Short naps: baby only naps for 30 minutes

Sleep cycles are short in babies

Sleep runs in cycles, at the end of which it gets lighter. In babies these cycles are shorter than in adults: in a study of 152 babies they lasted on average about 62 minutes, versus 81 minutes in the parents. Between 3 and 12 months they became about ten minutes longer (Hammad 2026). A nap that ends after one cycle is therefore often short. Between two cycles sleep is lighter, and some children then wake fully – by day as well as at night. At night, babies and toddlers wake between zero and about three times in studies (Galland 2012); many go back to sleep on their own afterwards, others need help.

Naps get longer with age

In app data from 841 children, naps first became shorter between the first and fifth month and then steadily longer until about 28 months. Between three and seven months, two naps of about an hour and a half usually emerged. Daytime sleep became regular later than night-time sleep (Mindell 2016).

When a nap drops away altogether, the remaining ones usually get longer: in app data from over 175,000 babies, they made up about 88 to 89% of the lost sleep at the early transitions (Paavonen 2026).

How much daytime sleep at which age

Overall, daytime sleep decreases with age while the individual naps get longer. In app data from over 175,000 babies, daytime sleep fell between 3 and 18 months from an average of 226 to 101 minutes because naps dropped away (Paavonen 2026). In a long-term study, the midday nap between two and six years most often lasted two hours (Weissbluth 1995).

Moon Hour starts out accounting for naps of about 45 minutes under four months, 60 minutes up to six months, 75 minutes up to 15 months and about two hours after that. These are starting values that the app adjusts to your child with your entries.

Daytime sleep and night-time sleep

Short naps don’t simply mean less sleep at night. In a study from Québec with almost 3,900 children, children with more daytime sleep at the same age had somewhat less night-time sleep. At the same time, more daytime sleep at 5 months was linked to longer night-time sleep at 17 months (Fréchette-Boilard 2026). The researchers conclude that children need opportunities to sleep that fit their age.

Children are very different

How much a child sleeps during the day is a fairly stable trait: in a long-term study, a child’s total daytime sleep stayed similar between 6 and 18 months (Weissbluth 1995). In the large app data, children with a greater need for sleep had more daytime sleep and went to bed earlier; such differences showed up early and stayed (Paavonen 2026). An overview of many studies gives a wide range for babies’ sleep in 24 hours (Galland 2012).

What expert bodies generally recommend

The BIÖG describes how regular times for eating, playing and sleeping help babies tell day from night, and recommends a sleep environment with little light and little noise. It recommends putting the tired baby to sleep in its own cot whenever possible.

Whether steady noise helps with sleep has been little studied; more on this in the article on white noise.

Short naps in Moon Hour

Moon Hour calculates the next wake window from the moment of waking. A short nap therefore usually moves the next sleep a little earlier. How long your child’s naps typically are, the app learns from the last 14 days. The wake windows themselves are experience values; there is no single recommendation for them.

If you are worried

Experts recommend contacting your paediatrician or your local out-of-hours medical service if you are worried.