6-month-old sleep schedule
How much does a baby sleep at 6 months, how many naps are usual and how long is it awake in between? Guideline values with sources and an example day – not a plan to follow.
At a glance
| Sleep per 24 hours | 12–16 hr |
|---|---|
| Night | 11 hr |
| Naps | 2 naps |
| Awake time in between | 2 hr 30 min – 3 hr 30 min |
Sleep in 24 hours: consensus of the American sleep physicians (AASM, Paruthi 2016) – a value for groups, not for an individual child.
Night: this is what Moon Hour starts out with and then learns your child’s night length.
An example day
This is how Moon Hour might calculate on the first day if a child at 6 months wakes at 7 am and has no entries yet. It is an example, not a plan to follow: children are different, and the app adjusts the times to your child with every entry. Sleep schedule calculator: an example day for your wake-up time
Sleep schedule as a printable PDF (A4)
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 7:00 AM | Waking up |
| 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM | Nap 1 |
| 1:42 PM – 2:57 PM | Nap 2 |
| 6:27 PM | To bed for the night |
What often changes at 6 months
At six months, in a Canadian study, a large share of babies did not yet have a six- or eight-hour block of sleep – with no difference in development (Pennestri 2018). In Finnish families, the time to fall asleep became shorter until the sixth month (Paavonen 2020).
If you are worried
Experts recommend contacting your paediatrician or your local out-of-hours medical service if you are worried.
Sources
- Paruthi et al. 2016: Recommended amount of sleep for children (AASM consensus)
- Pennestri et al. 2018: Sleeping through the night at 6 and 12 months and development
- Paavonen et al. 2020: Normal sleep development in two large Finnish birth cohorts
- Canapari: Wake windows – what a sleep physician says about them
General information, not a substitute for medical advice.
Sources checked: November 2026