How to Extend Short Naps

- Laura Thompson | 7th May 2021 -

You get your little one down for a nap and the stop watch starts, are they waking after 30 minutes like clockwork? (Maybe 45 minutes if you’re lucky!) Short naps can be so frustrating because often we know that our children have not napped long enough, they’re still tired and are not getting the sleep they need. Cat napping can also lead to so much unpredictability and inconsistency when it comes to trying to carve out a schedule for our days. It’s a really common problem so let’s run through my checklist for turning those short naps into established, restorative ones!

Environment

If you’re not new around here then you’ve heard about sleep environment a lot … because its important and it’s always worth a reminder!

Is your child’s room dark? Like REALLY dark! This really can be such a game changer for short nappers!

White noise – there are likely more external noises around during the day that could disturb your little one so white noise can help drown that out.

Timing

You will hear people talk about a ‘sweet spot’ for getting children down to sleep. It’s true this can sometimes feel like a bit of a mathematical equation but don’t panic! Take a look at my sleep needs chart over on this blog about over tiredness. This will help you figure out age appropriate timings for your child’s naps. The key here is to ensure that you are starting to settle your little one down when they have built up enough sleep pressure and are ready for sleep but before they become over tired and wired! When you are looking at the wakeful windows I would also encourage you to allow for some settling time, so don’t put your baby in their crib right at the end of the wake window but around 15 minutes before this so they have time to settle down.

Consistent Schedule

Once you have figured out your child’s timings you should start to fall into a more predictable schedule. Sometimes you may need to work a little harder to establish that schedule so that things are fairly consistent day to day. The goal here is to aim to get onto a schedule which is fairly consistent in terms of number of naps, timings and duration of naps so that your child’s body clock gets used to that. For example your child always has 2 naps, one in the morning and one after lunch and the morning nap is shorter. There is of course room for some flexibility and sometimes you really have to be flexible especially when going through a nap transition!

Wind Down

You probably have a great bedtime routine but do you have a nap routine? Our lives are busy so I get how easily it could happen that you go from activity to nap with little transition period. Allowing for a short wind down before settling your child down for a nap can really help to get them ready not just for sleep but for a longer sleep! This can be really simple, just take your child to their room and spend a few minutes of quiet time in a dimly lit room perhaps looking at books or singing some songs – a bit like a mini bedtime routine! This is also really lovely connection time with you which will also be beneficial.

Full Tummy

When you are thinking about timings for the day factor in meals and feeds around naps so that you can ensure your little one is not going to bed hungry or wake too soon because they become hungry!

Night Sleep

If your child is not sleeping well at night this will be having an impact on naps and if your child is not napping well this will be having an impact on night sleep! It may feel like a vicious cycle but essentially it just means we need to be working on both of these things in parallel. This doesn’t have to be overwhelming with a really clear step by step plan you can work on all of this to get all the cogs working together as they should! (That’s exactly what I support families to do!)

Onset of Sleep

One of the biggest reasons children take short naps is because they are only sleeping for one sleep cycle or they are not even managing to finish a full sleep cycle before rousing and being unable to get themselves back to sleep.

Many parents believe their child is able to self-settle however it may be that they are not as skilled at this as they first appear. Settling quickly at bedtime or for naps could be an indication that your child is over tired and so they are not having to work very hard at falling asleep at all and have very little conscious awareness of doing so. Linking sleep cycles throughout the night is also far easier because we have science on our side, lots more of the sleep hormone melatonin and the circadian rhythm is also programmed to sleep at this time. For day time naps it is far more difficult and so working on helping your child self settle at the start of the nap will start ‘flexing that muscle’ and they will soon be able to re-settle and link sleep cycles during the nap.

Teaching your child to self settle is a process and can be done very gradually and responsively - my free guide goes through more tips on this!

Consistency

Extending short naps can take some time so be consistent with your approach and you will get there! A consistent schedule and routine, approach to how you settle your child to sleep as well as consistently attempting to resettle if they work too early will all pay off in the long run.

Need help getting those naps on track?

Let’s talk about how I can support your family, book a free call here!