Daytime Naps
How much daytime sleep does my baby or toddler really need?
Daytime naps play a crucial role in night sleep, mood, and development. In this article, we look at age-appropriate nap needs, common nap struggles, and how parents can support healthy sleep rhythms during the day. Overtiredness is common — and fixable.
Daytime naps are very important for babies’ and toddlers health and development. The younger they are, the more often they need to sleep. The simple reason for this is because their rapid growth and brain development make them tired very easily!
Parents often worry about the amount of daytime sleep their baby or child has and as with so many other aspects of bringing up a baby, there are so many options and opinions that it can be overwhelming.
You don’t need to figure it all out alone — Here are some gentle, evidence-based guidelines to help you feel confident about your little one’s daytime sleep.
Nap benefits
Daytime naps are needed for learning and cognitive development. During sleep, memory consolidation happens and this is important for learning. Napping supports nighttime sleep by preventing over-tiredness and keeping babies’ cortisol levels down. Babies need naps for their emotional regulation and mood. You don’t need me to tell you that when they are tired, they can be grumpy and cross!
Napping supports their physical development and growth – because growth hormone release happens during sleep. Babies usually feed and eat better when they have napped well.
It’s also good for you when your baby naps – So that you can have a break, recharge your batteries or get on with the tasks that you can’t do with a baby in tow!
Over tiredness
Parents often fear that over-tiredness from lack of daytime sleep will cause nighttime sleep problems.
When babies are over tired, they can have raised cortisol & adrenaline levels. This can make falling asleep difficult and it can sometimes lead to night wakings and early waking.
Advice from sleep experts is often to address the daytime nap problems and the sleepless nights will automatically get better.
My own view is that the starting point for teaching a baby how to sleep well is not during the day, but at nighttime.
This is when they are biologically “programmed” to sleep!
Once a baby has learned good sleep skills at night, they will be able to use them for daytime sleep.
It's usually easier for babies to sleep at night than in the day
Babies over the age of 2 or 3 months are naturally predisposed to sleep at night time. They have sleep hormones [melatonin etc.] to help them. Their little circadian clocks are set for them to sleep! It therefore makes sense to teach them to sleep at the time that they are most able to learn.
They do of course need to sleep in the daytime – because they are little and they are growing, but without high melatonin levels, and other biological factors, many babies struggle with naps.
I always advise parents not to push too hard with babies’ naps and run the risk of them developing an unhappy association with the cot. It is better to take things gently and slowly. More often than not, daytime naps improve as night sleep improves or even simply with maturity.
Short naps are ok!
It might not be super convenient, but it’s fine for your baby to have a few short daytime naps instead of one or two longer ones.
Between the ages of 3-8 months, it’s very common for babies to have frequent, short naps.
It’s ok that some or all of the naps are pram naps or contact naps.
Don’t worry that by letting them contact nap or sleep in the pram you’re not teaching them how to sleep. It is far more important that they get the sleep than that they learn how to do it by themselves.
If you help them to sleep, their body clock will get accustomed to napping at regular times.
It’s usually by 8 or 9 months old that naps become easier and begin to extend. At this age, babies will often settle into 2 naps – one mid morning and one mid afternoon.
Sleepy signs
The first step in helping your baby to nap well is to recognise when they are actually tired. There are lots of apps and charts that tell you when your baby should be tired, but don’t be afraid to use your own eyes and instinct!
If you’d like to put them into their cot for a nap, try to create a night time atmosphere.
Don’t worry about day/night confusion – it doesn’t matter! If you ‘trick’ them into thinking it’s nighttime they are more like to sleep for longer!
How to settle your baby for a nap
- ♥ If your baby is new to napping in the cot, start with the first nap of the day, as this is the one that most babies find the easiest.
- ♥ About 10 minutes before the end of their usual wake window, or when they show the first signs of tiredness, take them to the room where they usually sleep.
- ♥ Start a mini bedtime routine – a nappy change, their sleep bag on, the same book as they have at bedtime, darken the room etc.
- ♥ Don’t worry about confusing them between daytime and nighttime. It doesn’t matter!
- ♥ Just let them know that now it is time for sleep.
- ♥ Put them awake into their cot and respond as you did when you taught them to settle at night time.
- ♥ Use the same phrases and body language.
- ♥ If they’re not used to sleeping in the cot during the day, and you’re doing this on the back of improving their nighttime sleep as well, it might take an hour or so for them to go to sleep.
- ♥ This is ok – especially if they are just awake and fussing or mildly crying.
This routine is for when you want to put your baby into their cot for a nap.
You don’t need to follow a nap routine if they are going to sleep in the pram, carrier, the car or in someone’s arms.
Avoid negative cot associations
If your baby cries strongly when you try to settle them into their cot for a nap, don’t leave them and don’t let this go on for more than a few minutes.
