What are the sleep patterns for babies of different ages?

Jun 21, 2023
First of all, we need to know that the sleep time and pattern are different for different ages.

 0 to 3 months of age
At this age, babies sleep 14-17 hours a day.

From 0 to 6 weeks, babies have 45 minutes of waking time between sleeps, and are almost in a cycle of "eating and sleeping". Around the 6th week, your baby starts to develop his own circadian rhythm, and the reversal of day and night is improved, so that your baby's nighttime sleep starts to become more continuous.

3-6 months of age
The total number of hours of sleep throughout the day is 12 to 16, with 1.5 to 2.5 hours between wakefulness and 3 to 4 naps during the day.
At 3 to 6 months of age, a healthy baby can sleep for 5 to 6 hours continuously without nighttime milk. The most common sleep challenges for babies at this age are sleep fluctuations and sleep regressions associated with changes in sleep patterns at 4 months of age.

6 to 9 months of age
Babies continue to sleep 12 to 15 hours throughout the day, with 2.5 to 3.5 hours between wakefulness and 2 to 3 naps during the day. By 9 months of age, a healthy baby can sleep for 6 to 8 hours continuously without nighttime milk.
At this stage, babies become more physically active and their gross motor skills develop rapidly. The rapid development of gross motor skills can cause difficulties in falling asleep and increased night waking.

9 to 12 months of age
The total number of hours of sleep throughout the day is 11 to 14 hours, with 3 to 4 hours between wakings. They can take 2 regular naps during the day.
Towards the end of the week, some babies may show signs of 'needing only one nap'. However, this behavior is not stable and may recur, sometimes after a few days of sleeping once, it is normal to go back to 2 short naps, so parents should not worry too much. At this stage, gross motor development can still affect your baby's sleep, while separation anxiety reactions can further increase the likelihood of night waking.

12 to 18 months of age
The total amount of sleep your baby gets is 11 to 14 hours per day.
If the baby still has two naps during the day, the wakefulness interval is 3 to 4 hours; if the baby completes the concurrent sleep arrangement and has only one nap during the day, the wakefulness interval may increase to 5 to 6 hours.
Most babies begin to adjust to the one-nap arrangement at 14 to 15 months of age. The emergence of self-awareness will make the baby's resistance to sleep more apparent at this stage, but when the baby falls asleep, sleep continuity is still good.

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