Sleep Training 1 Year Old: Methods, Schedule and a 2-Week Plan

Sleep training 1 year old babies is not too late: with the right schedule, one method you can stick with and about two consistent weeks, most 12 to 15 month olds can learn to fall asleep on their own.

If your 1 year old won’t sleep through the night, you have not missed your chance. The principles are the same as at 6 months, but the child is different: bigger, louder, standing up and very aware that you just left.

Here is what changes at this age, a sample schedule, each method’s pros and cons, a two week plan and what the research shows.

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Sleep Training 1 Year Old Babies: Is It Too Late?

Our guide on when to start sleep training explains why 4 to 6 months is the usual starting window, but a window is not a deadline. One well known trial (Gradisar, 2016) enrolled babies from 6 to 16 months old.

You also do not have to sleep train. If feeding or rocking to sleep works for your family, nothing needs fixing.

What Is Different at 12 Months vs 6 Months

• Standing and cruising: a 12 month old pulls up on the rail the moment you leave and may not know how to get back down.
• Separation anxiety: the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) notes it can disrupt sleep from the second half of the first year and usually fades around the second birthday.
• Stronger habits, more stamina: a year of being fed or rocked to sleep is well practiced, and a 1 year old can protest louder and longer.
• The 12 month sleep regression: walking, new words and a nap strike often shake up sleep around the first birthday, usually for two to three weeks. See our 12 month sleep regression guide.
• The nap question: most 1 year olds still need two naps. The move to one nap usually comes between 13 and 18 months.

How Much Sleep a 1 Year Old Needs, With a Sample Schedule

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine consensus statement, which the AAP supports, recommends 11 to 14 hours of sleep per 24 hours, including naps, for children 1 to 2 years old. For most 12 month olds that is 10 to 12 hours overnight plus 2 to 2.5 hours of naps.

Fix the schedule first: an overtired child will fight any method. Our 12 month old sleep schedule has the full day. Do not start sleep training and the switch to one nap in the same week.

Night Feeds at 12 Months: Ask Before You Drop Them

Whether your child still needs calories overnight is a medical question, so ask your pediatrician first. Many healthy 1 year olds who eat well during the day no longer need a night feed, but it depends on your child’s growth and health.

With the go-ahead, drop feeds gradually or all at once (see night weaning). If a feed should stay, offer it at one planned time and use your method for every other waking.

Sleep Training Methods for a 1 Year Old: Honest Pros and Cons

The best method is the one you can repeat every night. Our overview of common sleep training methods goes deeper.

For check-ins, read the Ferber method. To stay in the room, see the chair method. For lower-cry routes, start with gentle sleep training.

A 2-Week Plan for Sleep Training 1 Year Old Toddlers

• Prep (2 to 3 days): ask your pediatrician about night feeds, set the schedule and agree on one plan with every caregiver. Build a short toddler bedtime routine with milk first, so your child is not fed to sleep.
• Practice in daylight: let your child pull up on the rail and show them how to bend their knees and sit.
• Nights 1 to 3: after the routine, say one short goodnight phrase and put your child down awake. Follow your method exactly, and treat night wakings the same as bedtime. Check-ins are brief and boring, with no picking up or feeding.
• Nights 4 to 7: stretch the time between check-ins, or move the chair halfway to the door. Use the same approach for naps.
• Week 2: move the chair to the doorway, then out. A flare-up after several good nights passes if your response stays the same.
• Day 14: compare with night one. If nothing has improved, recheck the schedule and talk with your pediatrician.

Standing in the Crib, Early Waking and Other Snags

• Standing and refusing to lie down: lay your child down once, say your phrase and stop. Repeating it becomes a game. A tired child who knows how to sit will get down.
• Early waking: treat anything before 6:00 a.m. as night. Then check for morning light, a first nap that starts too early, or too much daytime sleep. See baby waking up too early.
• Teething: comfort freely, ask your pediatrician about pain relief, then return to the plan.
• Illness: pause. A child with a fever, ear infection or stomach bug needs you. Restart once they are well.
• Travel: keep the routine and go back to your method the first night home.
• Twins: keep both on the same schedule, train them together and run white noise between the cribs.
• A sibling in the room: offer the older child a temporary sleepover elsewhere for the first week.

What the Research Says About Safety and Effectiveness

• Mindell and colleagues, 2006: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine review of 52 studies. Ninety-four percent found behavioral approaches effective, more than 80 percent of treated children improved, gains held for three to six months, and no study identified harmful side effects.
• Price, Hiscock and colleagues, 2012: a five-year follow-up in Pediatrics of a randomized trial of behavioral techniques taught at 8 to 10 months. At age 6, the 225 children assessed showed no meaningful differences in emotional health, behavior, sleep or closeness with parents: no lasting harms and no lasting benefits.
• Gradisar and colleagues, 2016: a small randomized trial in Pediatrics (43 babies, 6 to 16 months). Graduated check-ins and bedtime fading both improved sleep, with no adverse stress responses and no differences in attachment or behavior 12 months later.

Put modestly: these methods usually improve sleep, studies so far have not found harm, and long-term outcomes look the same either way. The decision is yours.

Safe Sleep at 12 Months

• Until the first birthday, the AAP says babies sleep on their back on a firm, flat mattress with a fitted sheet and nothing else: no pillows, blankets, bumper pads or soft toys.
• After 12 months, the AAP notes that most experts agree soft objects pose little risk to healthy children, so a small, light blanket is a reasonable choice. A pillow is not needed.
• A sleep sack stays the simplest option. Never use weighted sleep sacks or weighted blankets, and skip sleep positioners.
• Set the mattress at its lowest position before your child learns to stand, never use bumper pads, and keep the crib away from windows and cords.

Related Betteroo Guides

• 12 month old wake windows
• False start bedtime
• 2 to 1 nap transition
• Separation anxiety and sleep
• Pick up, put down method
• 12 month sleep regression

When to Talk to Your Pediatrician

Check in before you start if your child was born early or has a medical condition. Call if you notice:

• Snoring most nights, pauses in breathing or gasping.
• Poor weight gain, or a child who seems truly hungry at night.
• Night waking with signs of pain, such as ear pulling, arching or fever (ear infections and reflux can disturb sleep).
• A regression that lasts more than a few weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions