Sleep Expectations By Age

Sleep expectations are tricky— there’s a wide variation of “normal” and it can feel like your child is the only child who sleeps the way they do!

My quick disclaimer (like always) is: this is not meant to shame you, guilt you, or pressure you into changing things that are working for you! This is meant to be a “rough” guideline/generalization of what a child *may* be capable of/what you can work toward at each age in those first few months!

So often, our disappointment around sleep is directly related to unrealistic expectations OR the comparison game. I’ve had clients whose babies were sleeping through the night between 8-12 weeks with no feedings and yet, my own babies never did that! I was doing the exact same thing with them that I would recommend to a client… and they just weren’t there yet. That is OKAY! It would’ve been nice, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t an expectation I set for them even though I achieved it with a client.

Let’s break down sleep expectations by age:

Birth-2 months: sleep is really disorganized because they do not have a circadian rhythm yet! Sleep occurs in 20 min to 2 hour increments (more if you’re lucky). Naps are frequent, and can be short, especially if they’re not held.

Night time sleep typically becomes more organized first and your “long” stretch of sleep may begin to develop (3+ hour stretch after bedtime, frequent wakings after aren’t uncommon).

3-4 months: sleep may start to consolidate into 4-5 naps a day, night stretch is consolidating at the beginning of the night (4-6+ hour stretch). Aiming for a 10-12 hour “night” of sleep (in their crib for that amount of time).

4-6 months: and sleep becomes disorganized again as their sleep cycles change and mature; this is characterized by frequent night wakings and short naps (potentially). Sleep training can help bring it all back together! Or you can choose to wait it out for however long is sustainable to you. Night feedings are still normal (0-3ish feedings). 3 naps a day are usually achievable, bedtime may be earlier during this time. 10-12 hours of night time sleep (in their crib for that amount of time) and 3-4 hours of day sleep.

7-12 months: sleep needs are lowering a tiny bit; sleep is consolidating and they may drop their night feeds. 10-12 hours of night time sleep, 2.5-3.5 hours of day time sleep between 2-3 naps (more if they’re younger, less if they’re older)

12-18 months: children are usually capable of dropping all night feeds by this point if they have not earlier, for consolidated night of sleep 10-12 hours and 1-2 naps for 2-3 hours

2+ years: 1 nap a day, 1.5-2 hours of day sleep, 10-12 hours of night time sleep. Great time to introduce charts and okay to wake clocks! They may drop their nap sometime between 2-5 years old.

There ya go! Realistic expectations by age– and as always, if they do better than the above, that’s great! If it’s working, don’t change it. You know the drill. 😉

BUT! If they’re nowhere near that with sleep at any point, don’t hesitate to reach out. We can make improvements!