Newborn sleep, explained
At a glance: at this age your baby can stay awake for 45 min–1 h at a time, and needs 14–17 h of sleep per 24 hours.
Recommended awake time
45 min – 1 h
Number of naps
4–6 (cycle-based)
Total sleep per 24 h
14–17 h
Bedtime
7:11 PM ±
Sample schedule (newborn)
Assuming a 7:00 wake-up — adjust it to your real wake-up.
- 7:00 AMWake up
- 7:53 AM – 8:53 AM Nap 1
- 9:46 AM – 10:46 AM Nap 2
- 11:39 AM – 12:39 PM Nap 3
- 1:32 PM – 2:32 PM Nap 4
- 3:25 PM – 4:25 PM Nap 5
- 5:18 PM – 6:18 PM Nap 6
- 7:11 PMBedtime 🌙
Newborns run on sleep-pressure cycles, not the clock — treat these times as a rhythm, and follow sleepy cues first.
What’s happening at this stage
Newborns don’t have a schedule — they have cycles. Sleep pressure builds fast (45–60 minutes of awake time is genuinely all they can do), and day–night confusion is normal for the first weeks: the internal clock that separates night sleep from day sleep hasn’t switched on yet.
The most useful thing you can do at this stage is not schedule-building but rhythm-protecting: watch the clock lightly, watch your baby closely, and offer sleep at the first yawns and zoning-out. An overtired newborn is dramatically harder to settle than a sleepy one.
Three things that help right now
- Expose your baby to daylight in the morning and keep nights dark and boring — it’s the fastest cure for day–night confusion.
- Don’t fight short naps; 30–45 minute cycles are biologically normal now.
- Treat the times below as a shape for the day, not appointments.
More free tools
General guidance for healthy babies — every child is different. This is not medical advice; talk to your pediatrician about your baby.
Want this calculated automatically, every day?
Nana learns your baby's real rhythm and adjusts nap times and bedtime as the day actually unfolds — not just by age. Free to start.