How much should a 23-month-old sleep?

Eleven to 14 hours a day: 10 to 12 hours at night plus one nap of roughly an hour and a half. Wake windows are 5 to 6 hours. As at every age these are ranges, not targets — some toddlers thrive at 11 hours and others need closer to 14. What matters is that your toddler wakes rested and gets through the afternoon without collapsing.

What is the difference between a night terror and a nightmare?

Timing and awareness. A night terror occurs in the first few hours of sleep, during deep sleep: your child may scream, thrash or stare without being awake, and won't remember it. A nightmare happens later in the night, wakes your child fully, and leaves them frightened and wanting you. Terrors need safety and patience; nightmares need comfort.

My toddler fights the nap but falls apart by dinner. What should I do?

Keep offering the nap at the same time and treat it as a non-negotiable quiet period even when no sleep happens, because many toddlers who refuse for ten minutes then fall asleep. On the days the nap is genuinely lost, move bedtime forward by 30 to 45 minutes rather than trying to push through. Repeated refusal at 23 months is usually a phase, not the end of napping.

How late can the nap be without ruining bedtime?

Work backwards from bedtime: your toddler needs a wake window of 5 to 6 hours between the end of the nap and lights out. That means the nap should be finished by mid-afternoon. A nap that runs past that either pushes bedtime later or produces a toddler who is not tired enough at bedtime and then wakes early. Capping the nap is a reasonable trade.

← All agesSleep by age

Baby sleep schedule at 23 months: nap, bedtime and night terrors

At 23 months your toddler needs 11 to 14 hours of sleep a day: 10 to 12 hours at night and one nap, with wake windows of 5 to 6 hours. The nap has quietly shortened again — around an hour and a half is typical now — and bedtime has moved a little later to match.

A month short of two, the day is about as stable as toddler sleep gets. The useful work at 23 months is not restructuring anything but holding what already works, and knowing what to do on the nights that go wrong. Most of those nights have ordinary explanations.

11–14 h

Total sleep / 24 h

10–12 h

Night sleep

Naps per day

5 h–6 h

Wake window

Night terrors sometimes appear in the second year and are often mistaken for nightmares. A terror happens in the first few hours of the night, during deep sleep: your child may sit up, scream, sweat and look straight through you without waking, and will remember nothing in the morning. A nightmare happens later in the night, wakes your child properly, and leaves them wanting comfort.

The response is different for each. With a night terror the advice is to stay nearby, keep your child safe and not try to wake them, because intervening usually prolongs it. With a nightmare you go in, comfort, and stay until they settle. Overtiredness makes terrors more likely, so protecting the nap and using an earlier bedtime often reduces them. Frequent or violent episodes deserve a conversation with your pediatrician.

A sample day

Here is one way a 23-month day can run: a nap of roughly an hour and a half after lunch, with wake windows of 5 to 6 hours either side. Treat it as a starting point rather than a rule, and let your toddler's wake-up time set everything that follows.

Time	What happens
7:00	Wake-up and first feed
13:15	Nap 1 · approx. 85 min
20:30	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.

Does this 23 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.

Download Lulla now Download on the App Store

Tips for this age

If the nap regularly ends late in the afternoon, cap it — at 23 months the nap has to leave a full 5 to 6 hour window before bedtime.
Keep the same bedtime routine on weekends; a Saturday that runs an hour late is usually paid for on Sunday night.
During a night terror, keep your child safe and wait it out rather than waking them, and talk about it in the morning only if they raise it.
If terrors happen at a consistent time, logging them in Lulla makes the pattern visible, which is the first thing anyone will ask you about.
Repeated night terrors, unusual movements during sleep, or breathing pauses are all worth raising with your pediatrician.

Track your baby's sleep with Lulla

Sleep timer, wake windows and daily stats — free and ad-free.

Download Lulla now

Download on the App Store

Common questions

Keep reading

Sources

The figures on this page follow the guidance of these organizations. This information is educational and does not replace advice from your pediatrician.