Short naps can be the bane of your existence! Baby is finally asleep, so you have about 39 minutes to shower, eat a meal, unload the dishwasher, and answer some emails all before they wake up! It’s exhausting getting stuck in that short nap cycle, but there are some things we can do to get those nice, long naps you dream of!
Before we jump into troubleshooting, it’s important to remember that babies aren’t robots! There will be off days with short naps here and there- that’s okay! Don’t tweak the schedule unless you see a consistent trend. Short naps can also be developmentally normal until about 6 months of age. So if you’ve tried everything and your baby is still taking short naps, you might just have to wait it out!
What causes short naps in babies?
Let’s dive into some of the most common reasons your baby might be taking short naps!
Independent Sleep
Schedule
Environment
Independent Sleep: If your baby needs your help to fall asleep (rocking, feeding, bouncing, etc), then they will expect the same conditions to be met after each and every sleep cycle to help them get BACK to sleep! Sleep cycles are usually about 30 to 50 minutes long, which is why you can count down your baby’s short nap to the minute! When they naturally wake after this sleep cycle, they don’t have the skills needed to fall back asleep on their own which causes the short nap.
Helping your child learn to fall asleep on their own will help them learn to connect sleep cycles, giving you those glorious long naps! There is a little disclaimer here when pacifiers are involved. If you have a young baby that falls asleep on their own, but with a pacifier, it’s likely you still might see short naps because they can’t replace the pacifier on their own when it falls out! If you think the pacifier is the cause for your short naps, you can either teach baby to fall asleep without it, or wait it out a couple months until they can replace it on their own.
Sleep Schedule: If your child is an independent sleeper, but you’re still seeing short naps, it could mean baby’s schedule needs adjusting! An overtired baby will give you a short nap because an overtired baby has high levels of cortisol which makes it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. An undertired baby will give you short naps because they don’t have enough sleep pressure built up to sleep any longer! Finding the sweet spot for your baby’s wake window can help those naps lengthen.
Sleep Environment: Your baby is a rock star at falling asleep independently, and their schedule is age-appropriate, but naps are still short! What’s going on?! Maybe their room is too bright, or their big sibling is too loud, or their little toes are cold!
Absolute darkness can be SUCH a big help when trying to lengthen naps. It should be so dark that you’re tripping over furniture in their room! Light can be super stimulating and signals the brain that it’s time to be awake.
White noise is also so great for sleep as it encourages deeper sleep and stops outside noises from waking baby!
So black out those windows and turn on that sound machine to encourage your baby to nap longer!
How to Lengthen Short Naps for Babies
Sometimes a child just needs to be given the opportunity to nap longer! If your schedule and environment are spot on, and they know how to fall asleep on their own, but they’re still having short naps, PAUSE! Give them time to fall back asleep for another sleep cycle. For younger babies, we call this process crib hour. If baby wakes after a 40 minute nap, give them 20 minutes to fall back asleep (60 minutes in the crib AKA crib hour!).
This encourages them to be content in their sleep space after waking and gives them the opportunity to fall back asleep. For older toddlers on one nap, we also recommend “crib 90” or “crib 120”- 90 or 120 minutes in the crib! We want that one nap to be nice and long to make it to a decent bedtime, so a longer crib time will help with this!
There are so many variables that go into your baby’s sleep, it can often feel overwhelming! Using these simple tips will give you a great starting point in getting those nice, long naps!
Author:
Hi, I’m Kyra, and I’m a certified pediatric sleep consultant here to help with your baby or toddler’s sleep struggles! I live in sunny Southern California with my husband and three boys. My boys love to move, so you can often find us hiking, or taking a day trip to the beach! Sleep has been my passion ever since my first son was born 8 years ago- I’ve been the exhausted parent, and I love helping other parents get the sleep they need! Fun Facts: I can’t stand coffee, love piano and photography! Find me at sweetpeasleep.com