How many naps does my child need?

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.

Nap counts drop steadily across the early years, and most nap problems are really timing problems: too many naps, too few, or the right number at the wrong times. Here is the usual shape of the day, age by age.

The usual pattern

Raising Children describes the usual shape like this, though every baby varies:

• Newborns (0 to 3 months): no nap structure at all. Sleep comes in short bursts of around 2 to 3 hours across the whole day and night.
• Babies 3 to 6 months: naps start to organise, often into 2 to 3 daytime sleeps, still fairly short.
• Babies 6 to 12 months: most move towards 2 to 3 daytime sleeps of up to about 2 hours each, usually settling into two naps by the second half of the year.
• Toddlers (1 to 3 years): typically one nap, with about 1 to 2 hours of day sleep alongside 10 to 12 hours overnight.
• Preschoolers (3 to 5 years): many have dropped the nap, though some still have a day sleep of about an hour.

Count the whole 24 hours

Day and night sleep are connected. Raising Children puts toddlers at about 11 to 14 hours across 24 hours, and preschoolers at about 10 to 13 hours a night. If day sleep grows, night sleep usually shrinks to compensate, which is how a lovely long afternoon nap turns into a 5am start.

Judge any nap change by what happens to the night, not by how the nap itself went. A shorter nap that buys you a settled bedtime and a 6.30am wake is a good trade; a glorious two-hour sleep that costs you an hour of bedtime battle is not.

Signs the nap count is wrong

• Bedtime takes forever, or your child is not tired at bedtime: often too much or too late day sleep.
• Early morning waking, or night waking with a happy, chatty child: often too much day sleep.
• Falling apart mid-afternoon, fighting the cot, short broken naps: often not enough, or a nap dropped too soon.

Change slowly

Nap transitions are rarely clean. When you drop a nap, expect a bumpy fortnight, and use an earlier bedtime as your safety net on the days it doesn't go to plan. Hold the new pattern on the days your child copes and flex on the days they don't.

It helps to think about nap length, not just nap count. A very long late-afternoon sleep can eat into the night, so many families cap the last nap of the day to protect bedtime. As a rule, if a nap is regularly pushing bedtime past your target or producing a 5am start, it is a candidate for capping.

Sources

• Raising Children Network, Newborn sleep
• Raising Children Network, Baby sleep 2 to 12 months
• Raising Children Network, Toddler sleep
• Raising Children Network, Preschooler sleep

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.