How much sleep does your baby *actually* need?
How much sleep does my baby really need?
Oof, the age-old question… “how much sleep does my baby really need?”. The answer: You’ll have to figure it out yourself -with the help of your baby’s cues, of course.
Sorry to disappoint but there’s just no one universal answer for this question, but I will try to clarify some of the confusion around baby sleep. (So you might wanna save this to read later)
In this blog, we’ll break down sleep recommendations, variations in sleep needs with age, as well as how to ‘correctly’ calculate your baby’s sleep time. So let’s get straight into it!
12 hours overnight isn’t the golden ticket it’s made out to be
12 hours of overnight sleep is often sold as the gold standard in the sleep industry for both babies and toddlers. This is a broad generalization and won't be accurate for all. Everyone has unique sleep needs and as you can see from the table below, there is a wide range of normal.
The dark purple is the ‘recommended’ range of hours and light purple is ‘appropriate’ hours of sleep. As you can see for infants 4-11 months there is a range of 10-18 hours in 24. For 1-2 year olds this decreases from 9-16 hours. That is a significant range!
This is one of the main reasons why age based wake windows are not going to work for many babies.
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This is one of the main reasons why age based wake windows are not going to work for many babies. 〰️
“A generally valid assumption is that individuals obtain the right amount of sleep if they wake up feeling well rested and perform well during the day.” If your baby is developing well, meeting their milestones and is generally happy - they are likely getting the amount of sleep that they need.”
Calculate your baby’s 24 hour sleep totals
You’ve likely recognized roughly how much sleep your baby gets over a 24 hour period. We do want to keep in mind that as your baby gets older you'll notice a slight gradual decrease in overall sleep need. This is normal and expected (Suni & Singh, 2021).
If you haven’t revisited their sleep totals lately and you’re having sleep disturbances, it is often worth reassessing over a few days. From there, you can assess if you need to push naps and bedtimes for more optimal sleep.
My recommendation to parents when they’re calculating how much overall sleep their baby is getting is to avoid subtracting time for wakes unless they are longer than about 10 minutes.
Did you know your baby can eat and sleep at the same time?!
It’s also important to note that babies can feed while they are in the lighter stages of sleep. For example, say your baby wakes and calls for you, you go to them and they start feeding or fall back asleep in a couple minutes. I wouldn't worry about subtracting overall time from that.
Something you’ve likely heard me talk about is the fact that short naps are often quite normal in the first few months of life. Baby’s circadian rhythm is still developing, they have short, light sleep cycles, and they sleep quite frequently due to sleep pressure rising quickly and needing to eat frequently.
Total sleep and naps
Generally speaking, you will notice naps start to lengthen and consolidate when they transition to 2 naps (around 7-9 months) and 1 nap. Again, this is a general observation as some babies with lower sleep needs may continue to have short naps, as that is all they need!
Moral of the story - keep a loose idea of how much sleep your baby is getting in 24 hours. Is it in the range of ‘recommended’ or ‘may be appropriate’ as per the national sleep foundation chart above? Is your little one generally happy and meeting their milestones? If so, they are likely getting the sleep they need!
I hope that this helped clarify some of the confusion around baby sleep. If you want to learn more about baby sleep, I also have info-packed sleep guides, check em out below!
Just one thing before I let you go: I want you to know that you’re doing a great job. This whole sleep thing can be really hard sometimes! But you’re baby is so lucky to have you.
