Daytime infant sleep
When we talk about sleep in the early years, most of the focus is on sleep during the dark hours of night. But throughout the first year and usually into the third year of life, infants meet their sleep needs through daytime sleep as well.
The first three months of life, newborns have no system to distinguish between day and night. Sleep simply happens. As the circadian rhythm begins to develop slowly. Over the coming year, daytime and nighttime sleep will gradually begin to differ. Distinct periods of sleep in daylight - which we generally refer to as “naps” - begin to consolidate.
The science of infant sleep is quite new and most of what parents read or hear is based on assumptions handed down over recent generations. However, we do now have some useful data:
In a study in 2003, Iglowstein and colleagues tracked 493 Swiss children from birth to 16 years (Iglowstein et al 2003). At two years of age, 87% of infants were napping during the day. It is important to keep in mind this longitudinal study followed children born between 1974 and 1993. (We’ll come back to this)
1 month old
The average baby slept between 5 and 6 hours during the daytime
50% of babies slept between approximately 4.5 and 7 hours
96% of babies slept between 2 and 9 hours
3 months old
The average baby slept a bit less than 5 hours during the daytime
50% of babies slept between approximately 3.5 and 6 hours
96% of babies slept between 1 and 8 hours
6 months old
The average baby slept about 3.4 hours during the daytime
50% of babies slept between approximately 2.5 and 4.5 hours
96% of babies slept between 0.4 and 6.4 hours
9 months old
The average baby slept about 2.8 hours during the daytime
50% of babies slept between approximately 2 and 4 hours
96% of babies slept between 0.2 and 5.3 hours
1 year old
The average baby slept about 2.4 hours during the daytime
50% of babies slept between approximately 2 and 3.5 hours
96% of babies slept between 0.2 and 4.6 hours
18 months old
The average baby slept about 2 hours during the daytime
50% of babies slept between approximately 1.5 to 2.5 hours
96% of babies slept between 0.5 and 3.6 hours
2 years old
The average baby slept about 1.8 hours during the daytime
50% of babies slept between approximately 1.3 to 2.3 hours
96% of babies slept between 0.7 and 2.9 hours
Before we take this information and consider it to be a sound basis for expectations of infant sleep, we need to understand some variables which could prove significant:
Parental reporting of infant sleep generally records the time a child is put to bed awake and the time they signal to the adult they are awake. This time is likely to be longer for infants who are not sleeping within arms-reach of their mother. Breastfeeding mothers generally report shorter periods of sleep than those whose babies are formula fed. Mothers who bed-share also report more frequent waking. Babies who contact nap and breastsleep might not have distinct transitions between feeding and sleeping. Parents who practice babywearing might be more observant of brief wakings between periods of sleep.
Babies born in the 1970s were much more likely to be formula fed and fed according to strict schedules. By the 1990s, breastfeeding rates had increased and demand feeding was typical for breastfed babies. Attitudes to bed-sharing also varied greatly during the parameters of time and even the practice of babywearing changed over those decades.
Variations of lifestyles might also impact reported infant sleep: In an American study published in 2005, by 18 months 82% of infants had stopped daytime sleep altogether!
What is daytime anyway?
When does your day begin and end? Are you an early bird or a night owl? Is 5am the start of your day or in the middle of the night? What time is sunrise and sunset today? And six months from now? How do you wake in the morning - to the sounds of birdsong, the beep of an alarm or gently as a smart device senses your sleep state, opens your bedroom blinds and plays your morning playlist?
What does your child’s day look like? Up and out the door for a 6am drop-off at daycare or a leisurely variable depending on plans for the day? A firm routine to get out the door for school on time or an early nap before heading to playgroup mid-morning?
Comparison of time spent asleep during “daytime” must be made in context. Time is a social concept, meaningless in nature. At most, humans living hunter-gather or subsistence farming lifestyles would track the seasons and the passing of the moon at night and the sun during the day. Even in recent Western culture, clocks were only sycronised between towns and cities in the UK when the invention of train lines and station clocks meant timetables were invented!
Your household has a daily rhythm in place before your baby joins the family. Their wake time in the day and bedtime at night is measured against your existing pattern. If your typical dinnertime is a grownup 8pm, you might consider your baby’s 7pm bedtime as “before dinner” while your neighbour’s family dinnertime of 6pm describes their baby’s 7pm bedtime as “after dinner”. In both homes, a winter evening might be considered as the time after the sky darkens at 5pm. But in summer they are trying to convince their children 7pm is nighttime, even though the sun will shine until after 8pm!
Responsive parenting and infant sleep
When you speak to parents following strict sleep schedules and daily routines, they will be able to tell you exact times of day their child sleeps and wakes and how long each proscribed sleep period will last.
Responsive parents, following their child’s needs and without a constructed schedule, will sometimes have a vague idea of their baby’s natural pattern but also an understanding how it changes over time.
A baby who is kept in proximity of their mother, breastfeeds without restriction, spends time in arms and in a carrier and sleeps beside her body at night will feed, sleep and wake naturally throughout infancy. Gradually as their brain and body mature there sleep will consolidate and evolve into the typical nighttime sleep of childhood, adolesence and adulthood.
