The Secret to Knowing When to Drop a Nap

Overview

In today’s article we will be pulling back the curtain on how to know when your baby is ready to drop a nap.

You will learn the most common ages when babies transition to fewer naps, what signs to look for to know baby is ready, how to know if baby is not ready, and some key tricks for what to do when she is.

When to Drop a Nap

I was speaking to one of my clients just last night, and she shared that she thinks her daughter might be ready to drop the final nap. She explained that she’s been refusing naps occasionally – contentedly staying up the whole time. And actually seems to manage the rest of the day after not napping quite well.

My own daughter – who is the same age as this client’s daughter – started fighting naps about 6 months ago. But that ended up just being a nap strike, and she’s back to taking 2 hour naps each day.

So which is it? Does fighting naps mean it’s time to drop a nap? Or not?

Sometimes, but not always.

Why Babies Drop Naps

As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, babies and young children drop naps - reducing from a higher number of naps to a lower number - for 2 main reasons:

Because their sleep needs change.
Maybe they needed 17 hours of sleep per 24 hours as a newborn, but now that they’re 2 or 3 months old, they only need 15 or 16 hours of sleep in a day. That sleep has to get pulled from somewhere, and typically it’s pulled from daytime sleep.
And other times, your child’s sleep needs might actually stay the same, but as their wake windows change, they need to consolidate that sleep into fewer naps.
For example, let’s say your 12-month-old is ready to transition to from 2 naps to 1 nap, because his sleep pressure is taking longer to build, and he’s not ready for a nap until noon. If he was taking 1 to 1½ hour naps before, he may still need that same amount of sleep and simply combine those nap times into one nap that’s 2 to 3 hours long.
And when babies drop a nap because their wake windows change but their sleep needs stay the same or reduce slightly, they need to have the skill of consolidating sleep.

Often times, babies drop naps because both of these things – sleep needs and wake windows – change at the same time.

Most Common Ages for Baby to Drop a Nap

So now you may be thinking, when are the most common times for my baby to drop a nap?

Are there common times, or is it totally random?

Thankfully, no, it’s not totally random. Babies’ sleep tends to develop on a pretty consistent trajectory, with natural variation from child to child.

Typically, we see babies drop from 4 to 3 naps per day around 2 months old.

And then from 3 naps to 2 naps per day around 6 to 7 months old.

The 2 to 1 nap per day typically happens between 12 to 18 months. I’ve seen it happen earlier, but usually the nap strike around 10-11 months is just a nap strike and they’re not quite ready then to drop that 2nd nap.

And the final nap can drop anywhere from 2½ years old to around 5, but oftentimes trends toward earlier rather than later.

Is My Baby Ready to Drop a Nap: Signs to Look For

Now, let’s say your baby is 6 months old – how do we know if he’s ready to drop a nap? Do we just drop the nap since it’s around that time?

Nope. If your baby is still on 3 naps at 6 months old and he’s not showing any signs of needing to reduce to 2 naps, then go right ahead and stick to the 3 naps until he’s ready. No need to rock the boat if he’s getting quality sleep and you’re happy with his sleep skills. Just keep an eye out and know that this transition will likely need to happen soon.

Let’s talk about what signs to look for to know when your baby is gearing up to drop a nap.

Signs My Baby is Ready to Drop a Nap: The 3-to-2 Nap Transition

When does my baby drop from 3 naps to 2 naps?

The 3-to-2 nap transition typically happens around 6-7 months.

In order to determine whether your baby is ready to drop a nap, this is what you’re going to do: stay consistent with your current routine. This is extremely important to make sure your child stays well-rested and we can determine whether your baby is ready to drop a nap and not just struggling to sleep because of other causes like late nights, wake windows being too long, changes in routine, etc.

Then, while you’re being consistent, watch for your child to start fighting the 3rd nap.

What does fighting that 3rd nap look like?

