How many naps should my baby / child take?

Susan Holt Simpson

Naps are essential to our babies’ and little kids’ health and happiness. Napping relieves the sleep pressure (also called our homeostatic sleep drive) that builds quickly in young babies. Until the age of 3, having a nap is an important way to keep our kids cognitively sharp and absorbing information, as well as emotionally balanced, optimistic and creative.  

So it seems like we should have a specific guideline for how many snoozes a baby needs at every age. It’s not quite that simple, though.

To start, here is the range of how many naps babies and little kids need: 

Starting around, 

5-6 months, 3-4 naps

8-9 months, most babies transition to 2 naps

14 - 18 months, most transition to 1 nap

3 - 4 years, no nap

If your baby is under 5 months, their naps are really going to vary. Newborns often sleep a lot during the day, whereas 3 month olds are much more alert, taking shorter 30-45 minute naps. That means your 3 month old might end up taking 4 or even 5 naps if they are all very short. Having short naps is actually common until babies are 6-7 months old.

When will my baby’s naps lengthen?

A recent study from the UK showed that for babies over 8 months old, more frequent and shorter naps than expected for their age were linked to lower cognitive and language scores. The hypothesis of the researchers is that as babies mature, their ability to consolidate information gets more efficient, so they need fewer naps. When we see this data, though, what we notice is that babies over 8 months who take extra-short naps for their age (likely around 30 minutes per nap, although the study does not specify) may not be getting the restorative, brain-boosting naps they need. In other words, maybe short naps contribute to less than optimal cognitive functioning.  

Why would these older babies display short-napping? It’s hard to know for sure, but in our experience with babies this age, short naps are a result of unhelpful sleep associations. That means parents or caregivers are rocking or feeding the baby to sleep, the baby is relying on a pacifier that they can’t fully manage, or something similar. Babies who are not yet falling asleep independently across all sleep are much more likely to take shorter naps. What’s more, when babies are independent sleepers, their nighttime sleep improves, which positively affects their naps.  

That’s why we recommend the Sleep Wave, (at 5 months and older), to clearly, responsively and effectively hand over the role of independent sleep. One of the major benefits of doing this is that babies get the long, healthy, brain fueling naps they need.

We don’t want parents to sweat when younger babies take catnaps. But we DO want older babies’ naps to start stretching out. Letting go of exact numbers and duration of naps – to a certain extent – and focusing on creating helpful sleep associations, will lead to the best quality naps for your little one. The bottom line is that, until we get out of their way, we don’t know how much sleep their little bodies will soak up!

Need help re-vamping your baby’s sleep, or just need some tweaks to your routines and schedules? That’s what we’re here for! We can help you start from scratch or simply troubleshoot your sleep issue.