Establishing Healthy Sleep Habits: 12 to 18 months

Typical sleep at this age

Now your baby is officially a toddler — but he still needs as much sleep as he did when he was younger. Until his second birthday, your child should get about 14 hours of sleep a day, 11 of those hours at night. The rest will come in nap form. He'll still need two naps at 12 months, but by the time he's 18 months old, he may be ready for a single hour-and-a-half to three-hour nap in the afternoon — a pattern he may follow until he's four or five. The transition from two naps to one can be difficult. Sleep expert Jodi Mindell suggests alternating one-nap and two-nap days, depending on how much sleep your toddler got the night before. You can also try putting your child to bed a little earlier on one-nap days.

How you can establish healthy sleep habits
There's not much new you can do to help your child become a good sleeper at this age — look for fresh issues such as bedtime resistance to show up sometime between 18 months and your toddler's third birthday. Your best bet now: Continue practicing the strategies you've been developing since your child was 6 months old, including:

Following a nightly bedtime ritual.
A regular bedtime routine will help your child wind down at the end of the day and get ready for sleep. If he needs to work off some excess energy, it's okay to let him run around for a little while before moving on to something more calming, such as a quiet game, bath, or bedtime story. Follow the same pattern every night — even when you're away from home. Toddlers love consistency; being able to predict when and how something's going to happen helps them feel in control.

Stick to a consistent daily schedule, as well as bed- and naptimes.
As always, it's also a good idea to set and stick to consistent bed- and naptimes as part of your daily schedule. If your child naps, eats, plays, and gets ready for bed at about the same time every day, he'll be much more likely to fall asleep without a struggle.

Make sure your child is able to fall asleep on his own.
Don't forget how important it is for your toddler to fall asleep by himself every night. He shouldn't depend on rocking, nursing, or being sung to to fall asleep. If he does, he'll never learn to settle himself back down when he wakes up at night. That situation is less than ideal for you, too — if he does wake up, he'll probably cry for you.

Potential pitfalls
At this age your child may have difficulty falling asleep or wake up frequently at night. The reason behind both problems is probably the new developmental milestones he's reaching, especially walking. Your toddler is so excited by his new skills that he wants to keep practicing, even if you say it's bedtime.

If he resists going to sleep, most experts advise leaving him in his crib for a few minutes to see whether he'll calm down. If not, you may want to consider using some version of the "cry it out" approach. You'll also have to decide what to do if he wakes up at night, can't soothe himself back to sleep, and ends up crying for you. It's fine to go in and check on or comfort him. But if he wants you to stay and play with him, gently remind him that nighttime is for sleep.

source from http://www.babycenter.com