It can look like:

Consistently waking after a very short time (< 30 min)
OR
Consistently taking a long time to fall asleep (> 20 min)
OR
Consistently refusing to sleep for this nap altogether when you put them in bed

Now, I say consistently for a reason. Nap strikes are common – especially around certain ages.

A nap strike is when your child starts to fight a nap, but they’re not really ready to drop it.

And sometimes when your baby is going through a new developmental milestone – like pushing up on hands and knees and learning to crawl – this can cause them to fight naps too, but not because they’re ready to drop a nap, simply because it’s more exciting to stay up and practice that new skill.

So what do I mean when I say consistently?

I mean that they are fighting that 3rd nap 4-5 days of the week for longer than 2 consecutive weeks.

And one more thing must be true, too – your baby needs to still appear well-rested, even with their fighting that nap.

Normal signs of tiredness are fine near naptime and bedtime. But watch for signs of overtiredness – which can be anything from rubbing eyes to hyperactivity.

If both of these things aren’t true – if they are not consistently fighting the 3rd nap or they are consistently fighting the 3rd nap but appearing significantly sleep deprived or need a super early bedtime (e.g. 5:30pm), it’s probably not time to transition just yet.

Signs My Baby Is Ready to Drop a Nap: The 2-to-1 Nap Transition

When does my baby drop from 2 naps to 1 nap?

Now let’s talk about the transition from 2 naps to 1.

This transition usually happens between 12-18 months. It can happen as early as 10 months, but it’s much less common that early.

What you want to look out for here is similar to the 3 to 2 nap transition – watch for your child to start fighting the 2nd nap.

Consistently waking after a very short time (20-30 min or less)
OR
Consistently taking a long time to fall asleep (> 20 min)
OR
Consistently refusing to sleep altogether when you put them down

Usually the fight is with the 2nd nap, but it could alternately be with the 1st nap.

Or, on the contrary, they can continue to take naps perfectly well and out of the blue, start struggling consistently with nighttime sleep.

And remember – by “consistently” I mean 4-5 days per week for longer than 2 consecutive weeks.

Most commonly, what happens when kids are ready to drop from 2 naps to 1 nap, the child will start taking a super long 1st nap – maybe around 2 to 3½ hours – and then they refuse the second nap.

And just like with the 3 to 2 nap transition, your baby should still appear well rested, even with fighting that second nap.

Signs My Baby Is Ready to Drop a Nap: The 1 to No Nap Transition

When does my baby drop from 1 nap to no nap?

Now finally, let’s talk about the transition from 1 nap to no nap.

This is a rough transition, in my opinion. Because not only do you not get that break in the middle of the day, but it means your nugget is growing up. (We’re going through this transition right now, can you tell? ;) )

Which is a good thing! It can just tug at your hear to think about.

Anyhow, let’s talk about what it looks like when your toddler or young child is ready to drop the final nap.

Dropping this last nap can happen anywhere from 3 to 5 years old. Some kiddos drop it as early as 2½, and some drop it after 5 yrs, but most often, it’s dropped between 3-5 years.

Watch again for those signs of consistently fighting naps:

Consistently waking after a very short time (20-30 min or less)
OR
Consistently taking a long time to fall asleep (> 20 min)
OR
Consistently refusing to sleep altogether when they lie down for a nap

Now, remember that at this age, they’re not in a crib anymore, so if they just get up and play in their room, it could simply be because playing is more fun that sleep and not that they’re not actually tired.

So keep that in mind and be sure that if you think they still need a nap, they know that they need to stay in bed and try to rest.

Most commonly for kiddos with well-established nap routines, what ends up happening is not fighting the nap – usually these kids go down for naps happily and easily.

Where the problem shows up most commonly is bedtime.

They just can’t seem to fall asleep at bedtime, and it consistently takes 30 minutes and more for them to fall asleep for bed each night. They’re not necessarily grumpy about it. They just toss and turn and get bored.

Dropping the Final Nap Solution: Quiet Time

And if this is the case and your kiddo is finally ready to drop that last nap, do still have them take quiet time around that noon hour after lunch.

