Baby Sleep Schedule by Age: Sample Routines from...

Q: Why does my baby fight sleep when overtired?

An overtired baby can become wired rather than sleepy. Moving bedtime slightly earlier often helps them settle faster.

TL;DR: Sleep needs drop steadily with age. Infants 4-12 months need 12-16 hours a day (including naps), children 1-2 years need 11-14 hours, and 3-5 year-olds need 10-13 hours (AASM guidelines). Below: a printable sleep table, sample daily routines by age, a bedtime routine backed by a 10,000-family study, and one thing you can do tonight.

2:47 AM

Third wake-up. You reach for the phone on the nightstand — the screen blinds you and you squint. The baby’s breathing settles for a moment, then the whimper starts again.

You google “how much sleep 4 month old” with one hand, the other holding a pacifier in place. The screen says 12-16 hours. You try to count: she slept from 7 to 10, then 11 to 1, then… you’ve lost track. Your eyes burn. The phone feels heavy. Cold from the nightstand, too bright for the dark room.

And somewhere in the fog, you wonder: is this normal? Am I doing this wrong?

You’re not doing it wrong. You’re looking for answers in the middle of the night — that alone says something about how much you care. The numbers below won’t fix tonight. But they can make next week a little less foggy.

How much sleep does a baby need? (by age)

These ranges come from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s expert consensus, developed after a review of 864 studies by a 13-member pediatric panel. They cover total sleep per day, including naps.¹

These are ranges, not grades. Every baby is different. A well-rested baby wakes happy and doesn’t crash at odd times — that’s your real measure, not a number on a chart.

Age	Night sleep	Naps	Total per day
Newborn (0-3 months)*	Irregular	Irregular	~14-17 hours
Infant (4-12 months)	9-11 hours	2-3 naps (2-4 hours)	12-16 hours
Toddler (1-2 years)	10-12 hours	1-2 naps (1.5-3 hours)	11-14 hours
Preschooler (3-5 years)	10-12 hours	0-1 nap (0-1.5 hours)	10-13 hours
School age (6-12 years)	9-12 hours	Usually none	9-12 hours
Teen (13-18 years)	8-10 hours	Usually none	8-10 hours

Ranges based on AASM’s 2016 expert consensus. Guidelines current as of 2026.

* The AASM consensus covers ages 4 months and up; the newborn range reflects widely used guidance for the 0-3 month period, when sleep is still highly irregular.

Print this table and stick it on the fridge — so grandma and the sitter know too.

Sample sleep schedules by age

The warm water runs over her back. She stops fussing. You can feel her body soften against your forearm — that heaviness that means sleep is close. The bathroom smells like baby soap, the towel is warm from the radiator. You wrap her up. She tucks her face into your chest, damp hair against your collarbone. For a moment, everything is quiet.

That quiet isn’t random. It comes from doing the same thing, in the same order, around the same time. A predictable rhythm is a map for your baby — they know what comes next, so they settle more easily. Use these as starting points, not scripts.

Newborn (0-3 months)

Sleep is irregular and driven by feeding. Rather than a fixed clock, aim for a gentle “eat, awake time, sleep” cycle. There is no schedule to get wrong here — the only thing worth starting now is a short, calm wind-down in the evening. It becomes the foundation of a real bedtime routine later.

Infant (6-12 months)

7:00 — wake and first feed
9:30 — morning nap
12:30 — lunch and play
13:30 — afternoon nap
17:00 — short catnap (if needed)
19:00 — bedtime routine (bath, feed, wind-down)
19:30 — night sleep

Toddler (1-3 years)

7:00 — wake and breakfast
9:00-11:30 — play, walk, activity
12:00 — lunch
13:00 — nap (1.5-2 hours)
16:00 — snack and play
18:30 — dinner
19:30 — bedtime routine
20:00 — night sleep

The bedtime routine that improves sleep

A consistent bedtime routine is the single most evidence-backed sleep tool you have. A large multinational study by Mindell and colleagues, published in the journal SLEEP, followed more than 10,000 mothers across 14 countries. It found that a regular bedtime routine is linked to better sleep in young children — and the benefit grows with consistency (a “dose-dependent” effect). Children with a nightly routine slept, on average, more than an hour longer than children who never had one, and had fewer night wakings and daytime behavior problems.²

A good bedtime routine:

Lasts about 30 minutes — longer tends to wind kids up, not down.
Follows the same order every night — e.g., bath, pajamas, teeth, story, cuddle, lights out.
Calms rather than stimulates — dim light, quiet voice, no screens 1-2 hours before bed.
Ends in bed — the final step always happens where your baby will fall asleep.

