Am I describing your day with this scenario?...
After getting a decent night’s sleep (or maybe not), your baby wakes up in the morning, has a feed, plays for a bit and starts showing signs of being tired so you give her a feed and rock her before you put her down. She falls asleep pretty quickly (or maybe not) and then BAM! She’s awake 30-45 minutes later on the dot.
You go into her room and she’s clearly still tired so you offer some comfort, support and possibly a little begging and pleading to get her back to sleep. Nope, it’s not going to happen, this chronic-short-nap thing never ends.
Short naps are one of the most frustrating concerns parents share with me
Not only are you worried your baby isn’t getting enough sleep, but YOU are not getting more than 30 minutes at a time to get things done or to have a little rest yourself. Most likely, you’re spending most of the 30 minutes staring at the monitor waiting for the inevitable.
Short naps are common up until 6 months of age as a baby’s circadian rhythm develops. But for a baby to get an appropriate amount of daytime sleep, we can’t have a day full of 30 minute naps. By 4 months of age, I like to see 2 naps that are over an hour and then the other 2 might still be short.
Even though it’s not uncommon to experience short naps, you probably know someone who has a baby who naps for 3 hours. So what’s the deal?
This is why short naps happen
Babies, just like adults, sleep in sleep cycles. We start off in light sleep where we are often easily woken up or even move quite a bit. Then, we move into a deeper stage of sleep. This, my friends, is where the sleep magic happens. Our immune systems boost, emotions regulate and why we wake feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. These are just a few of the benefits of sleep.
In adults, our sleep cycles last about 90 minutes. Babies have 30-45 minute sleep cycles.
So back to that friend with the 3 hour napper. What’s going on there? Well, this baby is also briefly waking after one 30-45 minute sleep cycle, but she has learned how to fall back to sleep on her own. She is linking sleep cycles and getting those long restorative naps.
How can a baby learn to link sleep cycles?
When a baby can’t fall asleep on her own and depends on something external like rocking, a feed, bouncing or a pacifier, to get to sleep, she will rely on the same “sleep prop” to get back to sleep after one 30 minute sleep cycle.
Once your baby learns to drift into sleep on her own, she will be a rockstar sleeper who takes more frequent, long naps and sleeps longer stretches at night too.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am definitely NOT saying you shouldn’t rock, feed, or bounce your baby. Of course you should! But, put some space between those things and sleep. Don’t let them be the “sleep prop” that gets her to sleep.
Short nap solution checklist
Dark is best for the perfect nursery. We all sleep best in a dark room. Invest in good blackout blinds or even cover the windows with cardboard or foil. Don’t worry about making it pretty initially, just get the job done.
White noise is great! It blocks out exterior noise so that pesky dog barking, squeaky door or truck driving by isn’t going to pull baby out of a sleep cycle.
Just wait. When you hear your baby wake after one sleep cycle, set a timer. Give her the opportunity to fall back to sleep before rushing it. She might surprise you.
Revisit the bedtime routine. Is she alert and awake during the entire routine or is she getting drowsy and sleepy at some point?
If you’ve cleaned up your naptime and bedtime routine and are still affected by short naps. Give me a call. Together we can teach your baby to be a great napper and get you some “me time” each day.
Sleep is magic.