One Year Old Not Sleeping in the Afternoon

Well...is he sleeping ok at night? Is he overtired and cranky too early in the evening? He may just be dropping to one nap (usually happens around 12-18 months). My DS similarly dropped the afternoon nap, but we so cranky in the evening that we forced things and shifted the nap later and later until it was in the afternoon. If he's doing fine with just the one in the morning, no need to mess with it :)

I would try pushing his night time sleep to 7:30-7:45 so he sleeps in a little longer & then skip the a.m. nap. He's ready to transition to one nap a day.

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Best wishes,
J.

Both of my kids started this at some point. The older one around 9 or 10 months, and the younger one now at 15 months. I switched the older one to 1 nap a day around 11 months old. Transitioning the little one a bit.

Except for the wake up time and lack of afternoon nap, my 15 month old's schedule is very similar::

Sleep - sometime between 6:45 and 7:15
Wake - usually sometime between 11 pm and 3 am for anywhere from 10 minutes for a bottle to an hour or so if he is teething or gassy. (he has feeding issues so still takes a bottle overnight)
Wake up - Sometime between 5 and 8:30 am. Depends on how the night went
Nap - Sometime between 9 and 10 for an average of 2 hours
Second nap - Varies widely depending on how late the first nap goes.

He is also starting to lose the 2nd nap. So, what we are doing is starting to limit the morning nap to one hour. Then afternoon nap after lunch or a bit later. Eventually, we'll drop the morning nap and when possible, move lunch to 11 and nap at 12. This will be a little hard though because of the schedule with the older one.

I'd say push the am nap back a little each day, so that it is occuring a bit later and then you'll have a longer nap. We've just gone through the same thing. It's pretty early to give up the morning nap, but you could go with this for a while and then try to reintroduce the pm nap again. Weissbluth has some good suggestions for what to do in this situation. I was just reading that section a few weeks ago... The main thing is the total number of hours of sleep. Our daughter goes to bed very early also, so I think that is part of the issue with the pm nap. She's just turned 12 months though, so we've been okay with phasing out that morning nap most days unless she's up super early or just seems ready to sleep early. Today she was sleepy and I just laid her down at 11:30pm. Usually I try to wait for the nap until after lunch. But now she definitly won't take a pm nap and I'll make bedtime a bit earlier tonight (like 6-6:30pm, depending on how she's doing....) I'd definitely recommend reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby when it comes to this stuff. It's so hard to figure out what will or what should work! Often with my first child I found myself doing the exact opposite of what we should have been doing because I just didn't know better....and then you miss the window of time when they will go to sleep easily and sleep the longest... LOL... live and learn I guess.

What a healthy sleep schedule -- congrats!! I recommend limiting the morning nap to one hour of sleep time. Give it a week or so and see what happens. If the afternoon nap is just not re-emerging, I would consider dropping the morning nap altogether. He is on the young side, but it is not unheard of to transition to one nap a day at this age. Please know -- this transition is a little "sticky" and takes a while (weeks) to smooth out.

The only other alternative I can see is to try to train him to sleep a little longer in the morning. That should cut down on morning nap sleep time and, in turn, help re-establish the afternoon nap.

Either way, I would not change bedtime at all -- this is a phenomenal bedtime for a 1 year old!! You're doing great!

Totally the answer, go tot one afternoon nap! You get great advice. The transition may be tough but stick in there, they do need to have one good rest per day.

My youngest (now 4) never did 2 naps. She would go down for a nap after lunch, around 12/12:30 and take a good solid 3-hr nap. I agree with the others who are suggesting to push back that morning nap and see if he cuts down to one nap a day. By doing this and perhaps postponing bedtime by an hour or so, you may also get him to sleep later in the morning as well. GOod luck!

Many children stop napping at an early age. My son was 100% done with any kind of napping by age 2. But I never had any problems with him sleeping at night. Why do you feel he needs to spend all this time napping. Spend time with him and enjoy that time before you know it he will be off to school, then off to college. Enjoy your time together.

I would set him down for quiet time in the afternnon - but he is still pretty little for that. He is going to bed at 6:45pm - mine didn't go to bed until 8pm. He is taking a 2 hour nap in the morning - this is the nap mine gave up - they gave up the am nap and went down at 11:30am or noon for 2 hours. When they were a little older they took a nap from 1pm - 4pm - but then went to bed 8 - 9pm. I would say try and get him to just take a 1/2 hour to 1 hour nap in the morning and maybe you will get an aft. nap.

M.

I think he is sleeping too long in the morning. He will be swtiching down to one nap soon, but I would suggest cutting that first nap to about an hour and if he's still not taking the after noon nap, then cutting it down to 30 minutes. It may seem counterintuitive to wake them up, but it then gets them adequately tired for the afternoon nap.

If he is still not taking the afternoon nap after you are waking him up after 30 minutes for 2 days, then start pushing that morning nap later so he can be on one nap a day.