Not lying in bed and sleeping, but doing some quiet activity and relaxing – like reading, painting (thank you Melissa & Doug mess free water painting!), puzzles, Play-Doh, coloring, etc. Pinterest is a great resource to find quiet bin or busy bag activities for toddlers and young children. Just be sure to still keep an eye on them if they’re playing with small pieces – or, you know, really anything. Because, if my kids are any indication, children will manage to discover and do things you never thought possible when you least expect it.

Granted, the raisin up the nose was my brother, but once upon a time, our now-6-year-old did used to stick peas in her ears.

Do this quiet time outside of your child’s bedroom if space allows in your home so that the bedroom is kept for sleep as much as possible.

Keeping the Nap, Extending Bedtime

Now, alternately, if your child seems to really enjoy and still kind of need a nap, but they struggle to fall asleep at nighttime, you can also play around with a different solution – which is what we ended up doing in our house.

Our kids tend to have pretty high sleep needs, and at that half-way mark through the day, they still needed that naptime even at the later end of the 3 to 5 year spectrum.

What we ended up doing was keeping the nap, but trimming it down to 1 to 1½ hours max. And then allowing them to stay up an extra half our in the evening.

At around 4 and 5 years, we kept the afternoon nap with our two eldest, but we started cutting the nap down and letting them stay up until 8pm. And just recently at 5 and 6 years, we extended that to 8:30.

(6 years is pretty old to still be napping. Our eldest daughter takes medication for her seizures that we think makes her more tired than other kids her same-aged because she’s still readily taken and seemed to need naps even at this age.)

But, that being said, I do think we’re finally reaching the end of these two’s naptime days, and will be switching to quiet time in the near future.

I don’t really recommend pushing that bedtime back any later than 8:30 for young children because those first 4 hours of solid sleep they tend to get before midnight due to typical child circadian rhythms are so crucial to solid, quality rest.

How to Know Your Baby Is Not Ready to Drop a Nap

As we mentioned earlier, you can be pretty sure your baby is not ready to drop a nap if notice one or more of these things happening:

She’s still sleeping extremely well on the schedule she is currently on
She does fight naps or bedtime sometimes, but it’s not consistent
She’s fighting naps but she’s also super cranky or wired at bedtime on the days she doesn’t nap well
She’s not sleeping well at naptime but she also is in the middle of learning a new skill
She’s ill or was recently ill or you just restarted your routine after travel or some other interruption and she’s still trying to get back on track

Tricks for Helping Baby Drop a Nap

Alright, so you’ve determined that, yes, baby is ready to drop a nap. So now let’s talk about some tricks for how to help baby through this transition. Now, how exactly to drop a nap depends on which transition it is, and this is actually something that I help my families that I work with work through.

If you need a total overhaul on sleep, I can help with that. And if your child sleeps independently but you just need help with the nap transition, I can help with that, too. I know that nap transitions can be a bit overwhelming. In either case, you can schedule a free 15-minute sleep evaluation call at www.calendly.com/playsleepgrow.

Now let’s talk about some tricks you can try.

First, an early bedtime might be helpful during this transition, especially if you’re not just consolidating naps, but dropping sleep time – and especially for that 1 to no nap transition.
Second, it can be helpful to shift naps in 30 minute increments, depending on the age of your child. For the 1 to no nap transition, you may need to shift the nap schedule by larger increments.
Finally, when you are shifting the start of a nap later, your child might still show tired signs at their previous nap time. This is normal. They shouldn’t be showing overtired signs, just regular tired signs. If your child really is ready to drop a nap, this just happens because their body is so used to sleeping at that original time.
>> This is a time when you want to actively help extend their wake window so they can make it to the new naptime. You can try things like:
1. Giving a small healthy snack – like fruit or grains – to increase your kiddo’s blood sugar during this bridge time
2. Take them outside to play because the sun and fresh air can help them to wake up a bit
3. Actively engage them in play to distract them from their tiredness