Nap Training: How to Get Good Naps for Good Nights

In order to make sure that your child is getting the most out of their daytime sleep, you need to understand your child’s minimum nap requirements. For the first six months, it’s important to just follow your baby’s sleep cues and help them get as much sleep as they need. Beyond six months, you can begin to follow a flexible schedule for their meals and naps, which can be accomplished with gentle nap training. These tips will get you started:

• Tackling nighttime sleep first
• Learning sleepy cues
• Nap training
• Sleep environments and routines

Try to Tackle Nighttime Sleep First

If your baby is not sleeping at night (or during naps), it’s okay to rely on your baby’s nap sleep crutch to ensure that your child gets enough naps at the right times of the day. How can you do that? Continue to use the naptime sleep crutch and create a flexible schedule that includes your baby’s naptimes, so that your baby is getting quality daytime sleep while you are focused on night coaching.

If your naptime sleep crutch is no longer working (and it happens), then you will have to sleep coach both nights and naps at the same time.

There are a few reasons to tackle nighttime sleep training before nap training. The primary reason is that babies have an easier time falling asleep in a completely dark, quiet room after their predictable bedtime routine. This doesn’t always happen with naps.

What are Your Baby’s Sleepy Cues?

For babies who are currently taking two naps each day, you’ll find that your baby is most likely displaying sleepy cues about two hours after they wake up, and again about three hours after that. These cues include eye rubbing, yawning, and acting distracted or disinterested, among others. For those of you with toddlers or preschoolers on one nap, you may notice that your child acts tired after lunch, or about six hours after his initial wake up time. Use these cues to help you find the times when your baby is ready for sleep, and then nap training will be easier.

Want to know more about naps?
Read: Naps Naps and Naps: When, Why, and How to Get Your Baby to Nap

How Do You Nap Train?

While you’re nap training, you may need to devote an entire hour — or one hour each for the morning nap afternoon nap — to getting your baby to sleep.

Some children are too alert when a parent or caregiver is in the room with them. If you feel that your presence is causing him to become agitated or overstimulated, or you have another child to take care of, consider leaving the room. You can come back to check on him often, somewhere between every five and fifteen minutes, based on your child’s reaction. Its ok to do this even if you are doing the Shuffle at night.

Want to learn more about the Sleep Lady Shuffle?
Read: Gentle Sleep Training with The Sleep Lady Shuffle

Use an Abbreviated Bedtime Routine

Your baby is used to their bedtime routine. If your routine is bath, fresh diaper, book, snuggles, in bed awake, then you can modify this routine for nap training. A naptime routine may look something like this: fresh diaper, book, quick snuggle, in bed awake. Choose a few activities and make your routine consistent every night.

Use Bedtime Rules for Nap Training

This means that if your baby stands up in her crib, you put her down once, and if it happens again, then ignore it. Essentially, you’ll be using a modified Shuffle for nap training.

How is Your Baby’s Sleep Environment?

Remember that you want your baby to recognize that it’s time to sleep. Take a look at their sleep environment. Is there a lot of light coming in? What about a comfortable temperature? Can your baby hear too much “traffic” or noise in her space?

Consider investing in blackout curtains if your baby’s room gets a lot of sun. To combat noise, a sound machine can help, or even just running a ceiling fan.

Where is the Best Place for Naps?

Your baby needs a consistent routine, and napping in her bed at home is the best way to help reinforce your nap training efforts.

Plan outings and errands around nap time, or hire a sitter to stay with your sleeping baby if you must be out during her usual siestas.

Use Dramatic Wake Up

If your baby refuses to fall asleep, it’s okay to leave the room for a full minute — time it on your watch. If this seems like too long, even 30 seconds is enough. Come back with a dramatic wake up. You want to impress upon him that you are getting him up because it’s time, rather than because he’s been fussing.

If this happens, be sure to watch your baby for his sleepy cues, and try to get him down for his afternoon nap as soon as you start to see them, even if it’s earlier than normal.

Avoid Disaster Naps

A disaster nap is a nap that is less than 45 minutes in length. These shortened naps are “disaster naps” because they are not a full sleep cycle. If you find that your baby is waking after only 20 or 30 minutes, you may be able to gently encourage her to go back to sleep with a small bit of reassurance.

Remember, naps are different than nighttime sleep, in that they change as your baby grows. If you find that your baby is taking more disaster naps than normal, consider modifying her nap schedule to help her get enough daytime sleep. This may mean moving naptimes around a bit, making the morning nap a bit later, or the afternoon nap a bit earlier. For some babies — especially those between six and eight months — a quick 45-minute late afternoon, or third nap, may be necessary.

Once you’ve started nap training, stick with it. Just like nighttime sleep, naps are something that your baby will gradually grow accustomed to. Remember to check his sleep environment and take into account other factors — such as turning off television for the hour before naps if you’re allowing screen time — to ensure that your baby has the best possible naptime environment.

Wondering about your baby’s schedule?
Read: Sample Schedules: Sleep and Naps From 6 Months to Preschool