How Many Naps For 11 Month Old – The Ultimate Sleeping Guide

Finally, your baby also needs some time to learn new skills as they grow older and wiser. Such skills include playing, engaging their imagination, and interacting with you.

Besides that, you can also add to their ‘busy’ schedules with sleeping, playing, and eating routines. It’s more comfortable and more practical when you do this because you understand your child more than anyone else.

How Long Should an 11 Month Old Stay Awake Between Naps?

Keeping an 11-month-old baby awake for too long is one of the most common mistakes most parents make. At this stage, your baby needs more sleep because it’s a phase of change.

This is the time they start to experience some significant changes in their mental and physical states. Your child is growing, which means they need optimal time in bed to digest the various changes they are experiencing.

So, yes – your baby needs more sleep time now than you might think they do. And if they stay awake for about 7 hours for 24 hours, you should be alerted. 

Although it mostly happens to most parents, it’s a sign that your baby’s sleeping routine isn’t going the right way. Of course, every child is different, and each comes with their uniqueness. 

You can know that your child has been awake for too long if they resist any form of soothing and become fussy when you want them to take a nap. Also, an overtired baby doesn’t necessarily sleep soundly and adequately.

Therefore, don’t ignore their wakefulness maxima, thinking that the best way to put them down is by letting them get tired till they sleep. Understand that if your 11-month-old baby stays up for too long, nighttime sleep will eventually become a problem. 

Nap Schedule for 11-12-Month-Old Babies

At this age, most babies need at least 3-4 hours of wake time during the day. This time should be achieved between the two naps that are usually common for 12-month-old babies.

Therefore, you’ll need to aim for about 15 hours of sleep for 24 hours for your 12-month-old baby. This includes 11-12 hours of nighttime sleep plus the 2-3 hours that should be achieved when taking their two naps a day.

Don’t worry if your child starts to experience sleep regression problems this age. It’s common and healthier than resisting taking naps during the day.

To cope with the regression, you can stretch their wakefulness window slightly so that the 2-nap schedule also gets longer.

Below is a sample sleeping schedule of a 12-month-old baby:

• 6:30 AM – Wake Time

• 9:45 – 10:45 – First Nap (approximately one hour long)

• 10:45 – 2:15 – Wake Time (about 3 hours long of staying awake)

• 2:15 – 3:15 – Second Nap (another one hour of napping)

• 3:15 – 6:15 – Wake Time (around 3 hours of wake time before going to bed)

• 7:00 – Bed Time

Note that this sleeping schedule isn’t a standard for all babies aged 12 months old. Sleep needs vary in different children, with some sleeping more or less in the same age group. 

11 Month Nap Regression

Like mentioned earlier, your baby is growing and is almost having their first birthday. Therefore, don’t expect them to be the same.

Changes occur in different ways and at other times. And at 11 months old, you might sit comfortably thinking that your child has fully settled into their routine sleeping schedule (2-naps a day).

Although not all, most babies experience the 11month sleep regression that frustrates the parents. However, this is understandable considering that you had perhaps already settled into their routine sleeping schedules.

So, what happens now? Well, you have to deal with it, of course – but in the best possible way.

You first need to ask yourself why your child is regressing from their routine sleeping schedule. Because once you understand the cause, solving the issue becomes more straightforward.

What Causes the 11 Month Sleep Regression?

Like the 8-month sleep regression, this one also happens because your baby is growing stronger, wiser, and engaging in even more activities. Besides that, there can also be a medical issue with your child, which you should nullify before anything else.

If nothing is wrong with your baby medically, the other things causing them regression can be quickly dealt with. As you may know, many physical and mental milestones go down from 8-12 months old. 

Therefore, your baby is still in the development window. And like any other development phase, changes are inevitable.

These changes occurring in your little one also bring their consequences – one of them being the sleep regression. Therefore, it’s normal for your child to start experiencing a decrease in their naptimes, especially during the day.

You’ll find that your baby wants to stay awake more now than before. It excites them because they learn new stuff, interacts with you, and have more adrenaline in them.

As their parent, it’s also a fun and proud moment when you see such milestones happening. It throws you off, and without even knowing it, you find yourself excited about the idea of your baby staying awake for long hours.

This is until they start demanding more than bedtime when it’s their time to sleep. At this point, there are no more excitements – for the parents, especially if you are waking up early for work.

How to Solve the 11 Month Sleep Regression

1. Start the First Nap Earlier

If your baby starts waking up earlier than 6 AM, note that it can cost you more problems as the day progresses. Therefore, you need to start their morning naps more first than usual.

So, if they start waking up earlier, you need to move their morning naps from 9 AM to about 8-8:30 AM. This will help you put them down more comfortable and quicker.

2. Ensure they get an Hour of napping

After putting your baby down, ensure that they achieve at least one hour of nap time – not longer or shorter than thirty minutes. When you do this, it prepares your child adequately for the second nap of the day.

But for you to ensure that your child’s morning nap lasts for one hour, you have to create an enabling environment for them. This means no noise, a cozy place to sleep, and well-fed before taking a nap.

Additionally, a short morning nap ensures that the baby doesn’t nap again when it’s too late in the day. Because that happens, the nighttime sleeping time will be significantly affected.

3. Allow your baby to settle down

Again, your baby will be more excited to learn new things than napping during the day. So, daily naps become less important to them if they just started to walk or interact with you.

Therefore, it’s common for their daytime naps to regress, which they still need at this age. And while putting them down is a good option, sometimes it would be best to let the process happen naturally.

Don’t get alarmed if it takes them some time because, like us, babies too have a system that demands something when they feel it’s insufficient. Combining this and the other tips can help you reduce the 11-month sleep regression phase from weeks to just days. 

Sleep Training for 11-Month-Old Babies

As mentioned earlier, 11-month-old babies sleep for about 15 hours during the day (24hrs). But if this isn’t the case with your baby, you should start to consider sleep training your baby.

Sleep training doesn’t only help you put your baby to sleep, but also teaches your baby to do it themselves. Below are some of the best sleep training tips to help your 11-month-old baby sleep soundly and adequately.

1. Have a Noise-Free Bedroom

This is the most common and productive way of putting your baby down. Sleep time can be well achieved with a calm and quiet bedroom.

Therefore, ensure that there are no distractions or noise around the area where your baby is sleeping. This not only helps them to fall asleep quicker but maintaining a calm and quiet sleeping environment for your baby also stretches their sleeping or napping time.

Other than a noise-free bedroom, ensure that the room they are sleeping in is darkened. This applies even during the day time naps they will be having.

2. Indicate it’s time to sleep