Although he may "seem" OK, it could just be how he is handling the lack of sleep. It could still potentially slow down cognitive growth when they are tired.

limit his morning nap to 9:00-10:00. only let him sleep for one hour and make sure he does not sleep past 10:00. then put him down for afternoon nap between 12:00-12:30

Hello wonderful Mom, who says a one year old should take a nap? If he doesn't want to nap, don't make him. The longer he stays up during the day, the longer he will sleep at night. Let him play until he wears himself out. Nap one and Nap two are too close and they are not naps; they are cat napping. Try to break up the cap nappings and have just one nap between 11 and 2. Then once he wakes up try to keep him up as long as you can: 8:30-9:30 pm. This should break the 5:30-6:00 am wake up. Remember the longer he is up during the day, the longer he will sleep at night.

Just went thru the same thing with my 15 month old at one year. Like the other posts said, move to the afternoon nap by slowly pushing back his AM nap. It's a rough transition. My now 3 year old naps like a rock star now, but he was never like that until he transitioned to one nap in the afternoon.
Good luck.

I would try to push the morning nap back some if he isn't going to take an afternoon nap. Does the 5:30 to 6am wake up time work for you and your family? I wonder if you could get him to try and sleep later (till about 7 am) if you used room darkening shades and then his first nap could be around 10 or 10:30 am. If he can't/doesn't wake up later in the morning, just gradually try to make his morning nap start later by adding 15 minutes to the start time every few days or so. I would still give hime some "quiet time" in the afternoon though even if he's not taking an afternoon nap. Some quiet, peaceful downtime in his crib would still be restorative for him even if he's not sleeping.

good luck!

Ususally around this age, older babies and toddlers drop one nap. Try keeping your baby up longer in the morning and get him to sleep around 11/11:30am or after an earlier lunch. He will probably sleep a little longer, maybe 2.5-3 hours. He'll be less cranky/overtired in the evening, but go to sleep easily for bedtime.

Transitioning the naps are not fun. I don't know if you are working and that is why the early bed time, but I might slowly move his bed time to 8 (ie. maybe tonight put him to bed at 7, next day 7:15..etc). Maybe he will sleep in a little more that way maybe you can keep him up till after lunch and then nap time. Just a suggestion.

There are billions of studies done proving that no naps is detrimental to children's brain development, obesity, melatonin levels later in life and ADHD later in life (and countless other things). If your child is waking before 6 AM he is sleep deprived, and you are already puting him to bed early. Bed time should not be before 7 pm, and moving towards 7:30/7:45 in the coming months. I would go more towards the 10:00 and 2:00 naps, possibly even 3:00 for the second nap. Try to get 2 naps in a day until 18 months-ish. If after a week or 2 of doing this schedule he continually does not nap for 1 of those naps then move to a one nap a day schedule. Go as long as you can in the morning without a nap to put him down and eventually he will probably nap around 12:30 or 1:00. And between the age 2 and 3 the afternoon nap may be pushed to 2:00 or 2:30. But going from waking up from first nap around 11:00 and not going to bed until 6:45 at night is a too long of stretch for a 1 year old. All this is based on sleep books from Dr. Sears "The Sleep Book(?)", Dr. Weissbluth "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child", and 12 years professional nanny experience and training.

Sounds like your boy is ready to drop to one nap. My daughter made the transition between 10-11 months. She just stopped sleeping in the afternoon.

I think there are two options: you can gradually move the morning nap later, or you can just keep him up and put him down for one nap. You could try something like 11:30 and see how that goes.

When I made the transition, it was hard, but my daughter immediately started to sleep for a good solid 2-3 hours in the afternoon.

BOth of my kids gave up their afternoon naps first. It seems weird, because you would think that they would need the nap more in the afternoon, but that seems to be what most kids do. At least he is not cranky!!

My suggestion would be to make the transition to dropping that morning nap and eventually having just the afternoon one. It may take a couple of weeks to work out the kinks and you may find yourself starting the afternoon nap at late morning, and little by little bumping it back to after lunch, etc...

I have 2 daughters and my oldest took 2 naps until 18 months. But when #2 came along she started to resist that nap schedule and I found that even though she was only a year old, it was time to drop to one nap a day. They are all different :)

Good luck!

S.

Since he's not cranky it sounds like maybe you just need a little time to unwind yourself. Do you have a playpen? If you do or he doesn't mind just hanging out in his crib find what makes him happy and take that little bit of time for yourself. Not all babies to take naps in the afternoon. I think they make up for it when they get married years later. My husband can sleep forever...
Well, enjoy the little one and give him lots of hugs! For me!

I bet he is WAY overtired!! That can cause them to not sleep as well. Since he is waking up so early, he really should be going back to sleep no later then 8. Probably closer to 7:30. I bet if you do that he will sleep from 7:30 - 9:30, then have his next nap at 11 and sleep till 1. I would do a third nap maybe at 4 just for an hour or so so he can last till bedtime. But I bet this earlier to nap schedule will solve your problems.

hi there i had the same problem with my 14 month old. she would take a morning nap but no afternoon nap. she just wasnt sleepy. so for me it was easyer to have the afternnon nap and just do with out the morning nap. now things are going good. she gets up around 8am naps from 12-3pm then bed at 8pm. well hope this helps good luck