Sleep tool · 11 month old

When the morning nap starts to wobble

At 11 months a refused nap looks like the one nap transition. Most of the time it is something smaller.

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When your baby woke for the day, not from a night waking.

Wake windows
3 to 4 hours
Naps a day
2
Nap length
about 1 to 1.5 hours each
Sleep in 24 hours
12 to 16 hours

At 11 months, many babies still do best on wake windows of 3 to 4 hours with 2 naps of about 1 to 1.5 hours each. Total sleep often sits around 12 to 16 hours, with about 9 to 12 hours at night, often with wakes. Morning nap resistance is common at this age and usually temporary.

Around 11 months a lot of babies start protesting the first nap. They babble, they stand, they take a long time to go down, and it reads like a signal to drop to one. In most cases the morning nap is only slightly mistimed, or a new skill is keeping them busy. The 2 nap day usually holds for a while yet.

What changes at 11 months

  • Wake windows of 3 to 4 hours are wide, and the first window of the day is the one that needs the most attention. Offered too soon after waking, the morning nap often gets refused rather than needed.
  • The 2 naps still run about 1 to 1.5 hours each for many babies, but they may stop being equal. One often becomes the anchor nap and the other becomes the one that is negotiated every day.
  • New skills arrive quickly this month. Standing, cruising, pointing and first words tend to show up in the crib before they show up anywhere else, which can stretch how long settling takes.
  • Night sleep of about 9 to 12 hours, often with wakes, is still normal. A broken night frequently shows up the next day as a refused morning nap rather than as obvious tiredness.

What tired looks like right now

  • Resistance rather than obvious sleepiness. Many 11 month olds who genuinely need the nap will still stand, chat and pat the mattress for a stretch before going down.
  • A very short fuse late in a 3 to 4 hour window. Toys get thrown rather than examined, and small frustrations turn into big ones.
  • Pushing their face into your shoulder while still wriggling to get down, which is often the point where they are past ready rather than approaching it.
  • Falling asleep in the pram or car in the late afternoon, which usually means the day ran a little longer than it should have.

When it goes sideways

The morning nap is being refused and it looks like a transition

Very few babies genuinely drop to one nap at 11 months. Far more often the morning nap is being offered too early inside a 3 to 4 hour window, so the pressure to sleep has not built yet. Many parents push the first nap a little later and find it comes back within a few days. A true transition tends to show up as weeks of consistent refusal plus an afternoon nap that also stops working, not a handful of difficult mornings.

Bedtime keeps drifting later and later

When the morning nap gets skipped or shortened, the whole day slides. The afternoon nap often starts later to compensate, and with 3 to 4 hours of wake time needed afterwards, bedtime pushes back with it. Many parents protect the wake time and the first nap instead of the last one, so the day has a fixed start rather than a fixed end. On a badly disrupted day, an earlier bedtime often works better than trying to hold the usual routine.

They keep falling asleep in the car at the end of the day

A short accidental nap late in the afternoon can take the edge off just enough that bedtime becomes a battle. At 11 months, that usually points to the last window running past 3 to 4 hours rather than to a baby who needs a third nap. If the afternoon nap finished early, many parents bring bedtime forward rather than trying to fill the gap, and keep the late afternoon car trip short where they can.

Questions parents ask at this age

Why is my 11 month old fighting the morning nap?
This is one of the most common questions at 11 months. Usually the nap is being offered before the end of a 3 to 4 hour window, so the drive to sleep is not there yet. New skills like standing and cruising also get practised in the crib. Nudging the nap slightly later often brings it back.
Is my 11 month old ready to drop to one nap?
Most are not. At 11 months, 2 naps of about 1 to 1.5 hours each is still the typical pattern. A genuine transition usually shows as several consistent weeks where the morning nap is refused and the afternoon nap also falls apart, rather than a run of difficult mornings after a rough night.
How far apart should the two naps be at 11 months?
The gap between naps generally follows the wake window, so roughly 3 to 4 hours of awake time between the end of one nap and the start of the next. That spacing is a starting point rather than a rule. If they go down easily and wake settled, the gap is working, whatever the clock says.
What does an 11 month old sleep schedule look like?
A common shape is wake, a long first stretch, morning nap, another 3 to 4 hour window, afternoon nap, then a final 3 to 4 hour window into bedtime. With 2 naps of about 1 to 1.5 hours each, the day has three awake blocks rather than the four or five it had earlier in the year.
Is it normal for an 11 month old to skip a nap some days?
Yes. Skipped naps happen at this age, usually after a broken night, a busy morning out, or a burst of new skills. One odd day is not a pattern. Many parents bring bedtime forward a little on those days and simply go back to the usual shape the next morning.
Should I cap the afternoon nap for an 11 month old?
Sometimes. If the afternoon nap runs well past about 1 to 1.5 hours and bedtime then stretches out, capping it can help. If the morning nap was short or skipped, letting the afternoon one run longer often makes for a calmer evening. It is worth deciding day by day rather than setting a fixed rule.
Why does my 11 month old take so long to fall asleep at nap time?
Long settling usually means the nap arrived slightly too early inside the 3 to 4 hour window, or that a new skill is being rehearsed. Many babies at this age need a few quiet minutes of chatting and standing before they lie down. If it consistently takes a long stretch, shifting the nap later often shortens it.
How long should the gap be between the last nap and bedtime at 11 months?
The final window usually follows the same 3 to 4 hours as the rest of the day, and for many babies it is the longest one. If the afternoon nap ended earlier than usual, an earlier bedtime often works better than stretching the gap and arriving at bedtime overtired.
How can I tell if my 11 month old is overtired or not tired enough?
The behavior looks similar, so the timing is the clearest clue. Going down easily but waking after a short sleep often points to a window that was too short. Fighting sleep for a long stretch, then crashing hard, more often means the 3 to 4 hours ran too long. Tracking a few days usually makes the pattern obvious.
11 month old is Problem Solver
Sleep is only part of what shifts at 10.5–11 months. See everything happening in Problem Solver.
Sources: Nemours KidsHealth, Baby Sleep: 8- to 12-Month-Olds. Sleep Foundation, How Much Sleep Do Babies and Kids Need?. HealthyChildren.org (AAP), Healthy Sleep Habits: How Many Hours Does Your Child Need?. Ranges are typical, not targets, and your baby's cues always outrank the clock.

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