Why does my baby only take 45 minute naps?
As a mom with kids who aren’t great nappers, I GET IT. You dream of the glorious 2 hour naps where you can simultaneously get a break from being needed and get things done that you can’t do when your child is awake.
It’s the perfect balance of being able to “mom” when they’re awake and be “you” when they’re asleep.
No one dreams of 45 minute naps as a break (unless their baby only naps 20-30 mins, then that extra time seems like a win)!
So it can be especially frustrating for you when your child is doing the normal “45 minute nap intruder.” In fact, it’s so common, it even has it’s own name. That’s how you know 1) it’s legit and 2) you’re not alone!
In this blog, we will cove:
What is the 45 minute nap intruder?
are 45 minute naps ok
is a 45 minute nap enough for a baby
45 minute intruder 8 month old
45 minute nap overtired or undertired
how to stop 45 minute naps
What is the 45 minute nap intruder?
Unfortunately, it’s exactly what it sounds like- your baby will suddenly (or maybe from birth) only takes 45 minute naps before waking and probably not going back to sleep (unless you help them back to sleep and sometimes not even then).
It is typically a developmental phase. It’s something I have to educate on quite frequently.
Naps take longer to consolidate and develop than night time sleep because they’re driven by 2 different mechanisms (ie circadian rhythm and sleep hormones for night time sleep which begins developing around 8-11 weeks and adenosine which builds for sleep pressure during naps). Any release of sleep pressure (ie adenosine gets lower) during the day can result in them feeling refreshed and wakeful after only 45 minutes.
As they get older and build MORE adenosine during longer wake windows, then you may see longer naps (which is what happened for our boys). The issue is that younger babies just can’t handle longer wake times and it’s not worth making them cranky and overtired trying to force it. (And we all know cranky, overtired babies don’t sleep well either).
Are 45 minute naps ok?
Believe it or not, yes! It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with your baby or that you’re doing something wrong. There’s a reason it’s 45 minutes– that’s one sleep cycle for your child (in most cases, some are 40 mins, some are 50 mins, etc so we land at the 45 min average).
They wake after a full sleep cycle feeling fresh as a daisy (in most cases) and don’t have enough drive to sleep left to go into another sleep cycle (and thus taking a longer nap).
Is a 45 minute nap enough for a baby?
It definitely can be. Some babies are unhappy waking after 45 minutes and would like to take a longer nap, but for the most part, babies will continue on their day.
45 minute intruder 8 month old
If you’re experiencing this after the early months with an older baby then it could be a sign of a regression or a need to change their schedule.
Check out this blog about troubleshooting short naps for babies as well as this blog about the 8 month sleep regression!
45 minute nap overtired or undertired
It can be so hard to figure out if a nap is shorter because they’re over or under tired! Schedule is one part of the puzzle, but you can definitely drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out and tweak things over and over.
Ask yourself:
Do they fall asleep happily and easily? (not overtired)
Do they fall asleep mad/angry/struggle? (probably overtired)
Do they wake up happily? (probably not overtired)
Do they wake up mad/cranky? (could be overtired)
Sometimes how they fall asleep and how they wake up aren’t really an indicator of anything other than where they woke in their sleep cycle or if they just didn’t want to stop what they were doing in order to fall asleep.
Which makes it even harder to figure out!
This blog goes over determining sleep needs which may help you decipher if your child is over or undertred.
How to stop 45 minute naps?
You can absolutely drive yourself nuts playing detective with sleep. Sometimes, it’s even harder to accept that this is a phase for your little one. I know I approached it differently with my first child than I did my third child.
With my first, I was CONSTANTLY tweaking awake times, which never ever works and always backfires for us (and I see the same with clients). If you’re going to make changes, change ONE thing for 3-5 days before reevaluating and changing again. Learn from my mistakes!
Here are some things you can troubleshoot– ie, control what you can and let go of the rest:
Sleep environment: if they’re not dealing with day/night confusion, then use a pitch black room and always use loud white noise.
Nap routine: a 5-10 minute wind down before naps can be helpful in cueing them that sleep is coming
Independent sleep: if they’re not falling asleep independently for their nap, they will likely need help transitioning into the next sleep cycle (which you can absolutely do- it just explains why they keep taking short naps)
Practice crib hour or giving them time to go back to sleep (don’t rush in)
Don’t watch the monitor that closely (you’ll waste their whole nap just staring at the screen)
Hunger: you can try a top off feeding about 30 minutes before the nap to rule that out (or a solids meal)
And again yes, you can tweak timing but if they’re falling within the realm of normal, it’s not necessarily likely the need a ton more wake time; if they’re sleeping through the night, it’s a definite possibility that they could, but overtiredness is a lot harder to fix than undertiredness!
Once you’ve checked everything on the list, it’s okay to take a deep breath and say it is what is for now.
If you’ve got a child over 6 months who is still struggling with sleep, including short naps, you can work 1:1 with a sleep consultant to troubleshoot!
