Solve Your Short Naps

It’s nap time, and your baby is FINALLY asleep! You do a couple of quick things, but before you can get to that hot cup of coffee you made…you hear them on the monitor… Sound familiar?

This was totally my life with my first baby, for a whole 8 months we struggled with short 30-45 minute naps! It was SO FRUSTRATING, and she was one cranky baby! I was obsessively tracking her nap timing and lengths, and always seemed to be chasing after that one day where she had somehow magically napped for two hours straight. If you are currently stuck in the short nap cycle like I was, you’re likely feeling overwhelmed with how to fix it. I’m sure you have also already scoured the internet and Facebook groups only to become even more confused (WHY do the online wake window charts all have to be so different!?).

Now, after helping hundreds of families solve their short nap troubles, I have a go to list of troubleshooting questions to ask. I have put these together into a checklist for you! But before we dive into that, lets talk about what is classified as a short nap, and why they can be so frustrating!

Short naps can be normal

Newborns (babies 3 months and under) often take many short naps per day, this is so normal! For more information on realistic newborn sleep (and how to maximize it) download our free Newborn Sleep Guide.

Generally, for babies four months and older, I consider anything under an hour to be a “short nap.” An exception to this is when babies are taking 3 or 4 naps a day, these naps are often 20-40 minutes long, which is the perfect length to bridge that gap until bedtime! We always want to focus on lengthening just the first two naps. This IS a realistic goal, though some inconsistencies in nap length may stick around until month 5-6.

It’s also SUPER important to note that short naps are absolutely nothing to be concerned about in relation to baby’s health or development (don’t let anyone scare you into thinking otherwise!). They are mostly just annoying because:

• Short naps can lead to overtiredness which can mean a cranky baby who fights being put to sleep.

• Overtiredness may lead to nighttime sleep challenges, such as early morning wake ups

But mostly because short naps drive parents CRAZY, and really can affect our mental health in a variety of ways (obsessing over sleep, feeling like we can’t ever catch a break). We also tend to personalize short naps, wondering what WE did wrong to cause them. If you take one thing from this blog, its that I want you to know that we can’t make another human sleep- we can only offer the opportunity, and the rest is up to them. Your baby’s short naps are NOT a reflection of your parenting skills.

While we can’t make a baby take a longer nap, we can control some of the variables involved. Here is a list of things to consider if your baby just can’t seem to lengthen out those naps!

1) Sleep Environment

Before putting baby down for naptime you’ll want to make sure baby is in comfortable clothing (trade those cute baby jeans in for PJ pants!) and that their room is SUPER DARK. I am talking cave like/can’t see your hand in front of your face type of darkness. I know, I hear you….you’re afraid to create a baby who is dependent on that super dark environment to take a good nap. But don’t be! If you are struggling with short naps let’s set baby up for the best possible chance at learning to lengthen them, then once those naps are consistent we can get more flexible and not worry about light levels nearly as much.

To create the cave like darkness we need for good naps, I recommend purchasing a black out window solution such as Blackout EZ Window Covers, or even temporarily taping up some cardboard. Trust me, it’s worth it! I have spoken to many parents who after trying absolutely everything to lengthen their babies naps instantly saw an improvement when they made the room darker.

2) Undertiredness

I know, you are surprised that this doesn’t say “consider overtiredness.” right? We do want to avoid overtiredness as it can lead to short naps.. BUT in my experience most parents are already trying to prevent this- so much so that they are using wake windows that are way too short. Their babies may appear to be tired, and are able to fall asleep, but their sleep pressure just isn’t high enough to help them transition from one sleep cycle to another.

This is a common cause of chronically short naps (and tough put downs too!) but it can be easily fixed by slowly adding 10-15 minutes of awake time until you hit that sweet spot. Try experimenting with following just the age appropriate wake window for a few days, rather than relying on sleep cues (they can be so random, and not a good indicator of sleep pressure beyond the newborn days!).

