When do I cap my toddler’s nap?

I remember the days of 2-2.5 hour mid-day naps from my son. Oh how glorious they were…until they started impacting his bedtime. Bedtime is something that you don’t want to mess with. Nighttime sleep is the most restorative sleep for our bodies, so limiting daytime sleep is often recommend in order to preserve the night.

If you’re wondering what some of the signs are for needing to limit daytime sleep, I’ve compiled a list below.

Signs To Cap My Toddler’s Nap

1. They are not falling asleep quickly at bedtime.
   When we put our babies or toddlers into their cribs, we want them to be in there no longer than 20 minutes before falling asleep. If they are tossing and turning for over 20 minutes, then it’s generally a sign that either their wake windows are off, or they are having too much daytime sleep.

2. They’ve started waking really early in the morning.
   As humans, we all have an internal body clock - or a circadian rhythm. This body clock helps us determine how much sleep we actually need in a 24-hour period. If your child is taking a glorious 2-3 hour nap in the middle of the day, falling asleep easily at bedtime, but has now started waking abnormally early (before 6am), then it’s time to adjust that nap. We all have a range of hours that we need to sleep in a 24-hour period. As adults, our range is generally from 7-9 hours of sleep. For children who are in the 1 nap phase, their range is generally from 11-13 hours in a 24-hour period. If they are getting too many of their total sleep hours throughout the day, it is going to automatically impact their nighttime sleep. Cutting back the nap will help solve those early mornings.

3. They are taking a long time falling asleep at nap time.
   When children are close to dropping their nap completely, they begin protesting their nap. This can look like: restlessness when put into the crib, exploration of the crib, or straight up protesting the nap. Lots of parents jump to the conclusion that maybe they are done napping completely, but what could solve this most of the time is pushing the nap back by 30-45 minutes, and shortening it.

There are other small signs to that you might notice when it comes to big transitions and changes in your toddler’s sleep, but generally, these are the 3 main signs to cap your toddler’s nap.

SO - what do we cap it to?

I like to recommend that when a child first transitions to a 1-nap schedule, that they sleep for a period of 2-2.5 hours. This will last for 1-2 months until their body adjusts to the 1 nap schedule.

Once they have fully adjusted to 1-nap a day, then I like to recommend scaling back the nap and ensuring that there is 5 hours of awake time on each end of the nap.

A schedule would look like this:
7am Wakeup
12-2pm Nap
7pm Bedtime

Once they hit the 24 month mark, I’d recommend waking your child after 1.5 hours of napping to ensure they get 5.5 hours of awake time before bed. As they are in the 24-36 month range, this is typically when children DROP their nap completely. Before dropping it outright - I would scale it back to the 1 hour mark. This is nap change would happen around age 2.5 and it would stay for as long as your child decides to nap.

I know it seems counterintuitive to wake a sleeping baby, but I promise you that once a child is a rockstar at self-soothing and linking their sleep cycles, it’ll become necessary for you to wake them.

Of course, if you’re struggling with your toddler’s sleep - don’t feel like you have to handle it on your own!

Bailey