When the schedule isn’t working

It’s 9 PM. She should be asleep. Instead, she’s standing in the crib, bouncing, wide-eyed, babbling at the wall. You’re sitting on the floor outside the door, back against the wall, legs heavy. You can hear her through the gap. You close your eyes. Not because you’re calm — because you’re spent.

This doesn’t mean the routine is broken. It usually means one small thing is off.

Overtired baby — move the whole routine 15-30 minutes earlier. Overtired babies often seem wired, not sleepy. The energy is a stress response, not happiness.
Frequent night wakings — check that total daily sleep and nap timing fit the age ranges above. Too much daytime sleep can steal from nighttime.
Nap transitions — when a baby drops from two naps to one (usually 13-18 months), a few weeks of chaos are normal. Temporarily move bedtime earlier to bridge the gap.
Different caregivers, different methods — this is the one that quietly undermines everything else. More on this below.

And if this feels like too much for today — you don’t have to fix it all right now. Looking for answers is already a step.

The grandma test

Here is the question that matters more than any chart: does every person who puts your baby to sleep know the routine?

Not a vague sense of it. The actual steps. The actual time. Bath first or feed first. Which song. How dark the room should be.

Grandma puts the baby down. She follows the same steps — bath, feed, song, dark room. The baby doesn’t protest, because the evening feels the same. Not the same person — the same rhythm. The body recognizes it.

This is the difference between a routine that lives in one parent’s head and a routine the whole family can follow. When only one person knows the system, that person can never fully rest — even when someone else is “helping.” They’re still the manager, still the one who has to explain, remind, correct.

Shared awareness > individual memory. A baby’s routine works best when it doesn’t depend on who’s on duty.

Start here — tonight

If the schedules and tables feel overwhelming, ignore them for now. Tonight, do one thing:

Put the baby down at the same time as yesterday. Same time. Same last step before lights out.

That’s it. That’s the beginning of a rhythm. Not a perfect schedule — a rhythm. Something the body starts to expect. Tomorrow, do it again. The consistency matters more than the specific time.

One rhythm the whole family can see

How many times have you woken up at 3 AM and couldn’t remember when the baby fell asleep? How many times has grandma put her down too late because she didn’t know about the short afternoon nap? How many times has your partner asked “did she sleep?” and you couldn’t answer without checking your memory like a broken search engine?

When nap times and bedtime steps are visible to the whole family — not in one person’s head, but in one shared place — the day stops depending on whoever happens to be remembering it.

ParentOS, a family organization app designed to reduce the mental load of parenting, keeps your family’s daily rhythm in one shared place: nap times, feeds, and the bedtime routine, visible to everyone who cares for your child. The result is a consistent rhythm without one person carrying it all in their head.

ParentOS — calm starts with awareness. A shared rhythm instead of constant reminding. Join the families testing it first — sign up for early access.

Frequently asked questions

How much sleep does a 1-year-old need? Children aged 1-2 years need about 11-14 hours of sleep per day, including naps, according to AASM consensus recommendations.¹

How many naps should a baby have? It varies with age: younger infants take 2-3 naps, while most toddlers drop to one nap a day. The transition from two naps to one typically happens between 13-18 months, most commonly around 14-15 months. Use total daily sleep as your guide rather than a fixed nap count.

When should I start a bedtime routine? Earlier is better. Research links earlier and more consistent bedtime routines with better sleep, and a short, calm wind-down can begin even in the newborn weeks.²

Why does my baby fight sleep when overtired? An overtired baby can become wired rather than sleepy — the burst of energy is a cortisol stress response, not a sign they aren’t tired. Moving bedtime slightly earlier often helps them settle faster.

Sources

Calm families start with shared awareness.

Paruthi S., Brooks L.J., D’Ambrosio C. et al.; American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2016) — Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations: A Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(6), 785-786. doi:10.5664/jcsm.5866. jcsm.aasm.org · Summary: aasm.org. Endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Sleep Research Society. ↩ ↩²
Mindell J.A., Li A.M., Sadeh A., Kwon R., Goh D.Y. (2015). Bedtime routines for young children: a dose-dependent association with sleep outcomes. SLEEP, 38(5), 717-722. doi:10.5665/sleep.4662. PubMed ↩ ↩²