18–23 months
18 month old sleep: schedule, naps & wake windows
At 18 months the schedule is simple on paper —one nap and a long night— but the 18 month regression arrives: autonomy, tantrums and a “no” for everything, sleep included. Kind firmness and a stable schedule are your best allies.
How much sleep does an 18 month old need?
Between 11–14 h in total across the day: about 10–12 h at night and 1.5–2.5 h during the day, spread over 1 naps. These are guide ranges: if your baby wakes rested and cheerful, they’re probably getting what they need. Compare all stages in the baby sleep chart by age.
A bump of night wakings and broken naps is common at this age: check the sleep regressions guide before changing the schedule.
Wake windows at 18 months
The wake window at 18 months is 5–5.5 h: the time they can comfortably stay awake before needing sleep again. Overshooting the window usually means overtiredness, crying and shorter naps; undershooting means bedtime resistance. The first window of the day is usually the shortest and the last one the longest.
Don’t feel like clock-watching? The wake windows calculator gives you the exact range for the next nap.
Naps at 18 months
Expect 1 naps of 1.5 – 2.5 h each. One single after-lunch nap of 1.5–2.5 hours, starting between 12:30 and 1:00 pm. Try to have it end before 3:30 pm so it doesn’t interfere with the night. Nap transitions and lengths by age are in the baby naps guide.
Sample schedule for an 18 month old
Based on a 7:00 am wake-up. Shift the times to your baby’s real wake-up, keeping the windows.
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 7:00 | Wake up & breakfast |
| 12:00 | Lunch |
| 12:45 | Nap (1.5–2.5 h) |
| 15:15 | Awake, snack & playground |
| 19:15 | Dinner, bath & routine |
| 20:15 | Bedtime |
In the thick of the 18 month regression, offering small choices (“this pyjama or that one?”) defuses the bedtime battle.
What time should bedtime be?
The usual range at 18 months is 7:30–8:30 pm. More than a fixed time, what matters is the window from the end of the last nap. A short, repeated bedtime routine (bath, pyjamas, story or song) helps them anticipate that sleep is coming.