Napping in daycare can feel very different from naps at home, and that’s a common worry for parents. Here we look at how nursery routines influence daytime sleep, what’s developmentally normal, and how parents can support better night sleep alongside childcare schedules. A child can still sleep well even when naps aren’t perfect.

Are you worried that your baby is starting daycare and isn’t on a consistent napping schedule? You might be concerned that your baby can only sleep on the breast/in your arms/in the pram? Or do you think that the schedule you’ve worked so hard to establish will go to the wall? Napping in daycare is a worry for lots of parents, but for many babies, the structure and consistency that daycare brings can actually improve their sleep. 

Happy sleep is important

The most important thing when your baby is napping in daycare is that they fall asleep happily. And if they get cuddled to sleep, it doesn’t matter. Napping differently in daycare will not damage your baby’s sleeping at home. This is because they are not in their home setting, and it is a different person who is settling them.

There’s always a chance that your baby might struggle a bit with their naps at first, but here are 3 things that might make you feel better:

1️⃣ Childcare workers are usually very good at settling babies for naps. They get all kinds of babies to sleep — and they want your baby to be happy!
2️⃣ Babies who struggle at home often nap BETTER in daycare thanks to new sleep associations.
3️⃣ Daycare structure and home nap structure being different can actually help with nap transitions. Given that most babies start daycare when their nap needs are changing — say at 6, 9, or 12 months, this is a good thing!

Transitioning to one nap

On that last point: Nap transitions are always about dropping a nap, not gaining one. Many babies drop a nap once they start daycare, particularly after their first birthday when they’re naturally moving towards one nap a day. Because daycare often begins around this age, the timing of these changes can overlap. It’s absolutely fine for a baby to have a one nap day in daycare and a two nap day at home. In fact doing it this way will usually help to ease the transition.

Babies tend to drop their second nap somewhere between 11 and 18 months.

If your baby is just over a year old, and down to one nap, they may need to have their single nap as early as 11.30 am. As they get older and build up more stamina, their nap may be as late as 1.30 pm.

When it comes to transitioning from 2 to 1 nap, your baby is likely to start resisting going down for either the afternoon nap or their nighttime sleep. They’re telling you that they’re getting ready to merge the morning and afternoon naps into one long nap in the middle of the day. Don’t be concerned; this is a natural progression and the one nap will be just as good for them.

The transition will not happen overnight and what you need to avoid is having them nap well in the morning and then not want to sleep again  – unless it’s teatime, when it is too late. The best way to help them transition to one lunchtime nap is to cut the duration of the morning nap to around 30 minutes whilst at the same time, bringing the afternoon nap slightly forward. Don’t over restrict the afternoon nap. It’s usually ok for them to sleep for up to 2 hours if they want to.

Eventually, you’ll drop the morning nap, when they don’t seem to need it and bring the afternoon nap forward to midday. When they’re having a single, long nap in the middle of the day, they will need an earlier bed time.

Helping them to get enough sleep

Some babies sleep less when they are in a setting with other children. This is because there is so much going on and it might not be as quiet or as dark as when they nap at home. Some babies sleep far more when they are away from home and see the other children going off to sleep!

Lots of babies will have a long “catch-up” nap at some point over the weekend, & this big weekend nap can be really helpful in terms of repaying any sleep debt.

If this happens, they might need a later bedtime.

Early bedtimes are often needed on childcare days, as they can come home very stimulated and worn out! Make sure that even if they need to go to bed early and you’ve hardly seen them, you have a few minutes of “golden time” together. This is time spent just chatting, cuddling, playing or reading, before you start the bedtime routine.

Just to say, that often, when babies start daycare, they are prone to catching viruses etc. from the other children. This will build up their immunity in the end, but you might find my blog about Sleep When They’re Unwell helpful.