Pick them and help them to go to sleep either in your arms or in the pram or carrier.
You can always try again the next day and this is not the end of the world!
What you don’t want to happen is for them to develop an unhappy association with their cot.
If they sleep in the cot and wake after less than an hour and still appear to be tired, then try another 20 -30 min helping them resettle.
It’s fine to pick them up and rock them back to sleep.
It is also ok of course to extend the nap in your arms as a contact nap.
Wake windows
Wake windows are the periods when a baby or child isn’t sleeping.
Very young babies struggle to stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time, so their wake windows are very short. As they get older and build up stamina, their wake windows widen. This means that from about 3 years old, a child can manage a wake window of about 12 hours!
If the wake window is too short, they might struggle to settle to sleep. If it is too long, they can become overtired and find it difficult to relax and drift off.
So it’s good to know what the average wake windows are like for babies and children at various ages. But also, recognise your own child’s sleepy signs and their unique sleep needs and wake windows.
The science bit – The neurotransmitter Adenosine influences the need for sleep and levels of it build up as energy is expended.
Averages for daytime naps
As babies get bigger, they take less frequent naps and their overall daytime napping time drops. Babies tend to drop their nap altogether when they are around 2.5 -3.5 years. Many, however, will continue to enjoy their nap until the age of 5 when they have to drop it because they start school!
Daily schedules
4-6 months
Should you have a nap schedule or just go with wake windows?
I’d advise that under about 6 months, go with wake windows. When they get a bit older, you might find it helpful to have more of a set routine. It’s up to you though and if you’re the kind of person who likes to relax and go with the flow, that’s fine! If you work better and feel better with a schedule, that’s fine too! Your baby is more likely to be happy and content if they sense that you are too.
Here are some typical schedules for naps and nap timings that work well for babies of various ages.
Use them just as a guide as there is no exact right or wrong here but they may give you an idea if you’re unsure:
I’ve included suggested mealtimes but I know that each child is different.
Solids are usually recommended from 6 months old. When a baby is ready, I advise to introduce food for the first time after the morning nap.
Then gradually increase to 3 times a day, taking it at your baby’s pace.
Here’s a sensible guide to weaning from the NHS.
7-12 months
Some babies struggle to take an afternoon nap if the morning nap is long. This is especially true when they are coming up to a year old.
Napping well in the afternoon is a very important factor in preventing early waking.
So if your child’s morning nap prevents them from being able to nap in the afternoon, you might need to gently wake them and cut it short.
If they’re over a year old, you might be able to cut the morning nap completely. Then you would bring the afternoon nap forward to the middle of the day. When this happens, they will need an earlier bedtime.
13-18 months
The above is a 1 nap schedule. 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.
Transitioning to one nap
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 late morning and then not want to sleep again until 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 whilst at the same time, bringing the afternoon nap slightly forward.
Eventually, you’ll drop the morning nap, when they don’t seem to need it and bring the afternoon nap forward to midday. When this happens, they will need an earlier bed time.
Over twos
If your child is over two, it’s usually advisable to keep the daytime naps going for as long as possible. This helps to avoid early waking and broken nights.
The nap ideally needs to be slap bang in the middle of the day! This is so that napping doesn’t prevent them from being able to sleep at bedtime. Depending on their age and their needs, the nap can last anything from 45 minutes to 3 hours!
It is still good to offer them the opportunity to nap if they want to, as on the odd day, they actually might want to have a catch up nap. [Don’t we all!] Don’t think that if your child starts to want to nap again, that you dropped the nap too soon. As with all nap transitions, the change doesn’t happen overnight. There is often a period when some days your child will want to nap and others when they definitely don’t want to.
It is good to respect that but even if they don’t want to nap, do at least give them the opportunity for some quiet time, ideally after lunch, when they can snuggle on the sofa and look at books or even watch a bit of very gentle TV.
When the nap has been consistently dropped, then you will need to bring their bed time forward.
Beware of too much napping!
More often than not, the focus on naps is around getting babies to take longer naps. Sometimes, though, it’s possible that they sleep for too long! If your child’s natural sleep requirement is, say, 14 hours in 24, then taking 4 of those hours during the day could mean they only have a 10 hour night. In this case, if you want them to sleep for longer, you will need to limit the amount of daytime sleep they have. Alternatively, if they are going to sleep a 10 hour night, you can put them to bed later.
Having a long snooze in the middle of the day and then a later but shorter night works beautifully for lots of families!
Napping can be a bit of a minefield, I know, and it’s easy to think that everybody else but you has got it sussed. But every child’s needs are different and there are no absolute rules.
Further help
If you’re struggling with your child or baby’s sleep either now or in the future, I am here to help you.
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My self guided sleep plans
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Both of the plans contain helpful schedules for day and night time sleep.
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