Baby sleep schedule at 11 months: naps, wake windows and nap refusal
Lulla TeamPublished Updated
At 11 months your baby needs 12 to 15 hours of sleep a day, with 10 to 12 hours at night and 2 naps. Wake windows now reach 3 to 4 hours — the top of that range is a serious stretch of awake time, and it explains why the morning nap can suddenly feel optional.
Almost every parent of an 11-month-old goes through a week where the morning nap is refused outright and the transition to one nap seems to have arrived. It usually hasn't. Eleven months is early, and the refusal is more often about a wake window that needs stretching than about a nap that needs dropping.
See the full wake-window table, from newborn to 2 years→How many naps by age — the full table→When your newborn won't sleep: what to check, in order→
Does this 11 months schedule match your day?
Lulla times the naps and tells you when the wake window is closing, so you do not have to keep count in your head.
First steps and a fast-growing vocabulary land around now, and both show up at bedtime. A baby who has just learned to walk will stand in the crib to practice, and one who has just found a word will use it in the dark. Extra physical activity during the day and a calm, unhurried last half hour before sleep are the two most useful levers you have.
If the morning nap is being refused, try pushing the first wake window closer to 4 hours before you conclude anything. A slightly later first nap often restores it and rebalances the afternoon. The 2-to-1 transition normally starts between 13 and 15 months, so at 11 months the working assumption should be that both naps still belong in the day.
A sample day
Below is one way an 11-month day can be arranged, on 2 naps with wake windows of 3 to 4 hours. Read it as one possible version of the day: if your baby resists the morning nap, shifting it later usually works better than removing it.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 7:00 | Wake-up and first feed |
| 10:00 | Nap 1 · approx. 75 min |
| 14:30 | Nap 2 · approx. 90 min |
| 19:30 | Bedtime routine and lights out |
A sample day to give you a rough idea — every baby is different. Adjust the times to your child's sleep cues, and talk to your pediatrician about anything that worries you.
Your baby's sleep schedule, by age
One table with everything that matters: total sleep per 24h, wake windows and number of naps, from newborn to age 3. Total sleep follows the National Sleep Foundation recommendations.
Tips for this age
- Before deciding the morning nap is over, push the first wake window toward 4 hours for a week and see whether the nap comes back.
- Cap the afternoon nap if it starts eating into bedtime, because a nap that ends late leaves too little time to build sleep pressure.
- Lulla shows the wake window running in real time, which is the difference between a nap offered at the right moment and one offered 40 minutes too early.
- Keep the crib empty until your baby turns one — pillows, blankets and soft toys can wait a few more weeks.
- If your baby is waking hungry every night and daytime eating has changed, mention it at the 12-month check-up rather than adjusting feeds on your own.
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Common questions
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Keep reading
- Baby tiredness signs: how to read them before the crying starts
- How to build the perfect sleep routine for your baby
- How much do newborns sleep? What's normal by age and when it's too much
Sources
Total sleep per 24 hours follows the National Sleep Foundation's ranges (2015); at 3 months we smooth the step between two of them to 13 to 16 hours. Night sleep, wake windows and the number of naps are Lulla's own reference points, not recommendations from the organizations below. This information is educational and does not replace advice from your pediatrician.
- Hirshkowitz M, Whiton K, Albert SM, Alessi C, Bruni O, DonCarlos L, et al. National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary. Sleep Health. 2015;1(1):40–43.
- American Academy of Pediatrics — Safe Sleep
- NHS — Helping your baby to sleep
- World Health Organization — Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age