Tools · Sleep

Bedtime Calculator: What Time Should Your Baby Go to Bed?

Free baby bedtime calculator. Enter your baby's age and the time the last nap ended to see a suggested bedtime window, plus typical bedtimes by age.

Baby's age (months) Time the last nap ended

Enter your baby's age to see the awake stretch before bed.

Bedtime is a range, not a deadline. Tired cues — rubbing eyes, staring off, going quiet — tell you more than the clock does, and a bedtime that works on a good nap day may be too late after a short one.

How Bedtime Shifts Through the First Two Years

Bedtime is set by the last wake window of the day rather than by the clock alone. That final stretch is usually the longest one: around 75–105 minutes at 1–3 months, 2–2.5 hours by 3–6 months, 2.5–3.5 hours by 6–9 months, and 4–6 hours once a child is on a single nap or none at all.

This is why the same baby can need a 6:45pm bedtime after a poor nap day and 8:00pm after a good one. The clock ranges below describe what is typical across many babies of each age; the calculation above uses your own afternoon instead, which is the more useful of the two.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a late bedtime the reason my baby wakes at night?

Not on its own, but it is a common contributor. A baby put down well past their final wake window arrives at bed overtired, and an overtired baby usually settles harder and wakes more in the first half of the night rather than sleeping more deeply. Bringing bedtime forward by 15–30 minutes for a few nights is the usual thing to try first.

Will an earlier bedtime make my baby wake up earlier?

Usually the opposite, within reason. Early-morning waking is more often a sign of a bedtime that was too late or a day with too little total sleep than of one that was too early. There is a floor, though — pushing bedtime much before 6:30pm tends to shorten the night rather than lengthen it.

What if the last nap ends very late in the afternoon?

Then bedtime moves later that night, which is normal and not something to correct by keeping the baby up. If late final naps are pushing bedtime past what suits your household most days, the usual adjustment is capping that nap rather than shortening the wake window after it.

My baby's bedtime doesn't match the typical range at all — should I change it?

Not if the nights are going well. Sleep needs vary meaningfully between babies of the same age, and a bedtime that produces settled nights and a rested child in the morning is the right one, whatever the chart says. The ranges are a reference point for when something is not working.