When I ask clients what their biggest sleep issue is, short naps are a common answer. As a parent of a 4 year old and a 2 year old, I know firsthand how frustrating it can be when you are plagued by a day of short naps.

Naps are an important piece of your child’s sleep, yet they are sometimes the most difficult piece of the puzzle to figure out. Throughout this blog, you’ll read about what may be causing your child’s short naps and age appropriate ways to deal with them.

Short naps are common and normal for babies who are younger than 5 to 6 months old. At this age, short naps can be caused by hunger, discomfort, immature sleep cycles, and not being able to connect sleep cycles independently. While your baby may be taking naps longer than one sleep cycle at this age, know that if they are not, you are not doing anything wrong. Yet you can still do things to best set your little one up for nap success.

A short nap is typically defined as any nap that is less than one full sleep cycle. Sleep cycles typically range between 30-50 minutes, so that can be your starting point to determine if your child’s nap is short.

It is important to note that when your child is taking more than two naps a day, the last nap of the day serves as a bridge to bedtime, so it is common for that nap to only be 30-45 minutes.

There are several reasons why your little one may be experiencing short naps. The list below will provide a starting point for troubleshooting your baby’s struggle with day time sleep.

Sleep Environment: Ensure the room is blackout dark with white noise playing. Even the smallest amount of light creeping in can impact sleep.

Sleep Routine: If you are rushing to get your little one down for a nap, they may not have enough wind down time to get their body ready for sleep. Do a shortened version of your night routine at each nap.

Schedule: Check your baby’s wake windows. Could they be too short or too long? Log sleep to try to identify patterns! If a nap was long but gets short, that is a sign to add time to the wake window. Even if the nap is consistently short, I usually try adding time to the wake window rather than taking it away.

Sleep Props: If your baby is not falling asleep independently, or if they are using a pacifier and cannot replace it on their own, they are likely to wake up between sleep cycles and need help to fall back asleep. If your baby is younger than 4-5 months, it is developmentally appropriate for them to need help extending naps beyond one sleep cycle. If your child is older than that and you are working on independent sleep, you can start nap training as well!

Snooze During Feeding: If feeding (nursing or bottle) is part of your nap routine, ensure your baby is not dozing off during the feeding. Even just a quick 5 minute sleep can zap their sleep pressure. Try to put the feeding at the beginning of the routine.

*Remember, if your baby is younger than 5 months, short naps are developmentally appropriate, so even with your best efforts, you may still struggle with short naps.

Extending/Rescuing: If your baby is younger than 4-5 months, or if they are not yet falling asleep independently, if they have a short nap, you can help them lengthen it by rescuing or extending it. This typically looks like you going in when they’ve woken up and assisting them back to sleep. You will likely need to have a contact nap for the rest of the nap, as transferring them after they’ve already had some sleep can be very difficult. I know it is not realistic to rescue every short nap every day, especially if your little one is taking multiple naps. Because of that, I always recommend trying to rescue at least the first nap of the day.

Crib hour: Crib hour can be used if your child is an independent sleeper, or, if you are currently working on independent sleep. If your child is taking more than one nap, I would recommend using it for the first nap of the day. If your child were to wake up early, you would not rescue or end the nap, but instead, you would utilize your sleep training method until an hour has elapsed from when they were first put into their sleep space or until they fall back asleep. If they are content in their sleep space, you would not intervene. Their next wake window would then start after the hour is up or when they are taken out of their sleep space, not when they first woke up from their nap.

Day and night sleep are processed in different parts of the brain. That is why you may see night sleep coming together before day sleep. It is also why you will likely not hinder your sleep training progress at night if you are rescuing or having contact naps during the day.

Naps usually consolidate in order. Typically, you will see the first nap come together or lengthen before others. The first nap of the day is also usually the easiest nap, so if you are wanting to start on nap training, I would recommend starting with the first nap of the day.

Navigating short naps can be challenging. My one piece of advice is to not let one bad nap, or a day of short naps overwhelm you. Take your day one sleep at a time and if a nap is short, there is always the next nap to try to get a longer one.

If you find yourself needing more help navigating your child’s naps, you can reach out by clicking the button below!