Use nap length as a clue too! A nap that is 40-50minutes is often indicative of low sleep pressure (more awake time needed beforehand) vrs a 30 minute nap (which is more likely to indicate overtiredness).

For more detailed advice on sleep scheduling, check out our Solve Your Sleep Schedule Guide- I have included everything you need to know to actually UNDERSTAND your baby or toddler’s sleep scheduling- it goes way beyond wake windows.

3) Micro napping

Unfortunately even a few brief moments of sleep can impact baby’s sleep pressure for the next naptime. If your baby accidentally catches a few minutes of car sleep between naps, push naptime back a little bit to see if that helps (30-60 minutes depending on their age!). Try to keep your baby fully awake while feeding too, unless you are feeding baby TO sleep. A few moments of drowsiness on the breast or bottle can be enough to reduce sleep pressure, and create a super tough/short nap.

4) Hunger

Often parents trying to work on separating feeding and sleep implement an “eat-play-sleep” schedule. For some babies this is just fine, but for others it can accidentally impact the amount of feedings they are being offered. For example, if your 7 month old is on a two nap schedule with a 2.5-3h wake window, a typical eat-play-sleep pattern would have feeds spaced out 4+ hours. This alone can lead to short naps as baby can’t make it the full 4h and wakes due to hunger. I always recommend feeding your baby on demand, and at offering a full feed at least every 2.5-3h- we need to get those daytime calories in! If you need to offer baby a feeding before a nap try to time it 20-30 minutes before put down, and keep baby wide awake during the feed.

5) Independent Sleep

Some babies can be assisted to sleep (pacifier, rocking, feeding, holding etc.) and have no problem taking solid naps. For others, the help they require to fall asleep will be required 30-45 minutes later, when they transition into their next sleep cycle. Sometimes this means a bit of assistance like a pacifier replacement or a quick pat and back off to sleep they go. but sometimes there is no amount of assistance that will help them go back down, and nap ends early.

The good news is that you can totally give your baby the opportunity to fall asleep independently! Supporting them to learn this skill will allow them to connect their sleep cycles at night and naptime. If you are feeling unsure on how to start working on independent sleep skills, we can help! We absolutely love supporting families through this process and have a variety of options for support!

If your little one already has the ability to fall asleep independently at the put down, they may just need an opportunity to practice resettling after a short nap! Instead of rushing in the moment they wake try leaving them for a few mins to see if they will resettle and connect those sleep cycles. If baby is content in their sleep space you can try leaving them for even longer.

A note on crib hour

A common piece of nap advice I see is to “leave your baby in bed for crib hour.” This approach has some value for older babies who can fall asleep fully independently and are CONTENT in their sleep space. Crib hour is not a good strategy for babies who don’t have independent sleep skills, or for babies who are trying to learn them. In these cases, it will be more like a CRY hour, and won’t lead to any progress. Instead, I recommend giving an upset baby no more than 5-10 minutes of crib time following a short nap.

What about rescuing a nap?

“Rescuing the nap” by helping your child fall back asleep following a short nap is a perfectly fine thing to do IF YOU WANT TO. It’s not typically my first strategy to implement when working on independent sleep/sleep training, but it can be a good way to help them catch up from a cycle of short sleeps.

Rescuing naps is also a perfectly acceptable long term strategy for families assisting to sleep. The big caveat here is that you shouldn’t feel like you have to rescue each nap and you shouldn’t spend more than 10-15min trying to get your baby back to sleep. They have slept, and if they aren’t falling back to sleep within this short time frame it’s likely they just don’t have enough sleep pressure left. Fighting to get your baby back to sleep in these situations is an uphill battle, and a recipe for stress!

If you are struggling, we would love to help!

If your sleep struggles just seem never ending, we are here to help! Our mission is to help families find sustainably good sleep in ways they feel good about! Check out our services page here, or book a sleep evaluation call to chat about your sleep goals, and how we can help you reach them!