Baby sleep schedule at 20 months: nap length, bedtime and screens
Lulla TeamPublished Updated
At 20 months your toddler needs 11 to 14 hours of sleep a day: 10 to 12 hours at night plus one nap, with wake windows of 4.5 to 5.5 hours. Bedtime has drifted a little later than it was a year ago, sitting around 8:15 pm for many families, because the day now stretches further.
The nap itself is quietly shrinking. Where a 15-month-old often slept two hours after lunch, a 20-month-old frequently does closer to an hour and a half. That's not a problem to fix; it's the daytime share of the total making room for a solid night.
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 20 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.
Screens are worth a look at this age. Anything with a bright screen in the hour before bed makes settling slower, both because of the light and because of how stimulating the content is. Swapping that last screen slot for books, a bath or quiet play is one of the few changes that shows results in days rather than weeks, and it costs nothing to try.
Transitions are the other friction point at 20 months. Toddlers this age hate being pulled out of something absorbing, and bedtime is nothing but a series of endings. Warnings help — two minutes, then one, then done — and so does letting your toddler carry out a step themselves, like putting the toys in the box or switching off the light. Small pieces of control take a lot of heat out of the evening.
A sample day
The day below shows a 20-month-old on one nap, with wake windows of 4.5 to 5.5 hours around it. It's a shape to borrow rather than a rule — keep the sequence and the rough spacing, and let the exact times follow your toddler's morning.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 7:00 | Wake-up and first feed |
| 13:00 | Nap 1 · approx. 95 min |
| 20:15 | 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
- Keep screens out of the hour before bed; the change usually shows up within a few days.
- Give warnings before every transition in the evening — two minutes, one minute, done — rather than ending activities abruptly.
- Let your toddler carry out one or two steps of the routine themselves, because a little control now prevents a lot of resistance later.
- If the nap is shortening but the night is solid and the afternoon is manageable, leave it alone — that is the expected direction at 20 months.
- Lulla's weekly view shows whether a shorter nap is being offset by a longer night, which is usually exactly what is happening at this age.
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Common questions
Track your baby's sleep with Lulla
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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