If you are looking for ways to help your baby develop a more consistent and predictable
sleep pattern during the night, then you also have to establish a daytime nap routine.
That’s because daytime naps support your baby’s sleep during the night, for example,
by preventing that your baby is overtired at night.
Right!
So, in this video, we are first going to discuss how much sleep a baby needs each day depending
on their age.
Next, we are going to explain what a successful daytime nap routine should look like.
And then at the end of this video, we are also going to share with you how and when
to establish a nap routine. Yes.
Nathalie is a pregnancy and birth consultant and TCM therapist, and Mathias is a researcher
and science geek and we are here to help mommies and their babies naturally and science-based!
So, what should a daytime nap routine look like?
When we talk about how to establish a daytime nap routine, a good place to start is by looking
at how many hours of sleep a baby needs per day.
Because this will help you understand how many hours of that time to allocate to night-time
sleep and to day time naps.
The National Sleep Foundation in the US has done a lot of research in this regards, and
they came up with the following table.
And just that you know: you can also find that table in the description below this video.
Yes.
When looking at this table, it is important to understand that these numbers are only
just broad recommendations.
And so, if your baby sleeps like one hour more or less than what is stated in that table,
it’s not a reason to worry, okay?
In fact, as long as your baby is less than 4 months old, the amount of sleep could deviate
considerably from what is stated in the table.
It really depends on your baby.
Premature babies, for instance, often sleep up to 90% of the time initially.
So, it’s a matter of age, weight and health of the baby.
Right.
Now, if you look at how long your baby sleeps during the night, obviously taking into account
the time when your baby is awake because of the feedings, right, then you get a rough idea about
how much sleep your baby is supposed to have during the day.
And I say rough idea because if two babies both sleep, say, 11 hours during the night,
then it could be that one baby is fine with 2 hours of daytime naps.
The other baby may require 4 hours of naps per day.
It really depends on the baby.
Yes.
But generally speaking, according to the National Sleep Foundation, it is normal for infants
to sleep about 3-4 hours during the day when babies are between 4 and 11 months old
although total nap time decreases as they get older.
During the first 3 months, on the other hand, it may be more.
By the way, many parents fear that if their baby does not get enough sleep during the
night, it will have an impact on their development.
However, according to research it really does not matter if babies get their sleep during
the night or during the day.
It does now seem to have an impact on their mental and psychomotor development, right?
Right.
So, let us now discuss what a daytime nap routine should look like before we then explain
how and when to establish a routine.
So, a daytime nap routine consists of 2 to 3 naps during the day.
And the actual number of naps as well as their length depend on your baby’s age and sleep
requirements.
The first daytime nap is the morning nap.
And that nap will most likely be about 90 minutes initially, and then it will normally
gradually become shorter.
That said, obviously the length of the nap also depends on how much sleep your baby got
during the night.
Yes.
Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult to say WHEN to put your baby to sleep in the morning,
because it depends when you start the day, right?
When our son was very little, for instance, we always started the day at 7am.
So, initially at the age of 3 months, he had his morning nap from 9am to 10:30.
But whether or not this works for you too really depends on your baby.
Yes.
By the way, most babies need a morning nap until they are about 15 to 18 months.
But some babies also drop it much earlier, like at the age of 12 months or even earlier.
And signs that your baby doesn’t need a morning nap anymore are when baby refuses
to nap in the morning for several weeks or when the second nap of the day, the lunchtime
nap, becomes much shorter.
The lunchtime nap is the most important nap of the day.
This is the time when babies naturally WANT to sleep because of their circadian rhythm,
which is like an internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle.
As a result, research has shown that during the lunchtime nap, babies get some very deep
sleep which helps then with their development and recovery, particularly, the recovery of their
immune system. Right.
Plus, it also helps to regulate emotions which obviously is particularly important for toddlers, right?
Exactly.
The lunchtime nap is normally the longest nap but it’s length very much depends on
your baby’s age and also on if your baby had a morning nap.
So, this is what worked for our son: initially, at the age of 3 months, we put our son to
bed at 12:30 and then he had a 90min sleep.
So, he got up again at 2pm.
And then once he started to refuse his morning nap, which was by the age of 12 months, the
length of the lunchtime nap increased to 2.5 to 3 hours.
So, from the age of 12 months onwards, he slept from 11am to about 2pm in the afternoon.
Yes.
And then from about 18 months, his lunchtime nap shortened to about 90 minutes.
And he normally had that nap between 1pm and 2:30pm.
Eventually, he dropped it once he became 3 years old, right?
So, this is how it worked for our son.
But again, whether or not this could work for you too really depends on your baby.
That said, we actually know quite many parents who introduced similar routines.
And they do seem to work for them, right?
Yes.
And just a final word: most parents can expect that lunchtime nap to stick around until their
baby is 2 or 3 years old.
Some children drop it even later, like at the age of 5 years.
And that’s totally normal too.
