Once you’ve created a perfectly sleep-conducive environment for your child, you will want to take a deep dive into their schedule to ensure that it is age-appropriate. The best age-appropriate sleep schedule is the one that maximizes sleep throughout your kiddo’s entire 24-hour day. 

This is because the road to more sleep is… more sleep.

If your kiddos are regularly well-rested, they’re more likely to regularly sleep well too.

Sound mystifying? It really doesn’t have to be. You can’t go wrong if you focus on age-appropriate wake windows and a proper bedtime based on how many hours of total sleep your little one should enjoy in a 24-hour period.

Between the ages of 0 to 2 years old, pay close attention to age-appropriate wake windows. Wake windows are the amounts of time that little ones can spend awake before becoming overtired and getting a shot of the stress hormone, cortisol. This can make it difficult for little ones to fall and stay asleep.

Wake windows are 45-60 minutes when a little one is born, and they increase by about 10-15 minutes per month until they can handle approximately 3-4 hours by their first birthday. While a 6-month-old can handle only about 2-2.5 hours of being awake in one stretch, a 2-year-old can handle about 6 hours of being awake in one stretch. Getting them to sleep before these windows close is the key to quick and easy naps and bedtimes.

Read the full article here today.

Happy toddler sleeping, parents!

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