Just like adults, all babies sleep differently. And how much or how little your baby is sleeping is often a source of worry for parents.
We spoke to the , as well as sleep specialist Maggie Fisher, to answer your most common questions around babies, toddlers and their sleep.
For further information, advice and support around baby sleep visit the .
And if you have any further concerns speak to your GP or Health Visitor.
General Sleep Questions
How much sleep does your baby need?
Sleep varies for each baby and from the moment they're born, some babies need more or less sleep than others.
The list below shows the average amount of sleep babies need during a 24-hour period. This includes time spent napping.
Newborn babies
Most newborn babies are asleep more than they are awake. Their total daily sleep varies between 8 hours up to 16 or 18 hours.
3-6 months
Starting at around 3 months of age, an infant’s daily sleep needs drop to 12 to 15 hours.
Some babies will sleep for 8 hours or longer at night, but not all. By 4 months, they may be spending around twice as long sleeping at night as they do during the day.
6-12 months
Some babies will sleep for up to 12 hours at night, as night feeds become less necessary.
Issues such as teething, growth spurts, illnesses, or sleep regressions may start leading to nighttime awakenings.
After 12 months
Babies will sleep for around 12 to 15 hours in total after their first birthday.
Find out more on .
How can I encourage my toddler to sleep on their own?
The foundation of helping toddlers to self-settle is to have a calming, enjoyable, consistent and predictable bedtime routine - the last part of which takes place in their bed.
The evidence shows that children need to associate going to sleep with being in their own bed at the same time each evening. It's a good idea to avoid screens or TV an hour before bed, as these suppress the sleep hormone melatonin, along with white light.
Get them used to settling to sleep in their cot or bed with a story or lullaby. Once taken upstairs for bath time and/or when they have night clothes on, do not allow them to come back to the main living area, as this can be a stimulating environment.
Check your child is not getting over-tired, as often they can then become over-active and very hard to settle. Ideally, you want them in bed before they are showing signs of tiredness, so they can get drowsy and sleep in bed.
If they will not settle in bed, the NHS recommends you can use. Every child is different, so only do what you feel comfortable with and what you think will suit your child.
In older children star/sticker charts can work well. These will be dependent on the age of the child and what you feel comfortable with as a parent. Consistency and persistence is key, and both parents need to be in agreement with the method chosen, then support each other with it.
When and how should I move my toddler from a cot to a bed?
Once your baby starts to climb out of their cot, it is time to start transitioning them into a bed.
Some cots have a side you can put down, so you might want to leave the cot side down before you put them in the bed.
Let them help you choose the bedding and ensure you have a relaxing, enjoyable bedtime routine in place. If you have the space, put the bed up in the same room so that they get used to it being there.
Talk to them about the move and perhaps read some stories featuring bedtimes and sleeping in beds, so your child gets used to this idea.
Toddler beds tend to be lower than ordinary beds, so maybe try putting the cot mattress on the floor beside the bed, so if they do fall out, they have a soft landing.
From a safety point of view, it is best not to have lots of things in the bed with them, as this is a potential suffocation risk.
To comply with safe sleeping guidance, pillows should not be used before the age of two and often children are happy without pillows beyond this age.
You may find that when you put them in the bed they don't always stay there. The sheer novelty of being able to get out may cause excitement and a bit of a game to them. Stay calm and keep returning them to their bed.
Make sure there is nothing in the room they can hurt themselves on if they do get out of bed and play unsupervised.
Is it normal for toddlers to not sleep through the night?
When children start to sleep through the night will vary from child to child.
However, if your child is needing you to settle them off to sleep every time they wake up, then consider what their sleep association is. Have they become dependent on your presence to go to sleep? If so, try changing their bedtime routine.
Establishing a good bedtime routine is a great start for helping them sleep well throughout the night.
This can include:
- Having a short 15-minute bath
- Reading a bedtime story together
- Creating a calm atmosphere (keep lights dimmed, avoid screen time or loud games/activities)
- Helping your child to feel safe and secure (such as tucking them and talking positively about the day)
Try to avoid foods that are high in fats or proteins close to bedtime. They can be more difficult for the stomach to digest and can make your child unsettled. Caffeinated and sugary foods and drinks also impact sleep and should be avoided.
To help children settle themselves, avoid letting them fall asleep somewhere other than their bed. Keep their bedroom environment the same from when they go to bed and throughout the night.
All children are different, and some require more sleep than others, so it is not helpful to compare children.
Be guided by how they seem. If they are happy and have energy, then they are getting enough sleep. Tired babies and children are often grumpy and irritable.
Children with autism can be more of a challenge to settle and get to sleep through the night. Children with autism spectrum disorders and other neurodevelopment disorders may have a problem with melatonin (the sleep hormone) secretion and this can affect their sleep.
Please contact your health visitor if you need further support.
Can white noise help my baby sleep?
There is some evidence that white noise may reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, reduce waking and improve, or a least not harm, sleep.
But while white noise has always been considered a useful sleep aid in infants, children and adults, published online in September 2020 cast doubts on this. The finding from this review was that the quality of the evidence that white noise improves sleep, was very low.
