Naps 101 (Part 4): When and How Will My Baby Drop Naps?
(Revised and updated from an earlier version.)
A well-established truth of parenthood is that as soon as you figure out your child’s pattern, it will change. This certainly holds true for naps, and it can be incredibly frustrating and confusing to have a new nap pattern sneak up on you. (For the previous posts in our Naps 101 series, see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.)
The Science
There is good evidence to support the extraordinary benefits that come from naps in babies and toddlers. We know that naps are important for learning, memory consolidation and motor skill memory. In toddlers, naps are important for emotional regulation and maintaining positive social interaction.
The regulation of sleep pressure (the homeostatic sleep drive) changes with time. This means that as your baby grows, not only will he or she begin to tolerate longer stretches of wakefulness, he or she will also need wider spacing between naps. This will allow an appropriate amount of sleep pressure to build and facilitate a longer nap. Many parents hear the sound bites “keep awake time to less than two hours” and “sleep begets sleep.” These are helpful rules to follow in the beginning of your baby’s life, but it’s also important to recognize that as your baby grows, his or her tolerance to wakefulness increases, and having longer stretches between naps is a good thing. Of course, you don’t want to force too much wakefulness or skip naps when your baby needs them. There is a delicate balance between meeting your baby’s needs and offering too much, too frequent or too little sleep. (Check out our age-by-stage sleep chart for more helpful info.) At sleep transition points in your baby’s life, there are clues that will help you identify and adapt to your baby’s changing needs; you just need to know what to look for.
Need More Help?
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SLEEP TRAINING CLASS (for well babies 6-15 months)
PHONE CONSULTATIONS (with one of our sleep experts)
THE SECRET TO NAPS (downloadable e-book)
From Birth to ~3 months
The Basic Rules
Keep bouts of wakefulness short, to 1–2 hours. Put your baby down whenever you observe sleepy signs (eye rubbing, yawning, crankiness unrelated to hunger/other needs). Keep it dark at night, and let your baby be in well-lit conditions during awake times to promote circadian rhythm entrainment.
How Much Total Naptime
Totally variable. The most important thing to do is to keep wake bouts short.
A Sample Schedule
No schedule; frequent sleep all day and frequent waking all night.
The Clues to Indicate Your Baby’s Needs Are Changing
Naps in the crib become shorter, around 30–45 minutes; your baby doesn’t seem sleepy after 90 minutes of wakefulness. As this happens, start to slightly manipulate your baby’s awake time with the shortest bouts of wakefulness in the morning and longer bouts of wakefulness as the day goes on as described in the next developmental nap stage.
From ~3 months to ~6 months
The Basic Rules
Naps are starting to form a loose pattern in frequency and duration, but not by the clock. Most babies will take 4–5 naps a day, depending on wake time and the duration of the naps. The shortest bouts of wakefulness happen at the beginning of the day and are often as short as one hour of awake time. The longest bout of wakefulness happens at the end of the day and can be as much as three hours awake, thanks to the developing circadian rhythm. Some parents will choose to have their babies sleep assisted (stroller, swing, being held, etc.) during this time in order to facilitate longer naps. For a baby who has longer assisted naps, try to have your baby nap on a pattern similar to the developmental schedule described in the next section.
How Much Total Naptime
3-4 hours total
A Sample Schedule
Wake up at 7:00 AM
Nap 1 from 8:00–8:45 AM
Nap 2 from 10:45–11:30 AM
Nap 3 from 1:30–2:30 PM
Nap 4 from 4:30–5:15 PM
Bedtime at 7:45 PM
Note: It is normal for every day to be a little different at this age, so this example would be what just one day might be like. The day before and day after might be totally different, and that's fine.
The Clues to Indicate Your Baby’s Needs Are Changing:
Your baby will stop being able to get enough naps in at the end of the day. You may try and try to get your baby to take a fourth or fifth nap, but it becomes an exercise in frustration. This is because the circadian rhythm is promoting a strong drive to be awake at the end of the day. If your baby’s first two naps have not naturally stretched to 1–2 hours by 6 months, then it’s time to do some work on naps to encourage consolidation (see the previous posts in our Naps 101 series: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).
From ~6 months to ~9 months
The Basic Rules
You can start to nap your baby by the clock in this age range, but your baby will begin naps in windows of time based on when he or she woke from his last sleep. For example, the first nap window might start between 8:30 and 9:00, depending on when morning wake time happened, but it will be in that ballpark range of time every day. As your baby moves out of the 4/5 nap pattern and into the three-nap pattern, start to space naps a little further apart than before. Most babies have a three-nap pattern in this age range, with a morning nap of 1–2 hours, an afternoon nap of 1–2 hours and a catnap of 20–45 minutes at the end of the day. Naps are still spaced with the shortest bout of wakefulness at the beginning of the day, but that bout is 1.5–2 hours now. Bouts of wakefulness get longer as the day goes on.
