Livia's home screen shows how long your baby has been awake and when the next nap is likely, as a range, "around 2:10–2:40 PM", never as a deadline. It starts from typical awake times for your baby's age, moves them by how your baby's last week actually went, and takes bedtime from the one your family keeps. It says what each part rests on. It is a routine estimate, not a medical reading, and it is free in Livia rather than part of a paid plan.
What does the next-nap estimate look like?
On Home, under the sleep card:
Sleep
Awake for
1h 40m
Nap in 35m
around 2:10–2:40 PM
Typical awake time before nap 2 (13 months · 2 naps): 3–4 h
Awake for counts from the last time you logged a wake-up. Nap in is a countdown, with the range under it; after the last nap of the day it reads Bedtime in. The line underneath says what the estimate rests on: the typical awake time for the age, or "Mia usually goes down around 7:15 PM".
Tap the ⓘ and Livia says what the estimate rests on, with a link to each source. The words are always "likely", "usually", "around". You will not see "overtired", "overdue" or "should".
How does it work for a newborn?
In the first six weeks Livia shows how long your baby has been awake and the typical range for their age, and nothing else. Newborn naps are too many and too irregular to predict a time for, so Livia does not pretend to.
How is the next nap worked out?
One formula, from about six weeks on, with three inputs:
- The typical awake time for the age (the table below). It is the starting point, and the range you see until Livia knows your baby.
- Your baby's own last week. Once there are at least three awake stretches to go on, Livia looks at how far your baby usually runs from the middle of that typical window, and moves the window by that much, up to about a third of it. Only the last week counts, because babies change fast: a dropped nap rewrites it within days. The range then is as wide as your baby's own recent stretches spread, from ±15 to ±45 minutes. When it's wide, the line under it says your baby's days have varied a lot lately, so the range is wide.
- Your usual bedtime, for the last stretch of the day (below).
We tested this against real families' logs before settling on it. The aim isn't a minute-exact time: it's a range the next sleep lands inside about seven times in ten.
How does it work for an older baby?
From about six months, Livia plans the day as a set number of naps, then bedtime, with its own typical awake time before each. The stretch before the first nap is usually shorter than the one before bed, so each slot is estimated separately.
- The nap count is yours to set in Naps a day. If you don't, Livia uses what the last week's daytime naps show, and until it knows, the usual count for the age: three naps until about nine months, two until about 15 months, then one.
- A catnap under 30 minutes doesn't count as the nap, so a ten-minute car doze doesn't reset the whole afternoon.
- A nap that no longer fits is dropped for today. If the next nap would push bedtime more than an hour past the usual one, Livia plans the rest of the day with a nap fewer and says so; tap the full count under Naps a day to keep it for today.
How does Livia decide bedtime?
From the bedtime your family keeps. Set it in More → Nighttime hours → Usual bedtime, or let Livia use the median of the last week's logged bedtimes. That time is the estimate; the day only moves it, by half an hour at most, when the last nap ended early or late. If you haven't set one and the last week's bedtimes are an hour or more apart, the card asks you once a day. Your nighttime hours decide what counts as a night; they never set bedtime themselves.
What happens if I forget to log a nap?
If your baby has been "awake" for more than twice the longest window that applies, a nap probably went unlogged. Livia stops guessing: instead of a next-nap time it shows the typical window, so the gap reads as "about two naps", and the sleep row asks "Missed a nap? Tap to add it." The same question appears in History for that day, and once you add the nap or say "that's right", the estimate picks up again. In the evening a long awake stretch is not treated as a missed nap, because your baby is simply not in bed yet.
What are the typical awake times Livia starts from?
These are the ranges Livia uses until your baby's own log replaces them. They are the rule of thumb sleep consultants use; no pediatric body publishes one, and the app says so.
| Age | Typical time awake between sleeps |
|---|---|
| 0–4 weeks | 35–60 minutes |
| 1–3 months | 1–1.5 hours |
| 3–5 months | 1.25–2 hours |
| 5–7 months | 2–3 hours |
| 7–10 months | 2.5–3.5 hours |
| 10–14 months | 3–4 hours |
| 14–24 months | 4–6 hours |
| 2 years and up | 5–7 hours |
If you use adjusted age for a baby born early, every one of these follows the adjusted age.
What does the estimate rest on, and what doesn't it?
Two things come from named sources, and the app links to them:
- How many hours of sleep a day babies usually get, naps included: the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's recommendations, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
- That naps get fewer with age, and that a steady schedule helps: the AAP's sleep guidance on HealthyChildren.org.
The awake-time ranges themselves are not from a study, and Livia doesn't dress them up as one. They are a starting point your baby's week moves, never a target. When a figure has no source, Livia doesn't invent an adjustment for it either: a "shorter naps mean earlier bedtime" rule was tried and dropped because nobody publishes one. So were two ideas that tested worse on real logs: letting the baby's own average replace the table (it drifted with the family's routine) and nudging toward bedtime by a fixed half hour.
Can Livia remind me before the nap?
Yes, if you turn it on. In More → Reminders, one switch sends a quiet notification 30 minutes before the likely nap or bedtime. It is scheduled on your phone, not on a server, and it is off by default.
Is this medical advice? No. Livia tracks routines. The next-nap estimate is about when your baby tends to get sleepy, nothing more. If you're worried about how your baby sleeps, talk to your pediatrician.
Huckleberry sells a similar estimate as SweetSpot in its paid plans; see how the two compare. In Livia it's on the home screen of the free app. Get early access.