{"id":"074163e4b2c9247846d1d37018ff8d3c","slug":"newborn-sleep-duration-one-week-old-8f0f444","question":"newborn sleep duration one week old","answer":"A one-week-old typically sleeps around 16 to 17 hours per day, though the research suggests this can range quite a bit depending on the individual baby. What matters more than hitting a specific number is that your newborn is feeding regularly and gaining weight—those are the real markers that sleep and wake cycles are working as they should.\n\nThe sleep your week-old baby is getting right now will look nothing like what you'll see in a few months. Newborns spend most of those hours in active sleep, which is twitchy and noisy and completely normal; it's actually how their brains develop. Night wakings are frequent at this age, and longer consolidated sleep stretches simply aren't developmentally typical yet. By six months, your baby will sleep slightly less overall but stay awake longer and be capable of napping for five or more hours at a time—the whole pattern shifts gradually over that first half-year.\n\nIf your one-week-old seems like a particularly light or restless sleeper right now, that's just their newborn nature, not a predictor of future sleep problems. Every baby has their own temperament from the start, and it tends to stay pretty consistent as they grow. Trust what you're seeing in these early weeks.","sources":"[{\"pmid\":\"27448323\",\"title\":\"Infant sleep-wake behaviors at two weeks, three and six months.\",\"journal\":\"Infant behavior & development\",\"year\":\"2016\",\"url\":\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27448323/\",\"score\":0.79},{\"pmid\":\"29356197\",\"title\":\"Reference values and changes in infant sleep-wake behaviour during the first 12 months of life: a systematic review.\",\"journal\":\"Journal of sleep research\",\"year\":\"2018\",\"url\":\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29356197/\",\"score\":0.78}]","thread_json":null,"topic":"newborn-reflexes","view_count":0,"created_at":"2026-10-14T23:01:33.927Z"}