How much should your baby or toddler sleep? Pick your child’s age and usual bedtime for the recommended total sleep, the night-vs-naps split, and the expected morning wake-up — based on National Sleep Foundation guidelines. Updated 2026.
Sleep needs by age
Pick your child's age and usual bedtime to get the recommended total sleep, the night-vs-naps split, and the expected morning wake-up window.
When your child usually falls asleep at night — used to estimate the morning wake-up window.
The baby sleep by age chart is the National Sleep Foundation’s expert-panel answer to the most-asked new-parent question: how many hours a day should my child sleep? A newborn needs 14–17 hours per 24 hours; by age 3–5 the range is 10–13 hours. These ranges come from the NSF’s 2015/2016 consensus (Hirshkowitz et al., published in Sleep Health), built with the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method from a systematic review of the world’s sleep literature — the first age-specific guidelines of their kind.
The totals on this page are those NSF recommended ranges. The night-vs-nap split and nap counts come from standard pediatric sleep practice and match the daytime totals on our baby wake window calculator — which answers the companion question of when to put your baby down for the next nap.
How to Use the Baby Sleep by Age Calculator
Select your child’s age band — newborn, infant, toddler, or preschooler. Use actual age, not adjusted, for sleep totals.
Pick the usual bedtime — when your child actually falls asleep at night, not when the routine starts.
Read the five results. The hero number is the recommended total sleep per 24 hours; below it you get nighttime sleep, naps per day, typical nap length, and the expected morning wake-up window.
Sanity-check the day. If your child’s totals land inside the range but bedtime is a battle, the issue is usually timing (wake windows), not totals.
Baby Sleep Chart by Age
The table below gives the NSF recommended total sleep per 24 hours for each age band, with the typical night-vs-nap split parents actually plan around. Note how total sleep falls by roughly 1–2 hours per age band while nighttime sleep consolidates.
Age
Total sleep / 24 hrs
Night sleep
Naps / day
0–3 months
14–17 hrs
8–9 hrs (in fragments)
4–6
4–11 months
12–15 hrs
9–12 hrs
2–3
1–2 years
11–14 hrs
10–11 hrs
1–2
3–5 years
10–13 hrs
10–11 hrs
0–1
Two patterns worth knowing. First, the NSF also publishes a wider “may be appropriate” band (about 1–2 hours beyond each recommended range) for children who simply need more or less. Second, the transition rows are the trouble spots: 3–4 months (sleep consolidation), 12–18 months (two-to-one nap drop), and 3–5 years (nap drop) — totals stay similar but the schedule changes completely.
How the Baby Sleep by Age Calculation Works
Wake-up window = bedtime + night-sleep min … bedtime + night-sleep max
The calculator looks up your child’s age band and returns the NSF recommended total-sleep range as the headline result. It then reports the standard night-vs-nap split for the band, and — the part charts skip — adds the night-sleep range to the bedtime you entered to produce a morning wake-up window. A 1-year-old with a 7:30 PM bedtime and a 10–11 hour night range should surface between 5:30 and 6:30 AM, which is exactly the early-waking pattern that surprises parents of toddlers.
Worked Example: Baby Sleep by Age
Take a 7-month-old with a 7 PM bedtime. The 4–11 month band gives 12–15 hours total, 9–12 hours at night, and 2–3 naps of 1–2 hours. Adding the night range to the bedtime: expected wake-up between 4 AM and 7 AM — and indeed, a 7-month-old waking at 5:30 AM after 10.5 hours is squarely on target, not “waking too early.” The caveat competitors skip: the NSF ranges describe healthy children with normal sleep; habitual totals far outside the range can signal a sleep problem or a health issue, per the panel’s own conclusions — which is why the calculator flags the range as a guide, not a diagnosis.
How Accurate Is the Baby Sleep by Age Chart?
The NSF totals are consensus guidelines from an 18-member multidisciplinary panel reviewing the scientific literature — robust as guidelines go, and unchanged in substance since 2016. They describe population norms, not your individual child: temperament, growth spurts, and illness all shift daily totals. The night-vs-nap split is the softer number; it comes from pediatric sleep practice rather than the panel, so treat it as a planning starting point and calibrate to how your child settles and wakes.
If the totals look right but the schedule feels wrong, timing is usually the culprit — our baby wake window calculator breaks the day into the nap windows each age band can handle, and the breast milk intake calculator covers the other half of the newborn equation: daytime calories.
The Overtired Trap
The classic mistake is cutting naps to “save up” sleep for the night. Past their comfortable awake time, a child’s body releases cortisol and adrenaline to stay alert — the child looks wired, takes longer to fall asleep, and sleeps in shorter fragments. The NSF totals count all sleep in 24 hours: a toddler who skips the nap does not bank those hours for the night, they lose them. Protect the daytime total first; night sleep follows.
Please note: This calculator provides estimates for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always confirm with your healthcare provider.
Frequently Asked Questions About Baby Sleep by Age
Common questions answered by our medical team
Newborns (0–3 months) need 14–17 hours of sleep per 24 hours, according to the National Sleep Foundation's expert-panel recommendations (2016). Newborn sleep comes in short fragments around the clock — about 8–9 hours at night (in pieces) plus 4–6 short naps. The 14–17 hour range was narrowed from the older 12–18 hour guidance after the panel's systematic review.