- Does this sound familiar?
You've finally gotten your little one to sleep
and you've crept out of that room,
made yourself that much needed coffee and finally sat down
to have that very rare moment to yourself.
But what feels like only three seconds later,
your little ones shatters that dream by screaming out
and letting you know that they are ready to play.
Now, if this sounds familiar, there are actually lots
of different reasons why your little one
might be having short naps, but the good news is
there're some things that you can do to make them longer.
Before we cover what those reasons are,
make sure you click on that free PDF document
in the description box below
to get the free developmental checklist
for your baby's first year of life.
This will give you an invaluable peace of mind,
as you'll know when to be expecting skills
and when to be concerned.
One reason your baby might be having short naps
is actually due to their age.
So, having short naps or catnapping is completely normal
between the age of three and a half, four months of age,
all the way up to five and a half, six months.
So if your baby is in this age range,
you can make sure that environment is set up appropriately
for nap times, but you might just need to kind of ride
that wave until your baby is developmentally ready
to start linking sleep cycles and extend their day naps.
The other reason might be that your baby's not tired enough.
Now I know this sounds a little bit weird, but babies,
while they're awake, build up their sleep pressure.
And naps are predominantly guided by sleep pressure.
Now, they might be tired enough to fall asleep,
but they're not tired enough to go into another sleep cycle.
So they might just have one sleep cycle,
which is around that 30-45 minute mark.
And then they are going to wake up
because that sleep pressure has kind of dissipated
while they were sleeping and they are no longer tired.
So what you wanna do in this situation is keep an eye on
and be aware of age appropriate wake times,
because you need to keep your baby awake long enough
so that they build up enough sleep pressure
to be tired enough, to link two sleep cycles together.
So they extend their sleep.
Now on the flip side, your little one
might be having short naps because they are overtired.
Now, when a baby is overtired,
their body releases stimulating hormones like adrenaline
and cortisol, and these hormones make it really difficult
for a baby to fall asleep and stay asleep
because they're basically in that flight or fight mode.
Now what you want to do to avoid having an overtired baby
is be aware of age appropriate wake periods.
So know what they are and look out
to your baby's tired signs and cues
around that period of time.
And to help your little one fall asleep,
do think about the environment that they're going to sleep
in because a really stimulating environment is going
to be hard for your little one
to switch off from and go to sleep.
And if they find it difficult to go to sleep,
then they're going to become overtired.
So this leads me on to my next point,
which is the environment that your little one is sleeping
in, can have a significant impact
on the length of time that they will stay asleep.
So it can actually lead to shorter naps.
Now, you would have noticed that
when your baby was a newborn,
they could sleep absolutely anywhere.
It didn't matter what was happening around them.
They would just fall asleep.
But from about three months of age to five months of age,
they, babies generally go through a change.
So their sleep pattern matures,
and they will now wake between sleep cycles.
So they'll sleep for that 30, 45 minutes,
and then they will wake or partially awake.
And then if there's nothing stimulating in the environment,
then they will go back to sleep.
But if the environment is interesting,
then they are going to wake up fully.
So, if there is things to look out in the room,
or if it's really noisy, or if the temperature is too hot
or too cold, it's going to lead
to your baby waking up fully.
So what you wanna do is ensure
that when your baby is napping,
they are napping in a room that is conducive to sleep.
So it encourages them to sleep.
So that is ensuring that the room is dark.
So dark enough that you can't read a book,
that it is cool and that it is quiet.
Now using a white noise machine might help you keep
that room quiet when you're in a busy household.
Hunger is also another reason
that babies will have a shorter nap.
So for example, if your little one feeds every three hours
and they were fed two and a half hours ago,
when they first woke up, and now it's time for them
to have a nap, then of course, they're only gonna sleep
for that 30 minutes because they're going
to be hungry at this point and want a feed.
So you just might wanna think about the timing
of your feeds to ensure that when your baby does go
to sleep, they're going to be able to do two sleep cycles
before that hunger kicks in and they need that feed.
Babies who need help from an adult
to fall asleep are also more likely to have short naps.
And that is because at that four,
five month old mark, their sleep pattern matures
and they wake between sleep cycles.
Now, if your little one is needing your help to fall asleep,
so you're using a dummy, you're shushing them,
you're rocking them or you're patting them,
then when they wake fully between sleep cycles,
then they are going to call out to say, "Hey,
can you come back in here and help me get back to sleep."
Once your little one learns how to fall asleep
by themselves, which I know can be extremely difficult
and time consuming for parents,
then they are going to be able or more likely
to link sleep cycles because they will go
to sleep independently and then they will wake up
between a sleep cycle and then they'll be able
to go back to sleep by themselves.
And that will lengthen their overall day naps.
Now, if you want advice on how to help your little one
through that, then you can check out this video here,
make sure you click on that free PDF document
in the description box below and I will see you next week
where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.
(uplifting music)