How many hours should a 9-month-old sleep?

Twelve to 15 hours over 24: roughly 10 to 12 at night, with 2 naps covering the rest and wake windows of 2.5 to 3.5 hours in between. Plenty of 9-month-olds still wake in the night, and the daily total matters more than whether the night ran unbroken. If your baby is far below the range week after week, ask your pediatrician to take a look.

Why has my 9-month-old suddenly started waking at night?

Most often because of development rather than anything you changed. Between 8 and 10 months babies are learning to crawl, pull up and cruise, and separation anxiety peaks around now. New skills get rehearsed at night, and a baby who wakes between cycles wants you there. Check that naps and wake windows have not drifted, keep night responses calm and brief, and expect it to settle over a few weeks.

Why does my baby wake 40 minutes after bedtime?

That's a false start, and it usually means bedtime came a little too early for the sleep pressure your baby had built. Try stretching the last wake window toward the 3.5 hour end of the range for a few days. Light leaking into the room and an overlong afternoon nap are the other common causes. Treat the wake-up like night, not like the start of the evening.

Does my 9-month-old still need a night feed?

Some do and some don't, and it depends on your baby's growth, daytime intake and medical history rather than on the calendar. This is a question for your pediatrician, who can look at the whole picture. What's clear is that dropping a feed is not something to attempt in the middle of a regression week — wait until sleep has settled before changing anything about the night.

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Baby sleep schedule at 9 months: two naps, night waking and separation anxiety

At 9 months your baby needs 12 to 15 hours of sleep a day, with 10 to 12 hours at night and 2 naps. Wake windows stay at 2.5 to 3.5 hours, and bedtime tends to sit in the early evening. The numbers look identical to last month, but the days often feel different.

Nine months is frequently the peak of separation anxiety, and the second half of the 8 to 10 month regression. Your baby now understands that you exist even when you are out of sight, which is a cognitive leap and a bedtime complication in the same package.

12–15 h

Total sleep / 24 h

10–12 h

Night sleep

Naps per day

2½ h–3½ h

Wake window

Object permanence is the engine behind most of the 9-month drama. Your baby knows you went somewhere, and would rather you came back. Combine that with crawling, pulling up and cruising — skills that get practiced at 3 am — and you get a month of extra wakings in a baby whose schedule is otherwise stable. It's a phase attached to development, and it fades as both the skills and your reliability become ordinary.

A false start — your baby goes down at bedtime and wakes fully 30 to 45 minutes later — is a common 9-month pattern. The usual cause is a last wake window that was too short, so bedtime arrived before enough sleep pressure had built. Stretching that final window toward the top of the 2.5 to 3.5 hour range often fixes it in a few days. A room that is too light is the other frequent culprit.

A sample day

Here is one shape a 9-month day can take, with 2 naps and wake windows of 2.5 to 3.5 hours. Use the order, not the minutes: on a day when the afternoon nap runs short, bring bedtime forward rather than stretching the evening to reach the times below.

Time	What happens
7:00	Wake-up and first feed
9:45	Nap 1 · approx. 75 min
14:15	Nap 2 · approx. 90 min
19:15	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.

Does this 9 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.

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Tips for this age

Keep putting your baby down on their back and keep the crib bare until 12 months; a comfort object can wait, and until then your predictable routine is the security blanket.
If bedtime is followed by a full wake-up 40 minutes later, try lengthening the last wake window toward 3.5 hours before changing anything else.
Play peekaboo and hide-and-seek during the day, because practicing disappearance and return is genuinely useful for separation anxiety.
Log the night wakings in Lulla for a week; seeing them cluster at the same time each night usually points to the schedule rather than to hunger.
Questions about night feeds at this age are worth putting to your pediatrician, who can weigh your baby's growth and intake — there is no single right answer.

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Common questions

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Sources

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