Baby sleep schedule at 13 months: the move from two naps to one
Lulla TeamPublished Updated
At 13 months your child needs 11 to 14 hours of sleep a day, with 10 to 12 hours at night and 1 to 2 naps. Wake windows stay at 3 to 4 hours. The nap range is the story of this month: the transition from two naps to one usually starts somewhere around here.
The switch isn't a decision you make on a Monday. Most toddlers spend weeks moving back and forth — two naps on a day that started early, one long midday nap on a day that did not — and the household that plans for both versions has an easier time than the one that commits.
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 13 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.
The signs that the 2-to-1 transition has begun: the morning nap gets refused or takes forever to start, the afternoon nap collapses because the morning one ran late, or your toddler happily skips a nap and still makes it to bedtime in one piece. One of those, once, is just a day. Several of them, most weeks, is a transition.
Go gradually. The usual approach is to push the morning nap later by 15 to 30 minutes every few days until it lands in the middle of the day, then let it grow in length. Expect an in-between period where the single nap is too short to carry the afternoon, and use an earlier bedtime as the bridge. There's no reason to rush — most children take four to eight weeks to settle into one nap.
A sample day
The sample below is a 2-nap day, still the more common shape at 13 months, with wake windows of 3 to 4 hours. The spacing is what to copy, not the clock: on one-nap days, everything after lunch moves earlier, bedtime included.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 7:00 | Wake-up and first feed |
| 10:15 | Nap 1 · approx. 75 min |
| 14:45 | Nap 2 · approx. 90 min |
| 19:45 | 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
- Log which days ran on one nap and which on two — in Lulla or on paper — because the transition is only visible as a pattern across two or three weeks.
- Move the morning nap later in small steps of 15 to 30 minutes rather than dropping it outright.
- On one-nap days, bring bedtime forward by half an hour; the night is what covers the missing daytime sleep.
- Keep lunch early on one-nap days, so your toddler is not trying to fall asleep hungry or mid-meal.
- If your toddler seems exhausted for weeks on end, or the transition comes with other changes that worry you, check in with your pediatrician.
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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