Short Naps

Be honest with me and let me know if this sounds familiar to you…

Your baby wakes up in the morning after a solid night of sleep. You feed them, change them, play for a bit, maybe go for a walk outside, and then it’s time for a nap. Maybe they fall asleep on their own, maybe you have to do some rocking, or nursing to get them down, but whatever it is – they’re finally out. You leave and think you’ve finally got some time for yourself (maybe to finish that cold cup of coffee or do some tidying up). But then, like clockwork, 30 minutes later, your baby is up – fussy and irritable don’t even come close to describing them. No amount of pleading, rocking, nursing, or negotiating gets them back into sleep.

So after another half hour of trying, you give up and hope that maybe the next nap, when they’re more tired, will be better. But instead, the exact same scenario plays itself out, and your baby is a cranky mess for the rest of the day.

Sleep, like food is one of those things where baby has the final say on whether or not they’re going to cooperate. So is there really any point in trying to force it? And if they’re not sleeping, leaving them in their room usually won’t fix anything…

But let’s switch gears and see what is very likely going on, and how you can fix it.

Babies, just like the rest of us, sleep in cycles. We start off in a light stage where it’s very easy to wake up from, and we gradually fall into a deeper stage where even loud noises or movement may be unable to rouse us. This latter stage, by the way, is exactly where we want to be at. It’s rejuvenating and restful and allows our brain and body to truly get the break it needs as well as the time to do all of the maintenance work that leaves us feeling refreshed, clear-headed, and energetic when we get enough of it.

Once we’ve neared the end of the deep sleep stage, we slowly start coming back into light stage again, which signals the end of 1 sleep cycle. This is typically when we might wake up for a few seconds, but then drift off again, right back into another cycle of sleep.

In adults, 1 sleep cycle typically lasts about 90 minutes, but in babies, it can be as short as 30 minutes. So the fact that your baby wakes up after only 30 minutes of napping is actually completely NATURAL.

But, you might say to me, there are babies who nap for 2 or 3 hour stretches! And that’s true – sort of. While the entire nap may technically last 2 hours, what they’re really doing is stringing together several sleep cycles in a row. So the difference between that baby and your baby is that they’ve learned how to fall back to sleep on their own.

And that’s it.

That’s really the heart of the issue. And once your baby can fall asleep without any outside help, they’ll be able to start stringing sleep cycles together like a champ. You baby will end up being a whole lot happier, and you end up with hours of free time to do whatever you want (those few hours do quickly get filled up some not very fun tasks, but they are baby-free nonetheless)!

Going back to our scenario from the beginning where you were getting your baby ready for a nap by rocking or nursing (or whatever you might be doing) them before putting them down into their crib…

That’s where we need to make a change. That action is what needs to stop. It’s what we (sleep consultants) refer to as a “sleep prop” and it’s basically anything that your baby uses to go from being awake to being asleep. Some examples include pacifiers, a feed, rocking, singing, patting, snuggling, and needing mom in the room.

Now I am in no way saying you shouldn’t be rocking your baby or singing to them, or reading books, or snuggling, or loving them insanely… For sure you should be doing that.

BUT, I just don’t want you doing it to the point where baby falls asleep.

When it comes to sleep time, whether it’s for a nap or for night, my goal is always for baby to be put down into their crib while still awake, and them falling asleep on their own.

Of course there will be protest. Of course baby will not be happy about it. But after a few days, there are results.

So what does this have to do with getting your baby to nap for longer stretches?

Well, the first thing I would advise you to do, if baby isn’t already doing it, is to get baby to be an independent sleeper so they can start to make the connections between sleep cycles on their own.

Some other things to keep in mind include:

• It is NORMAL (read: developmentally appropriate) for baby to have short naps until about 5-6 months of age. Naps develop in a separate part of the brain than night sleep so they may not necessarily be able to connect their sleep cycles on their own until then. In the meantime, you can help by lengthening their nap – use the pacifier, rock them, hold them during the rest of the nap if they need it. Don’t be too concerned about this creating a bad habit; if baby already knows how to fall asleep on their own, they will learn to connect sleep cycles next!

• Keep the sleep space as dark as possible!

• Use a white noise machine to mask out any sounds that could disrupt baby’s sleep, particularly during those transitions between sleep cycles.

• Be sure you’re utilizing the proper wake window for baby’s age! Too short of a window and they simply won’t be tired enough to sleep for longer stretches of time.

• Want to know what else is normal? For the last nap of the day to be short. The point of that last nap is to get baby to bedtime without them being overtired, so it’s totally okay for that nap to be as short as 20 minutes.

I hope these suggestions help!

If you’re still running into some trouble, let’s set up a call! Often times, the solution is simpler than we think!