24+ months
2 year old sleep: schedule, naps & wake windows
At age 2, sleep enters a stable phase: one after-lunch nap and about 11 hours at night. The challenges are no longer wake windows but limits: bed escapes, endless requests and, sometimes, a new sibling or potty training.
How much sleep does a 2 year old need?
Between 11–14 h in total across the day: about 10–12 h at night and 1–2 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 2 years
The wake window at 2 years is 5–6 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 2 years
Expect 1 naps of 1 – 2 h each. The nap gradually shortens (1–2 hours) and usually lasts until age 3 or beyond. If falling asleep at night starts taking over 30–40 minutes, try shortening the nap before dropping it. Nap transitions and lengths by age are in the baby naps guide.
Sample schedule for a 2 year old
Based on a 7:00 am wake-up. Shift the times to your baby’s real wake-up, keeping the windows.
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 7:15 | Wake up & breakfast |
| 12:15 | Lunch |
| 13:00 | Nap (1–2 h) |
| 15:00 | Awake, snack & playground |
| 19:30 | Dinner, bath & routine |
| 20:30 | Bedtime |
A visual routine (pictures of the steps: bath → pyjamas → story → sleep) helps enormously at this age.
What time should bedtime be?
The usual range at 2 years is 8:00–8:45 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.