Short Naps? 3 Tips On Extending Them
Does this scenario sound familiar?
Your baby wakes up in the morning after a solid night’s sleep. You feed them, change them, play for a little bit, then head to their room to rock them to sleep for their morning nap.
And then, 30 minutes later, they wake up fussy and irritable, refusing to go back to sleep.
So after half an hour of trying, you finally give in, hoping your afternoon nap will make up for it and you won’t be counting the minutes until bedtime with a cranky baby.
So here’s what’s going on, and how to fix it.
Babies over 4 months sleep in cycles. We start off in a light state where we’re easily woken up, then gradually fall into a deeper stage where even loud noises or movement might not be able to rouse us. That deep sleep is the rejuvenative, restful sleep where our brains do all of the maintenance work we crave to not just survive but thrive.
Once we’ve come to the end of the deep-sleep cycle, we slowly start coming back to the light stage again, and typically we wake up for a few seconds and then drift off again, and the whole thing starts again. In babies, this can happen in as little as 30 minutes.
So the fact that your baby is waking up after only 30 minutes is natural.
“But, I have friends whose babies nap for two or three hours at a time.” That’s because they’re stringing together several sleep cycles in a row. The only difference between their baby and your baby is…
They’ve learned how to fall back to sleep on their own.
That’s it! Once your baby can fall asleep without help, they’ll start stringing together those short sleep cycles with no problem. That’s going to make your baby a whole lot happier and - the best part - leave you with hours at a time to do whatever you like!
The biggest piece to the situation described above is how your little one initially fell asleep. Giving lots of assistance to help your little fall asleep such as rocking, walking, driving or feeding them to sleep will make it difficult for them to get themselves to sleep on their own.
Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t rock your baby, or sing to them, or read them stories, or love them like crazy. You absolutely should!!
Just not to the point where they fall asleep.
At all sleep situations (bedtimes and naps), putting your baby down in the crib, while still awake, and letting them fall asleep on their own will be a huge step in changing everyone’s sleep.
There might be a little bit of protest for a day or two, but for the majority of my clients, the results start to show in about two or three days.
Two or three days, and you and your little one could be enjoying the extraordinary benefits of sleep. They’ll be happier, healthier, more energetic, and the whole family will be sleeping better!
Some other tips for extending baby’s nap time…
Keep the bedroom as dark as possible. Buy some blackout blinds if the sun is getting in, or if you’re on a budget, tape some black garbage bags over the windows. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to be functional.
White noise machines are useful if baby tends to wake up due to the neighbor’s barking dog, the delivery person ringing the doorbell, or any other noise that might startle them out of their nap. Just make sure it’s not too close to their ears and not too loud. 50 dB is the recommended limit.
If you’re running into trouble applying these suggestions, give me a call and set up a free 15 minute consultation. The solution might be simpler than it appears, and most of my clients see a dramatic improvement in just one or two sessions.