Enter your baby's age and morning wake time. Get an instant schedule with ideal nap times and bedtime.
Many parents try to skip or shorten naps hoping it will lead to better night sleep. This almost always backfires. An overtired baby has elevated cortisol levels that make it harder — not easier — to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. The phrase "sleep begets sleep" is genuinely true. Protecting daytime naps and ensuring they happen at the right times within appropriate wake windows is the foundation of good night sleep, not a competition with it.
Naps are not just about daytime rest — they directly determine how well your baby sleeps at night. An overtired baby produces excess cortisol that makes settling harder and causes more night waking. An under-tired baby simply is not ready for sleep at bedtime. Getting nap timing right is the foundation of good night sleep.
A wake window is the amount of time a baby can comfortably stay awake between sleeps before becoming overtired. It is the single most important concept in nap scheduling. The final wake window before bedtime is the most critical — too short and the baby is not tired enough, too long and they become overtired and harder to settle.
For newborns, nap length is unpredictable — anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours. From 3–6 months, a full nap cycle is 45 minutes. From 6 months onwards, aim for at least one nap of 60–90 minutes per day. Short naps (under 30 minutes) do not provide restorative sleep and often lead to overtiredness.
Most babies transition from two naps to one between 12–18 months. Signs of readiness include consistently fighting the morning nap, the morning nap affecting bedtime, or naps becoming very short. Do not rush this transition — many babies show false signs of readiness before they are truly ready.
Short naps usually mean the baby is waking at the end of the first sleep cycle (around 30–45 minutes) and cannot self-settle back to sleep. The same skills that help at night — falling asleep independently, without being rocked or fed to sleep — also extend naps during the day.
Getting this distinction right changes everything about nap timing:
The timing and length of the last nap of the day has the biggest impact on night sleep. If the last nap ends too close to bedtime, the baby is not tired enough. If it ends too far from bedtime, overtiredness sets in. As a general guide, the last nap should end at least 1.5–2 hours before bedtime for babies under 9 months, and 3–4 hours before bedtime for babies over 9 months. Use the nap calculator above to find the ideal window for your baby's age.
Use the nap calculator above alongside our sleep tracker for the best results. Log every nap and night sleep session for two weeks, then look at the correlation between nap timing and night sleep quality. You will quickly see which nap schedule produces the best nights for your individual baby — because every baby is different, and real data from your own child is always more valuable than any generic schedule. Pair good nap timing with white noise during naps and a consistent pre-nap routine to maximise nap length and quality.