 years. There's no single "right" age to lose the nap; it depends far more on how your child handles the hours before bedtime without one than on their birthday. A child who skips a nap and is calm and pleasant by dinner has probably outgrown it. A child who skips a nap and unravels by 4pm probably hasn't yet, regardless of age.

How to know your baby is ready for the next stage

Charts tell you what's typical. Your baby tells you what's true for them. A few real signs it's time to adjust naps, wake windows, or bedtime:

• Naps are shrinking on their own. If a nap that used to run 90 minutes is now consistently 30, the wake window before it may be too short.
• Bedtime is becoming a fight. A sudden change in how easily your baby falls asleep at night often means the schedule underneath it has quietly shifted.
• Early morning wake-ups appear out of nowhere. This is frequently a wake-window or nap-length issue, not a new "personality trait." More in our early morning wake-ups guide.
• One nap is consistently fighting to happen. A nap that's hard to start or short-lived for a week or more, not just one off day, is the clearest sign a transition (like 2-to-1 naps) may be due.