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How much should a newborn sleep, and how to track it

Published 1 October 2026 · Dao Van Thuong · 5 min read

There is no single right number for a newborn: in the first months babies sleep a lot, in short stretches spread across day and night, and the amount varies widely from baby to baby. For babies from 4 to 12 months, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours including naps, a range the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed; for babies under 4 months it sets no range at all, because normal varies so much.

What helps more than a target is safe sleep every time, and a simple log that shows your own baby's pattern. This guide covers both, with steps that work with pen and paper.

This guide is general information, not medical advice. Follow what your doctor, midwife or health visitor told you, and call emergency services in an emergency.

How much do newborns sleep in a day?

Newborns spend most of the day asleep, but rarely for long. They wake to feed around the clock, so sleep comes in short pieces rather than one long night. Many families find that day and night only start to look different after the first weeks, and longer night stretches arrive gradually over the following months.

That is why expert bodies are careful with numbers for the youngest babies. The range above (12 to 16 hours per 24 hours, including naps) starts at 4 months. Before that, your baby's own pattern — and your doctor's view of how they are feeding and growing — matters more than any chart.

If you find a table online that gives an exact number of hours for each week of life, treat it as a rough average, not a standard your baby has to meet.

What does safe sleep look like?

The AAP's safe-sleep recommendations (updated in 2022) apply to every sleep, day and night, for the first year:

  • Put the baby down on their back, for naps and at night.
  • Use a firm, flat, non-inclined surface designed for babies, such as a crib or bassinet, with a fitted sheet and nothing else in it: no pillows, bumpers, blankets or soft toys.
  • Share a room, not a bed. The AAP recommends the baby sleeps in the parents' room, on their own separate surface, ideally for the first 6 months.
  • Avoid overheating, and keep the baby's head uncovered.
  • If you feed the baby in your bed, move them back to their own sleep space when you are done. Falling asleep with a baby on a sofa or armchair is especially risky, so if you feel yourself dozing off, put the baby down.

Your country's health ministry and your baby's doctor may phrase these differently; follow what they tell you for your situation.

What are wake windows, and should I follow them?

A wake window is the stretch of time a baby is awake between sleeps. Published tables give typical ranges by age, and they grow slowly over the first year: a newborn may be ready to sleep again after little more than a feed and a diaper change, while an older baby can stay awake much longer.

Wake windows are a hint, not a rule. They help you notice when your baby is likely to be tired, alongside sleepy cues such as yawning, staring off, rubbing eyes or getting fussy. If your baby's cues and the table disagree, trust the baby.

How do I keep a sleep log on paper?

A sleep log only needs two times per sleep. Keep it next to where the baby sleeps, on the same sheet as feeds and diapers if you already keep one.

  1. 1Write the time the baby fell asleep. A rough time is fine; nobody knows the exact minute.
  2. 2Write the time they woke up.
  3. 3Add a letter for where they slept (C for crib, A for arms, S for stroller) if you are curious what helps.
  4. 4At the end of the day, add up the hours, or just look at the longest stretch.

After a week, lay the days side by side. You will start to see a rhythm — the long stretch after the evening feed, the short morning nap — that you could not see from inside a tired day.

What should I look for in the log?

  • The longest stretch of the day and when it happens. This often moves toward the night over the weeks.
  • How long the baby is awake before falling asleep easily, compared with the times they fought sleep. That is your baby's own wake window.
  • Changes from one week to the next, rather than one bad day. Every baby has off days.

Bring the log to checkups. It turns “they never sleep” into something specific your doctor can look at.

When should I call the doctor?

Call your baby's doctor if your baby is very hard to wake for feeds, seems unusually floppy or unresponsive, has trouble breathing, has a fever, or if anything about their sleep worries you. Trust your instinct; you do not need a log to justify a call. In an emergency, call emergency services.

Where Baton helps

Baton logs sleep with one big button: start a timer when the baby falls asleep and stop it when they wake, or enter the times afterwards. If you forget to press start, you can begin the timer 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes ago. The running timer shows on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.

The Today screen shows how long the baby has been awake, and the free 7-day chart shows hours of sleep per day. With Baton Plus, Baton suggests the usual next-nap window for your baby's age, from published wake-window tables with the source named in the app, and can remind you before it. It is a typical range, not medical advice.

Both parents log to the same record through their own iCloud, and night mode keeps the screen warm and dim for 3 AM.