White noise is shown to screen out background noise and can reduce waking due to masking other sounds. of 20 newborns found that 80% were able to fall asleep after five minutes of hearing white noise.
If the white noise is very loud there are concerns it may harm hearing, but more research on larger sample sizes is needed.
Many parents swear by it, and in a noisy household, it can be useful.
You can use it sparingly, as needed, in the day and at bedtime but switch it off when the house is quiet. Watch the noise levels and do not have noise playing too close to the baby’s ears.
To wean baby off the white noise, gradually reduce the volume and time you use it for.
Sleep Milestones
What age should night feeds be dropped and how?
Many babies quite naturally wean themselves off night feeding with little or no prompting.
From 6 months onwards, and once beginning to take solid food, many babies start to manage without a feed at night. If your baby is fit, well and gaining weight satisfactorily, you can start to drop the night feed if you feel your baby is ready for this.
However, some babies may still wake for a feed until they are one. If you are happy to continue with a feed in the night, then you should do what suits you and your baby.
From 6 months onwards, babies are often starting to teethe. Milk contains sugar, so it is suggested if you are bottle feeding you start to offer milk from a beaker, as this is less harmful to their teeth.
Babies and children can become attached to bottles or to their dummies and they may be used for comfort and security. Sometimes waking for a feed in the night may have become a comfort habit or a sleep association that they have become accustomed to. Consider changing this sleep association by feeding them before bed and then cleaning their teeth (if they have any coming through), then the last part of a gentle calming wind down time before bedtime which can take place in the cot without a feed.
The idea is, as they grow older, to rest their digestive system at night and protect their teeth. If they feed in the night this can affect their daytime appetite. In older babies and children if they wake in the night, you can offer water in a beaker, which will not harm their teeth.
If you feel your baby/child is ready and you wish to reduce breastfeeding at night, you can start to gradually reduce the number of feeds during the night or gradually reduce the amount of time you feed for. You can do this slowly or all at once. This is something you can discuss this with your health visitor.
When should naps be dropped?
There isn’t an exact age that babies will drop their naps and every baby will develop at their own pace.
Length of naps, what time your baby goes to bed, what time they wake up in the morning and how long they sleep during the night can all impact when this happens.
There are a couple of broader age ranges, where babies start to drop naps:
- Settling into two naps between 6-9 months
- Dropping the morning nap between 10-15 months
- Dropping the final nap between around 2-4 years old
As long as your child is happy and sleeping at night, then daytime naps are nothing to worry about.
Night Terrors
Can babies get night terrors?
Yes. Night terrors are more common in preschool children but can occur at any age.
They are more common in boys than girls and occur in less than 3% of the population. Their medical term is pavor nocturnus and it often runs in families. It is a disturbance of the deep sleep phase.
When toddlers/children have a sleep terror they are not awake, although their eyes may be open. They do not know if you are there or not.
They can have more than one episode of night terrors a night. They tend to occur in the earlier part of the evening, usually before midnight.
Night terrors are more likely to occur if your child:
- is over-tired
- is unwell
- has a temperature
- is on certain types of mediation
- has a full bladder
- feels anxious
- is excited or startled by a sudden noise
Please contact your health visitor if you need further support about your child's night terrors. Find out more about .
How to help my toddler with night terrors?
Night terrors can be very dramatic and often alarm or frighten parents. But there are ways you can manage them:
- Stay calm and wait until they calm down.
- Do not wake them or intervene in any way, let them run their course. Your child does not know you are there and they become more agitated if you try to calm or comfort them.
- If the night terrors occur at a certain time each night, you may find scheduled waking helpful. This means waking your child 15 minutes before they normally have a night terror. Keep them awake for 5 minutes and then let them go back to sleep. Do this for 7 days and then let them sleep through. This disrupts the sleep cycle without affecting sleep quality. Try this for 7 days, if there is no improvement, try doing it a second time for 2 weeks.
- Your child will have no recollection of any night terrors the next morning, so do not mention them. You might want to have a chat with them to see if anything is bothering them.
Most children eventually grow out of night terrors. But every child is different, so please talk to your GP if they're occurring several times a night or most nights.
Is there anything I can do to reduce night terrors?
Every child is different and some of these things might work for your family, while others might not. Try to stay calm and remember that your child will have no recollection of any night terrors the next morning.
Here are some thing you can do to reduce night terrors:
- Ensure your child is getting enough sleep.
- Keep to regular day and night-time routines and mealtimes to help set their body clock.
- Make sure their bedroom is safe to avoid accidental injury - avoid clutter on the floor.
- Don’t let them sleep in a top bunk bed.
- Consider the use of a stair gate across their bedroom door to prevent them from running around the house.
- Do not attempt to wake them, they may not recognise you and may become more agitated.
- Let each episode run its course without interfering (unless your child wants to be comforted or you need to keep them safe).
- Don't make a big deal of it and warn siblings not to tease your child about it.
- Warn others who may babysit for you about your child’s night terrors and let them know how you manage them.
- Ask your child about their room and if there is anything they don’t like or is scary
- Keep a diary of activities during the day and patterns at night, as this may help identify triggers.
