At 23 months the framework holds: one nap starting around 12:00–12:30, wake windows of about 5 hours before it and 5.5–6 hours after, bedtime between 7:30 and 8:00 PM, and 11–14 hours of total sleep including the nap. Most toddlers this age land around 12–13 hours: an 11-hour night plus a 1–2 hour nap.
The nap is where the variation is. Plenty of 23-month-olds still sleep 2 hours at midday; a growing share have shortened to 60–90 minutes and wake cheerful. If yours has, don't fight the nap — the fix is arithmetic. Every 30 minutes lost at midday is 15 minutes to take off bedtime, so a nap that's shrunk from 2 hours to 1 gets a 7:15 PM bedtime instead of 7:45. This page also covers the two other timing jobs that tend to land right around now: a daylight-saving clock change, and the end of the bedtime bottle.
When the nap shrinks: move bedtime, not the nap
A nap that suddenly runs 60–90 minutes in an otherwise happy, healthy toddler is usually just the new size. Resist the urge to extend it by starting earlier (that creates a longer afternoon and more overtiredness) or by resettling at the 60-minute mark (it rarely works past 18 months). Instead, move bedtime 15 minutes earlier for each half-hour the nap has lost, and watch the afternoon window: with a nap ending at 1:15 PM, bedtime should be no later than about 7:00.
Keep the nap start where it is — 12:00–12:30 — and keep the pre-nap routine. If short naps come with an unhappy afternoon, check the usual suspects first: illness, second molars, a bedtime that has drifted late enough to cut the night short. If short naps come with a cheerful afternoon and a good night, that's your toddler's nap now.
Daylight saving and the bedtime bottle
Clock changes: shift the whole schedule — wake, nap, meals, bedtime — in 15-minute steps over 4 days, starting 4 days before the change. For "spring forward," move everything 15 minutes earlier each day; for "fall back," 15 minutes later. Blackout curtains handle the light; a fixed morning wake time (don't let them sleep in past 7:30) handles the rest. Expect about a week of slightly off evenings.
The bedtime bottle: by two, milk at bedtime is a comfort habit rather than a nutritional need, and a bottle in the crib is a dental problem. Move the milk to the start of the routine, in a cup, before teeth-brushing; keep every other step the same. Then, over a week or two, shrink the amount. Expect a few nights of protest, not more. If there are any questions about weight or intake, ask your pediatrician before cutting.
Schedules are averages.
Your baby isn't.
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