The 12-month, 18-month and 2-year regressions

This guide is general information only and isn't a substitute for medical advice. If you're concerned about your child's health, or they're unwell, please see a doctor.

The toddler years bring their own run of sleep wobbles. Unlike the four-month change, these are usually true phases: your child levels up a skill or a stage, sleep takes the hit, and things settle again. Knowing which one you're in helps you resist over-correcting.

Around 12 months

Walking and first words dominate here. Some babies start flirting with dropping to one nap. There isn't a firm published age for this, but as a rough guide from sleep consultants rather than a rule, most aren't truly ready until somewhere around 14 to 18 months, so hold the two-nap line for a week or two before you restructure the day. Dropping the morning nap too early is a common cause of overtired, messy afternoons.

Around 18 months

This is often the loudest one. Toddlerhood brings independence, big feelings, and a brand-new ability to say no to sleep, and separation anxiety tends to peak again. Warm, boring consistency wins: keep the routine steady and avoid launching big changes mid-regression, because that usually backfires.

It can be tempting to abandon the cot or overhaul bedtime now. Resist it. Ride the phase first, then make structural changes once things are calm.

Around 2 years

Sleep needs start to dip, so bedtime may drift later and the day nap comes under pressure, though most children keep a nap until around age three. Imagination blooms, so nightmares can appear, and many two-year-olds test whether bedtime is negotiable. It isn't. Calm, firm limits work better than debate.

What helps across all three

• Hold your routine steady. A regression is a terrible time to renovate bedtime.
• Offer extra comfort without building a long-term habit you don't want.
• Protect daytime sleep and watch timing, since overtiredness makes every phase worse.
• Give it time: most toddler regressions ease within two to six weeks.

When it's more than a phase

If it's dragged past six weeks with no improvement, or nobody in the house is functioning, it's time to get help rather than wait it out.

A few things point to a doctor rather than a settling plan. Raising Children advises seeing your GP if your child snores most nights or over a long period, breathes through their mouth, or gasps, chokes or struggles for breath in their sleep, or is unusually tired or hard to wake during the day. Difficulty breathing, pale, blotchy or blue skin, or being very drowsy or hard to rouse are signs of serious illness that healthdirect says need urgent care. And if your child seems to be in pain, is feeding poorly, or isn't growing or gaining weight as expected, see your GP or child and family health nurse, because no settling method fixes a medical problem.

One last thing worth saying: toddlers are brilliant at sensing which limits are soft. If bedtime rules bend during a regression, expect the testing to carry on well after the developmental phase has passed, simply because it worked. Warmth and firmness aren't opposites here; the most reassuring thing you can offer a wobbly toddler is a bedtime that stays exactly the same no matter how hard they push against it.

Sources

• Raising Children Network, Toddler sleep
• Raising Children Network, Snoring in babies, kids and teenagers
• healthdirect, Symptoms of serious illness in babies and children

Last updated: July 2026. Sources include Red Nose Australia and Raising Children Network where cited above. This guide is general information only. For individual concerns, see your GP or child health nurse.