Eighteen to twenty hours of sleep a day is normal for a puppy, not the exception. That sounds like a lot, but it is exactly what a growing brain and a growing body need right now. If you keep your puppy awake because the number seems exaggerated, you will usually create the restlessness, nipping and constant fidgeting you were hoping to get rid of. In a puppy, lack of sleep rarely looks like tiredness. It looks like irritability, over-excited biting and a dog who simply cannot settle, no matter how much he has already experienced that day.
18 to 20 hours, and why that is not a typo
In the first months of life, a puppy builds practically his entire nervous system. New impressions, new smells, new sounds: all of it has to be processed and stored, and a large part of that processing happens during sleep, not while awake. A puppy who sleeps little therefore does not learn more, but less. He seems alert and interested, but stores what he has experienced less well than a well-rested puppy.
For comparison: an adult dog usually gets by on twelve to fourteen hours. A puppy under twelve weeks, on the other hand, sleeps in short stretches spread across the whole day, usually no longer than one to two hours at a time, and is awake and active in between for perhaps twenty to forty minutes. This rhythm is not a sign of illness, but simply how a young brain is built. Only from around four to six months do longer, continuous periods of sleep settle in, much like a baby who gradually starts sleeping through the night.
A typical day therefore does not consist of one long waking block with a lunchtime break, but of many short cycles: waking up, going to the toilet, a quick meal or play, back to sleep. Between six and ten of these cycles are normal on an ordinary day. If you try to squeeze this rhythm into a single morning walk and a quiet afternoon, you are working against your puppy's biology, not with it.
Recognising overtiredness
The problem is rarely that owners keep their puppy awake on purpose. The problem is that overtiredness in a puppy does not look like tiredness. An overtired toddler whines and rubs their eyes. An overtired puppy revs up: he races wildly around the flat, tugs at trouser legs, bites harder than usual and can hardly be calmed down. Many owners respond with even more activity, because the dog obviously has energy, and so they push the spiral higher still.
This misunderstanding is especially likely in busy situations: visitors who pass the puppy around, a first puppy class with lots of unfamiliar dogs, or children who keep waking him as soon as he lies down. None of these situations is wrong in itself. It becomes a problem when they pile up without real rest in between.
| What you notice | What it often means |
|---|---|
| Sudden, wild running for no obvious reason | Overtiredness, not high spirits |
| Harder biting than usual, tugging at clothes | Loss of control through exhaustion |
| He can hardly be distracted or calmed down | The nervous system is overstimulated |
| Red, slightly irritated eyes, yawning in the middle of play | A direct sign of tiredness, often overlooked |
If two or more of these points apply, no more play and no more walking will help. Only one thing does: your puppy goes to rest now, even if he protests loudly at that moment.
The five-minute rule for walks
A simple rule of thumb helps you get the balance of waking and activity right from the start: five minutes of walking per month of age, twice a day. A ten-week-old puppy therefore gets about two rounds of ten to fifteen minutes, not a walk in the woods lasting hours. There are two reasons for this. The physical one: a puppy's growth plates at the joints are still open, and long distances and lots of climbing stairs put unnecessary strain on them. The mental one: a calm ten-minute walk with a few new impressions is already a full programme for a young brain.
After every walk, every play session and every visit, a rest period should therefore be a fixed part of the routine, not as a reward for good behaviour, but as a planned part of the day. If you build it up like this from the start, you will not have to laboriously teach later that things are allowed to be quiet sometimes.
Training your puppy to rest
Most puppies do not settle on their own while something is going on in the flat. A common mistake is letting the puppy sleep in the middle of the living-room bustle and then wondering why he startles awake every few minutes. Rest needs a place that is truly quiet, not just a corner with a blanket in it. That is why it is worth training rest just like sit or stay, with a fixed spot and a clear routine:
- Set up a retreat, for example a crate or a blanket in a quiet spot, not in the middle of a thoroughfare
- After eating, after play or after visitors, deliberately take the puppy there, instead of waiting until he collapses on his own
- Stay with him the first few times, sit quietly and give no commands, just be present
- Slowly extend the time there, first a few minutes, then longer, always before the puppy is completely exhausted
- Become quiet yourself: dimmed light, a softer voice, no excited talking just before the rest period
Important: a retreat is not a punishment area. The puppy should associate it with relaxation, not with being shut away. How best to set up the sleeping place for the night itself, and how the first nights typically go, is covered in detail in Puppy won't sleep: what really helps on the first night.
The link with biting and restlessness
A large part of what owners describe as a biting problem is, on closer inspection, a tiredness problem. A well-rested puppy bites too, but usually playfully and in a way you can manage. An overtired puppy bites harder, more often and is harder to redirect, because impulse control is the first thing to go as energy drops. So before you train a biting problem, it is worth asking whether the puppy has actually had any rest in the last few hours. The complete routine for bite inhibition itself, with the four stages that really work, is in Puppy biting: teaching bite inhibition.
Where sleep and rest fit into the overall plan for the first weeks, alongside house training, socialisation and the first training cues, is shown in the overview the first 30 days with a puppy. If you want to go deeper into rest and impulse control beyond puppyhood, you will find the follow-up in Welpenerziehung & Junghundtraining (Puppy Training & Young Dog Training).
All the portraits that look just as good on a quiet wall as in the hallway can be found in our dog portraits.
This article does not replace veterinary advice. If a puppy sleeps noticeably more or less than described here, eats poorly as well or seems apathetic, that belongs at the vet's, not in the next training session.
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Further reading
- The imprint period: why "as much as possible" is the wrong advice: how much of a programme a young brain can really cope with
- Puppy training: the 5 rules that really work: the training principles for the waking hours
- Puppy checklist: starter kit and the first 3 days: what should be in the house before the first nap
Source: American Kennel Club, "Puppy Sleep: How Much Do Puppies Need?". Retrieved on 29 September 2026.
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