Daytime Napping

Daytime Napping

There is a fine balance of getting the right amount of sleep in the day and at night. If you get it off balance you can find you have very restless nights or Early risers. The key is that Sleep promotes sleep! What does this mean? Well in simple terms if you have the right day time hours of sleep, in line with bedtime and morning time then you will have the best quality sleep from your little human.

When you have an overtired or under tired baby, you are trying to settle them to sleep when their hormone balance is all over the place. We use charts to give parents an idea of the right amount of sleep but these are guides, because every baby is different, there are those babies that go down a standard pattern when it comes to naps, which could involve two short naps and a longer lunchtime nap ( 6 month old ) or I have worked with families where the little one has a massive sleep in the afternoon, wakes for dinner and then goes back to bed and sleeps all night!! This would go against everything we would expect to be “normal” but the family’s outcome was a good night sleep and that’s how they got it!!

The best thing to do is track their sleep, every day to keep a note of what is happening. Some people like to do this using an app, or a simple pen and paper. I always ask clients to use our sleep diaries as it really helps me to understand what is happening for them and figuring out which little tweaks are needed.

Here are my top tips for day time napping

• Invest some time in them, You will all recognise a time when you want to improve naps, and this is the time that you should use to master the timing of their naps.
• Be consistent, if they are napping at home, make it the same place that they sleep in night. Keep the environment the same.
• Keep a track of what is happening in the day and night
• Monitor how they fall to sleep and is it the same every time

Cat nappers can be tricky, always try resettling them. It won’t be successful every time but we have to give them opportunity to learn to sleep longer than 30 mins for example. You are likely to know if the resettling will be successful by their mood when they wake up. If they are stood up in the cot singing or laughing, they are likely not to want to fall back to sleep.

If you are thinking of working on naps and still want to find out more, then why not check out The Sleep Space and choose the age bracket that is suitable for you right now. Click here  Alternatively you can book a one to one with me and I can support you to get the naps working for you and your family. Book now