What Your Baby’s Short Nap Really Means

Short naps are the worst! But what does it mean if your child insists on waking way before you’re ready for them? This week we’re looking at the age old problem of short naps, why they happen and what you can do about them. This is what your baby’s short nap really means.

Define a short nap

Generally speaking, a nap that lasts less than 40 minutes is classed as ‘too short’ and needs some work. Some experts will say that less than an hour is too short, and more than an hour is long. So let’s agree that between 40-60 minutes is the minimum that you want your baby to sleep for- any less is not optimum.

Newborn babies have shorter naps

When we talk about short naps, or any nap ‘issues’, it’s important to remember that newborn babies can’t really be included in what’s ‘normal’ or not. Because newborn babies wake so frequently to feed it’s expected that they will take shorter naps overall. I generally don’t advise any kind of gentle sleep training until your baby is at least six months old.

Short naps could indicate a nap transition

When your child is transitioning either to two naps, or from two naps to one, it’s often common for them to suddenly start taking shorter naps. In this case, a short nap is completely normal and to be expected. Often, a ‘cat nap’ helps your child to adjust to the new nap routine and as long as the other nap(s) are of sufficient length, it really isn’t a problem for them to do this.

When is a short nap a problem?

Again, generally speaking, once your child is over the age of six months and still taking short naps, you might want to start to look into why this is happening and what you can do to improve the situation. Take a look at the list below and see which category you fall into currently:

• Your schedule needs tweaking. Take a look at your entire day routine and make sure that it works well with your bedtime and morning wake up time. Babies from six months or so need at least 1.5- 2 hours awake time between naps, so you may need to do some adjustments to meet this.
• Your routine is inconsistent. Consistency is key! You can’t expect good naps if your routine is all over the place and your baby doesn’t know what to expect and when. Stay consistent.
• Your baby has too much awake time between naps. It might feel like a good idea to keep your baby awake for longer between naps to tire them out and encourage them to sleep for longer… all that will happen here is that your baby will become over tired and less able to fall asleep and stay asleep.
• Your baby has sleep associations. A sleep association occurs when your baby associates something with falling asleep- such as rocking, swaying, being fed, etc- and each time they transition from one sleep cycle to the next, they require that same action to help them stay asleep. If you’re no longer there providing the comfort they’re used to, they’re going to call out for you.