It depends a bit on when exactly you try to introduce a routine.
We’ll talk about this later.
But, as long as your baby is really young, like up to the age of 8 months, then your baby will almost
likely need an afternoon nap, in addition to a morning and lunchtime nap, right?
Yes.
And here is why: if the gap between your baby’s lunchtime nap and night-time sleep
is too long for your baby, then your baby will be overtired when you put them to bed
in the evening.
Yes., so, against all logic, it is very difficult to put an overtired baby to bed.
If you do, you can expect your baby to wake up regularly before 10pm, sometimes for longer,
right? Yes.
So if your baby indeed wakes up regularly before 10pm, then it can be a sign that they
need an afternoon nap.
Other signs are, for example, when you have a hard time feeding your baby for dinner or
when your baby cries when you give them a massage or after getting out of a bath as
part of a bedtime routine.
By the way, an afternoon nap is an assisted nap because it is very difficult to put them to
bed in the afternoon.
So your baby will most likely be sleeping in a baby sling, or in the car or in a buggy, right?
And it’s not a long nap either.
It’s gonna be 30 to 60 minutes only, depending on age.
And it’s important to keep it that short because if they are napping too long in the
afternoon, then it can have an impact on night-time sleep.
Exactly.
Talking about night-time sleep.
Please also note that it’s important that there is a gap of at least 2 hours between
the afternoon nap and the night-time sleep.
And that too is to prevent that the afternoon nap has a negative impact on the night-time sleep.
Yes.
Finally, it’s difficult to say when they drop that nap.
Our son dropped it when he was about 6 months old.
However, generally speaking, most babies need an afternoon nap until they are between 6
and 8 months old.
BUT, there can always be exceptions, right?
Right.
So, those were the 3 naps which a daytime nap routine comprises.
And now, let’s have a look at when and how to introduce a nap routine.
Here is what has worked really well for many parents at the clinic.
The first step in introducing a daytime nap routine should not be introducing a daytime
nap routine.
The first step is ending the day at the same time each day, for example, with the help
of the bedtime routine that we teach in one of our other videos.
You can find it in the description below this video.
And we do this as early as 4 weeks of age.
So, at that stage, it’s not yet a real routine, right?
All we do, is teach the baby through repetition that the day ends at the same time every day.
That’s it.
Exactly.
The second step is then to start the day at the same time every day.
That’s probably the hardest part because you never know how the night goes, right?
However, that’s exactly what we try to change.
We want to make the sleep patterns of your baby more consistent and more predictable.
So, even if you are really tired and exhausted, try to get up in the morning at the same time
and instead, nap together with your baby – IF you can, right?
Because obviously, it’s much easier to say than to do, particularly, if you need to go
back to work early.
Yes.
So, starting and ending the day at the same time is really the basis before establishing
a nap routine.
Not only because it helps the baby develop that inner clock that all human beings develop
eventually.
But also because you cannot establish a nap routine, if your baby gets up at 6am on day
1 and at 9am on day 2, and so forth, if your baby is supposed to have a morning nap at 9am, right?
Right.
And then once you also start the day at the same time every day, you can also introduce
the nap routine at the same time.
So that’s the 2-3 naps that we explained earlier, depending on your age.
Yes.
Talking about age.
The earliest age to introduce a daytime routine is 6 weeks of age, but most parents do this
when the baby is between 2 and 4 months.
Again, it really depends on many things like your baby’s health, if your baby is premature
etc.
Also, if your baby suffers from colic or reflux or when other factors play a role, like, for example,
you recovering from a difficult birth, then it’s obviously not so easy to start early, right? Right!
That said, ideally, you start no later than when your baby is 6 months of age.
Right. One final thing to keep in mind: obviously, it is important to start the naps every day
at the same time.
However, it is at least equally important to keep the end time of each nap consistent.
In other words, wake your baby up if your baby sleeps longer than the time slots you
have allocated to a particular nap.
Yes.
Some of you will probably call us monsters for telling you that.
However, please keep in mind that we are not telling you to wake your baby up during the first
couple of weeks.
All we tell you is that if you want to successfully introduce a routine,
then you have to understand that waking them up is part of every such routine.
We don’t know a single case when parents were able to successfully introduce a routine
without making sure that their baby only slept within those allocated time slots, right?
If your baby naps until 5pm on some days and until 6.30 on other days, then it’s just
not possible to establish a consistent nap and sleep pattern.
Right.
Because of that, it’s important to keep in mind that establishing a routine too early
is completely useless.
As long as your baby is only a couple of days or weeks old, all your baby does is sleep
and drink.
And this is how it should be!
In fact, there is nothing that you can do about it because at that age, your baby’s
brain just does not produce enough melatonin which is that sleep hormone which governs
her circadian rhythm.
Yes. It only starts to regulate by the time your baby is about 2-3 months old.
So, please be patient, eventually, you will get there!
Right!
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even a comment in the comment section below.
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