6 months
6 month old sleep: schedule, naps & wake windows
Six months: solids begin, the first attempts at sitting up and, sleep-wise, a sweet stage with 3 stable naps and 2.5–3 hour wake windows. It’s one of the ages where a predictable schedule pays off most.
How much sleep does a 6 month old need?
Between 13–15 h in total across the day: about 10–11 h at night and 3–3.5 h during the day, spread over 3 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.
Wake windows at 6 months
The wake window at 6 months is 2.5–3 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 6 months
Expect 3 naps of 45 min – 1.5 h each. Keep the two main morning and midday naps plus a short third afternoon one. Towards the end of this stage the third nap will start to “get in the way”: it’s the prelude to the 2-nap transition. Nap transitions and lengths by age are in the baby naps guide.
Sample schedule for a 6 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 & feed |
| 9:30 | Nap 1 (1–1.5 h) |
| 10:45 | Awake, feed & solids |
| 13:15 | Nap 2 (1–1.5 h) |
| 14:30 | Awake & feed |
| 16:45 | Nap 3 (30 min) |
| 17:15 | Awake, dinner, bath & routine |
| 19:45 | Bedtime |
If the third nap gets skipped one day, bring bedtime forward to 6:45–7:15 pm: half an hour earlier prevents overtiredness.
What time should bedtime be?
The usual range at 6 months is 7:00–8:00 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.