My baby sleeps well at night, but takes short naps!
Short naps are *possibly* the most irritating thing in the entire world when it comes to a baby’s sleep especially if your baby sleeps well at night. Dramatic? Perhaps. But I contend that there is nothing more irritating than putting your baby down for a nap, taking a quick shower or doing a little cleaning and hoping for some downtime, only to hear your baby waking up after a 35-minute snooze. I tried not to take it personally, but sometimes it really FELT personal. 😂THEN they turn around and sleep the whole night through.
The truth is, naps are hard for many babies. There’s just not as much drive to sleep in the middle of the day like there is at night with all the lovely sleep hormones on our side. Do not fear, this is not intended to be an attack on your sanity, there are just a lot of differences between night sleep and nap sleep!
Check out these sticky spots to troubleshoot:
*Disclaimer: short naps=anything less than 45 minutes (1 sleep cycle). IF your baby is on 3+ naps the last nap of the day is TOTALLY FINE to only be a 30 min catnap! I think of that catnap as a bridge to bedtime, not meant to be super restorative!*
Click here for the low down on short naps!
So why is your baby sleeping well at night but taking short naps?
Age:
For babies younger than 5-6 months of age, short naps are very developmentally appropriate. Do not be afraid to tweak timing or environment however to achieve a longer nap. I always say, we will try and do everything in our control to lengthen naps, but sometimes the brain has to catch up!
Environment:
During the day, the room may be warmer, brighter, or noisier than at nighttime. Make sure their room is still cool (68-72 degrees F), dark as a cave, and white noise can help to drown out the sounds of a busy household during the day. *layer an extra one outside their door if you need to!
Hunger:
Make sure the feedings are well timed so that your baby isn’t due for a feeding shortly after going down for their nap! The routine eat-play-sleep is a great one for preventing a feed to sleep association, however if the timing is awkward you may need to add in a short feeding before the nap as well. Just make sure the feeding is ending 20-30 minutes before your baby is going into their sleep space.
Nap Routine:
If you haven’t already initiated a nap routine, this is your sign. Similar to bedtime, your baby’s naptime routine should be a calming sequence of events to signal sleep is coming. It doesn’t need to be as long as the bedtime routine, an abbreviated version is good too. These routines can also be considered a sleep association which would help your baby to understand what is coming next and relax!
Timing:
Babies need adequate sleep pressure to be able to take a longer nap. They could be tired enough to fall asleep easily, however not tired enough to take a 1+ hour nap. They could be sleeping well overnight, BECAUSE they are taking a lot of short naps during the day, which lends them to more sleep pressure for the night. This means you may need to add more awake time to their day to help the naps lengthen out.
I have found that a lot of parents I work with, especially parents with babies 4-6 months of age, find it difficult to keep their baby content for the entirety of the wake window. They think their baby is cranky because they are tired, so they put them down early for the nap, only to have them wake up 30 minutes later. It is sooo common to have to push to keep them up for the whole wake window. Try going to a different room, changing the activity, or going outside if your baby is getting fussy before it’s time for their nap. If nap time is an hour away you’ll definitely want to get them closer to the end of the wake window, but if you need to put them down a tad early (10-15 minutes) then at least you can say that you did your best!
Conditioning your baby to nap at the same time each day:
Never underestimate the power of a consistent sleep schedule. This is a huge help in conditioning your baby to sleep at certain times throughout the day. It is the reason that I recommend waking your baby up each morning within the same window of time. You’ll keep their schedule more stable and this will help with nap predictability.
Crib hour can also be helpful in getting your baby to connect their sleep cycles! Read more about crib hour here.
I hope this was helpful, and if you want to figure out why your baby sleeps well at night, but takes short naps then I would LOVE to help!
