Improving daytime naps

Daytime naps can be one of the biggest challenges for babies and are one of the main reasons why clients seek my help.

Why might babies struggle with naps?

There are many theories on daytime naps and at what age a baby is able to start sleeping for longer naps. Often it is suggested that a baby doesn’t develop the ability to sleep for longer periods during the daytime until around 6 months of age, as it is suggested that they might struggle to link sleep cycles until then.

From my experience, I don’t believe this is true. I don’t believe that younger babies lack the physiological ability to have longer naps – otherwise, how would that explain all the babies that CAN do it? My work as a sleep coach, specialising in reflux babies, has shown me that the babies who don’t manage longer naps at an early age are usually those who are woken after a short nap due to wind, regurgitation, or discomfort. When working one-to-one with a client, I dig really deep and it will almost always come down to one of those factors.

Starting work on naps

From around 5 months of age, baby’s circadian rhythm is in place and they can likely already distinguish between day and night, so this is a good age at which to start work on naps.

These are the key areas to consider and work on when trying to help a baby with settling for naps, as well as with lengthening naps:

Awake windows: as we have covered, these are the key to a baby being able to settle to sleep easily and independently. Working to awake windows should improve both how baby settles for a nap and the length of the nap. Please remember though that awake windows are a guideline and some tweaking may be necessary.

Ability to self-settle: if a baby can fall asleep without needing any help and support – be that rocking, feeding or a dummy – they are more likely to be able to nap for longer and link their sleep cycles.

Hunger: it’s always worth considering whether hunger could be behind a baby struggling to nap well. Especially around the weaning age. If you are following a routine and baby can fall asleep on their own but is struggling to do longer naps, then it might be worth considering the idea of a pre-nap top-up feed, or introducing solids (if baby is at the right age and ready). This is especially worth bearing in mind with breastfed babies, where we don’t know how much they are having. Offering more food is a good way of ruling out whether short naps are down to hunger or not.

Environment – dark rooms and white noise is the perfect combination for a baby who struggles to nap well. Whilst some babies will sleep well in lighter rooms, if baby is struggling to do longer naps it is worth considering investing in some sort of blackout. White noise can also help lengthen naps and is particularly useful for babies who are lighter sleepers (more on that below!). If using white noise, I advise having it on consistently rather than switching off after 20-30 minutes.

(Note: The Black Out Debate! Some people will say that using blackouts means baby gets used to that and then won’t nap anywhere else. From my experience, this isn’t true, but they may do shorter naps elsewhere or take a little longer to settle. I also find this becomes less of an issue as they get older. Personally, I always preferred a baby who slept well at home 90% of the time and I would take a gamble on any naps outside of the home not being quite so good.)

Try getting into a napping pattern first: if baby isn’t in a routine and is catnapping, one option is to hold back any work on self-settling and just spend a week following the chosen routine, using Mum or the sling/pram to get the full nap. The hope is that after a week of following the new napping pattern, their body clock will start to get used to the longer naps. Then it will be much easier to start putting baby down on their own.

Illness and teething: both are reasons why a baby may regress with their daytime naps, as any sort of discomfort will make them more likely to wake up properly once in a light sleep at the end of a sleep cycle. If you have started sleep coaching but believe baby to be teething, I advise taking it easy and just getting them up after their first cycle if they wake, rather than asking them to go back into a second cycle. Then try again in another week to ten days and see how it goes. Illness and teething may well cause a baby to do shorter naps, even if they are usually napping beautifully, but staying consistent with their settling approach and awake windows will usually mean that they come back to it with little/less fuss.

Wind and reflux: babies who suffer from sensitive tummies, wind, and reflux (which is often very hidden) almost always struggle to do long daytime naps. Classically, these babies will only do 30 minute naps or just one sleep cycle of 45 minutes. Unfortunately, this is often not identified by medical professionals or even some sleep coaches. I often see babies who struggle with naps and then apparently ‘grow out of it’ – to me this is really just the development of the gut.

There is much more detail about sleep and reflux in Module 9. If a baby is struggling with short naps by about 6 months of age, and it sounds like they suffered from many of the classic reflux symptoms when they were little, they may still have some undiagnosed silent reflux hanging around. By this age, it is often only obvious by short daytime naps. If this is the case, looking at diet and/or reflux medication will be the most helpful approach.

Learning to link cycles – for some babies, they simply need to learn how to link daytime sleep cycles. This means using the same method as at the start of the sleep at the end of the first sleep cycle to help baby learn to settle into another cycle. I normally try this for one nap a day, either the morning or the lunchtime one. The lunchtime one is normally the nap that most clients would like to be longer.

For example, when baby wakes up after just 35 minutes, use the chosen sleep coaching approach for up to 45 minutes to try and help baby into a second sleep cycle. This will mean either going in to help them, or returning at intervals depending on the approach. After 30-45 minutes (the duration depends on the parent’s tolerance), if they are still crying and haven’t settled back to sleep, get baby up and then either do an earlier third nap, or two shorter afternoon naps, depending on baby’s age. So the day may look something like:

– morning nap 45 minutes

– lunch nap 45 minutes + 30 minutes of trying to get back into another cycle

– short afternoon cat nap of 30 minutes

– Earlier bedtime: important for days where naps haven’t been very long

I advise trying with the linking of cycles for up to a week and if still no improvement, pause and have a go at troubleshooting the other issues.

‘Wake to sleep’ approach: This is another technique that can help babies learn to do longer naps. The idea is that baby is partially woken at the point where they are coming into light sleep towards the end of a sleep cycle, so that they then sleep through another cycle rather than fully waking at the end of the first one. The parent should go in ten minutes before the end of baby’s nap and stroke their head or shuffle their arm/leg so that they stir (the emphasis here is on stir and not wake!). This should be tried consistently for one week to see success. If baby does not improve after a week of trying, once again I would advise troubleshooting the other possible reasons above.

Ex 4 – “Short naps are normal”… discuss… (250 words)