# Naps and nights

> One tap starts a sleep, one tap ends it, and baybay works out how long it ran so you never type a duration.

Last updated 18 August 2026

Tap **Log sleep** when they go down and tap again when they wake. baybay works out how long it ran, so you never type a duration.

![The Log a sleep sheet: Nap and Night side by side, a large Start button, and the start time showing Now.](https://baybay.baby/assets/img/docs/sleep-sheet.png?v=6a84bb3b)
*Say whether it is a nap or the night, and tap Start.*

## Naps and nights are the same two taps

When you start a sleep you say whether it is a nap or the night. Everything after that is identical: a timer runs on the log screen while they are asleep, and ending it records the length.

The distinction exists because the dashboard treats them differently — naps count towards the day's totals, nights drive the bedtime chart — not because they work differently while you are logging them.

![A running nap on the log screen: Napping since 11:14 AM, a large teal timer reading 1h 36m, and a green End nap button.](https://baybay.baby/assets/img/docs/ongoing-timer.png?v=6a84bb3b)
*While they are asleep the log screen carries a running timer.*

## The night carries across midnight by itself

Start the night at 7:40pm and end it at 6:10am, and baybay records one sleep of ten and a half hours. You do not split it, and you do not tell it which day it belongs to.

## You can log a feed while a sleep is running

> **Worth knowing**
>
> The feed and sleep buttons are always both there. A baby who is fed while still dozing, or fed the moment they wake before anyone has touched a phone, is the normal case rather than the exception — so nothing is hidden while a timer runs.
>
> You can also record a sleep that has already finished while a different one is still going. The only thing baybay refuses is two sleeps running at once.

## Forgot to end one?

Very common, and it takes one tap plus a correction. [Ending a nap you forgot about](https://baybay.baby/docs/i-forgot-to-end-a-nap.md).

## Dream feeds and late entries

Nothing has to be entered when it happens. Put the sleep in afterwards and set the times back. [Logging something afterwards](https://baybay.baby/docs/i-forgot-to-log-it.md).

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From [How to use baybay](https://baybay.baby/docs.md). baybay — Feed and sleep tracking for the first year, logged in two taps. Hosted for $7 a month, or self-hosted free on PHP and SQLite with no Docker and no build step. Everything one family logs lives in a single SQLite file they can export or delete.

Canonical: https://baybay.baby/docs/naps-and-nights