The daily routine of a 12-month-old

One year. Your child’s cycles have lengthened, their sleep looks more and more like yours, and the daily routine has been stable for months.

It is also the age where you will be told, often with great confidence, that "at one year you go to one nap". That is wrong in the vast majority of cases. The transition happens between fourteen and eighteen months, and bringing it forward by three months is paid for in broken nights.

What does appear, on the other hand, is character. The first resistance at bedtime has nothing to do with sleep, and is handled differently.

Their typical day

Wake-up at

07:00Morning wake-up
awake 3 h 05
10:05Nap 1 · until about 11:35 (1 h 30)
awake 3 h 30
15:05Nap 2 · until about 16:05 (1 h)
awake 3 h 55
20:00Bedtime

Naps: 2
Daytime sleep: 2 h 30
Awake windows: 3 h 15 – 4 h 15
Night: 11 h

Calculated from the figures for this age. These are starting points, not instructions: your child’s tiredness signals come before the clock.

The awake windows at this age

First window, on waking: 3 h 05
Between two naps: 3 h 30
Last window, before bedtime: 3 h 55

The first window of the day is the shortest, the last the longest. That holds at every age, and it is what stops you putting down a child who has not built enough sleep pressure yet.

If your baby wakes earlier or later

The whole day shifts. What matters is the gaps between the moments, not the times themselves.

Wake-up at 06:30

Nap 109:35 – 11:05
Nap 214:35 – 15:35
Bedtime19:30

Wake-up at 07:30

Nap 110:35 – 12:05
Nap 215:35 – 16:35
Bedtime20:30

The key point at this age

Two naps at one year is not being behind

The confusion comes from how wide the range is: some children move to one nap at thirteen months, others hold two until eighteen. Both are normal. The only signal that counts is systematically refusing one of the two for at least two weeks running — not the age on the calendar, nor what the neighbour’s child does.

The page for this age

When the day goes off the rails

I am told that at one year you move to one nap

That is wrong in the vast majority of cases. The transition happens between fourteen and eighteen months, and bringing it forward by three months is paid for in broken nights and difficult late afternoons. The only signal that counts is systematic refusal of one of the two naps for two weeks running.

The morning nap is shortening on its own

That is the first, still distant sign of the transition to come. There is nothing to do for now except let it shorten and check that the afternoon nap is still holding. It will end up absorbing what the first one loses.

Bedtime has become a negotiation

Nothing to do with the rhythm: it is character arriving. A short routine — twenty minutes at most — always in the same order and always finished in the same place does more than a change of timing. Decide the number of stories in advance and announce it.

What changes before and after

By age	Naps	Daytime sleep	Bedtime
11 months	2	2 h 15	20:00
12 months	2	2 h 30	20:00
15 months	2	2 h 45	20:00

The questions of this age

How many naps at 1 year?

Two in the vast majority of cases, for around two to two and a half hours in total. A single nap at this age is possible but early: check first that the nights are not getting worse.

What time should a 1-year-old go to bed?

Most often between 7 and 8.30 p.m., about four hours after the afternoon nap ends. If mornings become very early, try moving bedtime earlier rather than later.

My 1-year-old refuses bedtime, should I change the rhythm?

Rarely. At this age resistance tests the rule, not your patience. The most effective answer is boring: the same thing, every evening, without negotiation. The rhythm is only to blame if settling regularly takes over forty minutes.

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