How Much do Newborn Babies Sleep?

Bringing your new baby home is an exciting experience. Newborns spend most of their time sleeping, eating, and using the bathroom, but is it possible for your baby to sleep too much?

How much do newborn babies sleep?

Your baby will spend about an hour awake right after being born before going to sleep because birth is just as exhausting for them as it is for you. For the first twenty-four hours, it’ll be very difficult to keep your baby awake during feedings, but it’s important to maintain a consistent eat-sleep cycle during this time.

As newborns, babies should spend about 75% of their time sleeping. The number of hours that your baby sleeps each day will slowly decrease, but they will spend most of their time sleeping at first. 

For the first six weeks of your baby’s life, they should be sleeping 15-18 hours a day, broken up into 3 to 5 naps during the day and up to four-hour increments at night. Between six and 15 weeks, your baby should sleep 14-16 hours and take 3 to 4 naps during the day while sleeping 3-6 hours at night. By six months, your baby should be down to 15 hours a day of sleep which looks like three naps and sleeping almost through the night.

Babies can’t sleep too much overall, but they can sleep too long during their nap sessions. If you find that your baby is sleeping for longer than 2-4 hours, it’s important to wake them for feeding. Because newborns lose so much weight when they’re born, the goal is to get them on a steady weight gaining pattern. Once they’re on that pattern, your pediatrician will likely give you the green light to wait for overnight feedings until your baby wakes up.