How Much Sleep Does a Baby Need?

One of the biggest talking points among new parents is how much their babies sleep. While certain newborns will live up to the old adage of ‘sleeping like a baby’ and sleep through the night pretty much straight away, others will take a bit longer to settle into a routine and might decide that it’s much more fun to be nocturnal.
Sleep is something that we often take for granted before we have children, but suddenly, when we find ourselves deprived of it on a daily basis, it’s all we can think or talk about! Here is a brief guide to how much sleep a baby needs for the first three years of life.

Newborns

Of course, each newborn is different, but in those first few weeks of life, babies tend to sleep for between 16 and 19 hours a day, generally in two-four hour stretches.
In these early days, it’s hard for babies to tell the difference between day and night; this, coupled with the fact that newborns have small tummies so need to eat little and often, can lead to a few sleepless nights!
Some newborns will sleep for longer periods at a time which is fine, unless perhaps they are premature or of a low birth weight, in which case you may be advised by your health visitor to wake them more regularly for feeds.

Three – six months

By the age of three months, many babies will have settled into more of a routine and, with any luck, will be sleeping for up to six hours a night.
Between the ages of three and six months, as a general rule, babies will be sleeping for approximately 14 hours a day, which may be distributed ten hours at night and four during the day, although don’t expect to have an uninterrupted night.

Six to 12 months

When your baby is aged between six and 12 months, you may start to think about cutting down his daytime naps to two naps of approximately two hours. If you’re very lucky, your baby may now be sleeping through the night, for up to 11-12 hours – if you put your baby to bed at 7pm, he might even sleep through to 7am! This will seem like bliss, but, as stated above, babies are individuals so don’t be too demoralised if your baby still wakes at night. Also, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that if you put your baby to bed late at night he will be more likely to sleep in late. In fact, the opposite may be true. If your baby doesn’t go to bed until 10 or 11pm, he may well be overtired and have a restless and disturbed night’s sleep, so try to establish a sensible bedtime routine in the early months which sees your baby in bed by 7pm.

12-18 months

Between the ages of 12 and 18 months, you may decide to reduce your baby’s naps still further, especially if you find that he’s still waking in the night. As every child is different, there is no hard and fast rule as to how long your one year old should sleep for, but you may decide that one long afternoon nap of two hours is sufficient.

Two years

When your child reaches the age of two and the toddler years are fully upon you, you may find that he is resistant to going to bed as there are too many other exciting things for him to do. You should be firm and establish some boundaries. If you find that your toddler is still waking in the night and getting up at 6am, then you may find our feature on Coping with an early riser helpful.
By the age of two, your child should definitely need no more than one nap during the day of between one and two hours. If you have a bedtime routine firmly in place, he will also with luck be sleeping through the night for a period of up to 12 hours!

Three years

By the age of three, your child should need approximately 12 hours’ sleep. You may decide to cut out your child’s daytime rest altogether or, alternatively, reduce it to one hour-long nap.  You can expect your three-year-old to sleep for about ten hours a night. The benefits of establishing a bedtime routine early on should not be underestimated; the calmer and more settled your child is before going to sleep, the more likely he is to sleep through, so avoid anything that might make him too hyper or over-excited before he goes to bed. Watch our video on bedtime routines for more information.
The following chart should serve only as a rough guide. Remember: every child’s different, so the amount of sleep needed will differ from baby to baby.

Age	Night	Day	Total hours of sleep
Birth – 3 months	Spread between night and day		16 – 19 hours
3 – 6 months	10 hours	4 hours	14 hours
6 – 12 months	10 hours	2 – 4 hours	12-14 hours
12-18 months	11 hours	1-2 hours	10-13 hours
18-24 months	12 hours	1 hour	13 hours
2-3 years	12 hours	1 hour (optional)	13 hours

Sleep diaries

You may also find it helpful to keep a sleep diary as a record of your baby’s sleep patterns. As the name suggests, this is literally a diary in which you can chart everything from how long it takes your baby to settle to how many times he wakes in the night, how long he wakes each time and what time he wakes up in the morning.
This might be a useful guide for you, as it will help you to get a clearer picture of your baby’s sleep patterns. You can then talk to your health visitor about any worries or concerns you may have. You could draw up a chart consisting of seven columns across for the days of the week and twenty-four rows down for the hours. Colour in the hours that your baby is asleep during the day and night. You could also use the diary as a way of charting the times when your baby is feeding.