Nap Transitions – From 2 Naps to One

Having a baby or toddler who is taking two naps per day can mean that your days are extremely predictable. We tend to arrive at a two-nap schedule about 7-8 months old, and a child can require two naps as late as 18 months. This means that you could have a relatively consistent schedule for almost an entire year!

Then, you will start to notice that things are changing. Is it time to move to just one nap per day? 

I like to encourage parents to try to maintain a two-nap schedule for as long as possible. This is because the transition to one nap per day can be tricky, and it can take a while for a child to adjust to the longer wake windows required on just one nap per day. Having a single, mid-day nap requires a child to be awake for 4-6 hours at a time. For a baby who is currently awake for only 3-4 hours at a time, that jump can feel very long, and it is easy to grow overtired.  

Some babies have to move to one nap as early as 12 months because of daycare. Many daycares move children into the “toddler room” at one year old, and only offer one nap per day. Children can certainly adjust, but you may find that two naps are required for those children on the weekends. If you are in the fortunate situation of being able to continue to offer two naps per day as long as possible, you may want to wait until your toddler is 16-18 months.

First, let’s look at the signs it may be time to start thinking about transitioning your toddler from two naps to one:

• Your child is between 13-18 months old. As I mentioned, my preference is to wait until 16-18 months, but some children do show signs of being ready earlier.
• The first nap is starting to happen later and later in the morning.
• Your child is taking a long time to fall asleep for the second nap (or sometimes skips the second nap, despite being in the crib for a while).
• After a two-nap day, bedtime starts to creep past 8pm.
• Early morning wakes become normal.

If you are experiencing two or more of these signs, it may be time to start the transition to one nap per day.

THE GOAL – ONE NAP PER DAY

When a toddler is on one nap per day, it is ideal to have that nap land at the mid-point of the day. This way, we essentially split the toddler’s wakeful hours with a nap, ensuring that she has the chance to rest, and can arrive at bedtime without becoming overtired. Wake windows at this age are between 4-6 hours. This is the one time in your baby/toddler’s life when the morning wake window is longer than the afternoon wake window. Let’s look at a few possible schedules on one nap per day:

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO TRANSITIONING TO ONE NAP

STEP ONE – LENGTHEN WAKE WINDOWS

One of the telltale signs that a toddler is ready for longer time awake before the next sleep is when she starts taking longer to fall asleep once she’s in her crib. Ideally, a child can fall asleep within 5-15 minutes after being placed into the crib. If it starts to consistently take longer than 15 minutes, you can hold off on nap time or bedtime for a little longer to ensure that she’s sufficiently tired for that next sleep. Start by increasing the wake window by 10-15 minutes. For example, if your toddler typically goes into the crib at 10am and is not falling asleep until 10:20am or later, hold off on nap time until 10:10am or 10:15am. This extra awake time will ensure that her sleep drive has built enough that she is ready for sleep.

The same logic applies for the afternoon nap. Lengthen the time that she is awake between her two naps by starting the afternoon nap 10-15 minutes later.

STEP TWO – CAP THE FIRST NAP AT ONE HOUR

Some toddlers like to take a long morning nap, but then find it difficult to fall asleep in the afternoon. It may mean that you need to wake her from her morning nap in order to ensure that she is still able to take her second nap. For example, if your toddler is sleeping from 10 – 11:30am, and then cannot fall asleep when she goes into the crib at 2:30, or even 3pm, it can help to wake her at 11am. This way, she gets a full hour’s sleep in the morning, and there is still time for a full 3.5 or 4 hour wake window before she goes into the crib at 2:30 or 3pm. If she then sleeps until 4pm, she may be ready for a 7:30pm bedtime.

You may also need to wake her from the second nap in order to protect her bedtime. At this age, a toddler can still have up to 3 hours of daytime sleep, but it can be difficult to fit in all 3 hours, and still ensure that bedtime happens before 8pm. You know your child, and can set the time that daytime sleep needs to end in order to protect your child’s “happy” bedtime. For some toddlers, it is 4pm. For others, it is 3:30pm.

STEP THREE – MOVE THE MORNING NAP LATER UNTIL IT IS A MID-DAY NAP

If your toddler is falling asleep at 10am and napping for only one hour, but is still unable to fall asleep for the afternoon nap, you may be on your way to the transition to a single nap. If the afternoon nap is no longer happening (or happening too late), it is time to gradually move the morning nap a little later each day until it starts at about 11:30am or 12noon.

By gradually, I mean that you can move the morning nap time later by 15-30 minutes every couple of days. During this transition, you no longer want to cap this nap. This could mean that your toddler may nap from 10:30am – 1pm. Or 11am – 1:30pm. In this scenario, it will be an exceptionally long stretch to bedtime, so you may need to allow a cat nap in the afternoon to ensure that your toddler arrives at bedtime without growing overtired. This could mean a 30-minute nap in the stroller or in the crib, just to help her get through the rest of the day.

You may periodically need to revert to the two nap schedule while your toddler is making this transition. While she is adjusting to the longer wake windows, she may simply grow tired after a few days and you may find it difficult to push the first nap later than 9/9:30am. Allow this on extra tired days, but then get back to gently encouraging the transition to one nap per day.

The move to one nap per day is a little easier when your toddler is consistently napping 1-2 hours at a time when taking two naps per day. When on a single nap, the ideal length per nap becomes 2-3 hours. Yes, a toddler often still needs this much daytime sleep, in addition to 10-12 hours of sleep at night.

With time, the start of the single nap may become a little later – perhaps at 12:30 or 1pm. But in the early days of this transition, at 18-24 months, staying awake until 11:30am may be all that your toddler can handle.  

As you can see, nap time now falls at exactly the same time when a toddler would normally be eating lunch. Coordinating lunch with a single nap can mean that your toddler will eat lunch extra early, or simply have a snack before the nap, and then eat a larger lunch afterwards. It can be particularly tricky to fit in lunch when you are on your way home from an activity (such as nursery school, for example), and racing to have the toddler in the crib before she falls asleep in the stroller. As with anything to do with children, it does require some creativity on our part, and careful planning ahead.  

As always, it is never wrong to move bedtime earlier if the nap is short, or the child is struggling to make it through the afternoon or evening due to fatigue. 6:30-7:30pm is an ideal bedtime, but bedtime can be as early as 6pm if the child just can’t handle being awake any longer. 

With a bit of time and patience, your toddler will settle into a single nap each day, and will grow comfortable with the longer wake windows. Many parents feel that life on a single nap opens up so much time for you and your child to enjoy different activities during the day. Music classes. Swimming. Even brunch on the weekend is possible when you don’t have to be home for naps until 12 noon. Enjoy this new lifestyle with your toddler! Be careful, however… when you get only one nap per day, you’ll want to protect it at all costs. You may need to be careful to ensure your child doesn’t fall asleep in the car or the stroller on the way home for her nap! When a toddler is napping for 2-3 hours at a time, you’ll want to ensure that it happens in her crib.

You can expect your child to enjoy napping until age 3 or even 4 years old. As always, I like to suggest that you hold onto that daytime nap as long as possible. Some children may appear ready to drop the nap as early as age 2, but in most cases, at this age, it likely means that something else is happening that needs to be addressed. I prefer to dig deeper and explore any issues before dropping a nap too early. But that, my friends, is a story for another blog post. 

As a final note, if you are approaching, or in the thick of this transition, please try to have patience, and remember that any struggles you are facing will not last forever. It can take 4-6 weeks before a toddler is comfortably on a single nap, able to handle her awake time, and taking a decent 2-3 hour nap each day. If you are having any trouble at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Sometimes it can help to talk it through it all together.