How Many Naps Does Your Baby Need?

In the beginning, your newborn baby will sleep almost all the time, and by then you don’t have to worry about naps.

In the beginning, your newborn sleep patterns and schedule will be quite unpredictable, so it will be hard to tell if he’s going to have five or eight naps per day. As long as your little one doesn’t sort out the difference between night and day, and as long as he sleeps deep and tight like all babies, be sure that you won’t be having any problem with him.

Once your baby’s social and motor skills develop and once he’s more capable of controlling his wakefulness and knowing the difference between day and night, your nighttime tasks will minimize, which means that your baby will wake up less during the night and his sleep habits will change based on his temperament and daily routine.

Your baby may have different sleep patterns than other children his age. He may need more or less hours of sleep, but here are some general guidelines as to how many hours sleep an average baby who’s less than one year old:

Usually, babies (between 2 and 12 months of age) sleep between 9 and 12 hours during the night, knowing that babies (between 6 and 12 months of age) are primed to go to sleep at around 6 and 8 p.m.

During the day, most babies sleep an average of 2 to 4 hours and a half, distributed around the morning and the afternoon.

As babies grow up, their day sleep average decreases and they become more alert and awake between naps. At 6 months old, your baby will likely take 1 to 4 naps a day, provided that each nap lasts between 30 minutes to 2 hours. In other words, your baby will continue to sleep for 6 consecutive hours, but he will be waking less at night to breastfeed.

Remember. These are just general guidelines about the sleeping pattern of babies between 6 and 12 months of age. In case they do not apply to your child, that’s fine! The most important thing is that your baby gets enough sleep and his nap time doesn’t affect his daily energy level.

Read More: Baby Sleep Routine