How Much Total Naptime
3–4 hours total
A Sample Schedule
Wake up at 7:00 AM
Nap 1 from 8:30–10:00 AM
Nap 2 from 12:30–2:00 PM
Nap 3 from 4:30–5:00 PM
Bedtime 8:00 PM
The Clues to Indicate Your Baby’s Needs Are Changing:
The biggest clue is that your baby refuses the third nap despite your best efforts (e.g., even when held or in a stroller). When this happens, offer an earlier bedtime. Don’t force your baby to skip the third nap; let it come and go as needed, and compensate with bedtime a half hour earlier when your baby skips the last nap. Once your baby has several days without taking the third nap, then start to increase the spacing between naps as described in the next developmental stage.
From ~9 months to ~18 months
The Basic Rules
During this age range most babies take two naps lasting 1–2 hours each. Naps are totally by the clock during this range of time, so you can put your baby down at a regular time each day, even if nights are a little variable. For example if your baby’s wake time varies between 6:30 and 7:00, you can put your baby down at 9:00 even if he or she woke at 6:30 instead of 7:00. (That said you can still vary a little and be fine.) The spacing of wakefulness between naps is longer now than it has been before, but the shortest bout of wakefulness is still in the morning, and longer bouts of wakefulness are at the end of the day. There is a wide range of time when babies will transition to one nap. Some babies are ready to transition to one nap as early as 12 months; others need two naps until 18 months. The average time of this transition is 15 months.
How Much Naptime
3–4 hours total when taking two naps
A Sample Schedule
Wake up at 7:00 AM
Nap 1 from 9:30–10:30 AM
Nap 2 from 1:30–3:30 PM
Bedtime 8:00 PM
The Clues to Indicate Your Baby’s Needs Are Changing
The transition from two naps to one is the hardest transition of all. Most babies need to go back and forth between one and two naps for several weeks until the single nap sticks. There are a few distinct hallmarks of the transition, but parents often confuse these nap transition clues with the development of other sleep problems.
Some babies will take a nice long early nap and refuse the afternoon nap. If this happens, try to figure out your baby’s pattern: How many days a week does he or she refuse the afternoon nap? If it’s one out of four days, then push your child through the morning nap with entertainment and offer only a single, afternoon nap once every fourth day, until his or her needs change again.
Some babies will refuse the morning nap and just take a nice long afternoon nap. If this happens to you, then you are lucky! You probably won’t need to do anything to guide your baby into a single nap.
Some babies will keep both naps, but suddenly start to wake an hour or two early in the morning If this happens for a few days in a row, then it’s time to start pushing your baby through the morning nap and offering only an afternoon nap. This feels wrong, so many parents get stuck putting their babies down for a first nap due to the early wake time, but the way to fix the problem is to force the single afternoon nap schedule for a few days.
From ~18 months to ~6 years
The Basic Rules
During this age range, toddlers and preschoolers take just one nap a day. When a child is really ready for one nap, it will be naturally long (2–3 hours) due to the presence of deep sleep. The nap should be centered in the day, so that there is a roughly equivalent distribution of wakefulness before and after the nap. All children need to keep the single nap until at least age 3, but some children truly need to nap until age 6. Many parents think their child might be dropping the nap around 20–24 months, but this is never the case. At that age, there is a developmental sleep regression that results in many toddlers refusing sleep when they do still need it. At this age a child has the capacity to stay awake all day, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy or that he or she should.
How Much Naptime
2–3 hours in one nap
A Sample Schedule
Wake up at 7:00 PM
Nap from 12:30–3:00 PM
Bedtime at 8:00 PM
The Clues to Indicate Your Child’s Needs Are Changing
As with all of the nap transitions, this change does not happen abruptly. Your child will not suddenly move from one nap to no naps in one day. He or she will need a nap 4–5 days a week for a few weeks and then 3–4 days a week for a few weeks and then 2–3 days a week for a few weeks, etc. In order to allow a natural transition away from napping, make sure you incorporate “quiet time” into each day.
As your child moves away from sleep, simply having the habit of going into the bedroom and being quiet for a while will allow him or her to nap when it's needed and to skip the nap when it's not needed. If you sense that your child is moving away from the nap, don’t force him or her to stay in the bedroom for extended periods of time if he or she is clearly not sleepy. If your child hasn’t napped, let him or her come out after 20–30 minutes of down time. This will give him or her a chance to sleep if possible, and it will give you a short break if there's no nap.
As your child gets older, you may find that a long nap takes away from nighttime sleep and leads to a really late bedtime. If this happens, don’t force your child to skip the nap. Instead, either move naptime earlier or shorten the nap by waking your child after two hours if he’s taking a three-hour nap or after one hour if he’s taking a two-hour nap.