Toddler - Napping 3 Hours a Day - Not Sleeping Til After 10Pm, Waking up at 9Am

When my children were that age they were down to one nap per day...2-3hrs long. It would closely follow lunch...so between 12:30 & 1:00 they were in their beds. They would then be tired and ready for bed by 7pm waking up @ 6/8am in the morning. The key for me was getting them to bed at the same time everyday for both nap and bedtime.
Good Luck!

My son napped through kindergarten (I remember asking his kindergarten teacher if he was acting like he didn't need naps anymore and she said he fell soundly asleep every quiet time they had) and on weekends when he was in 1st grade. He grew so fast at 4 yrs and 6 yrs (he shot up 4 inches both those years) he really needed the extra rest.
You can move nap/going to bed/waking up times a bit, but some kids really need quite a lot of sleep and juggling multiple nap times for more than one child can be very difficult.

Hi. You have got to be kidding about this nap schedule? While the long daytime naps are a dream to the parents, they really screw up the nighttime sleep. May I suggest....down for nap by 1:00 and up by 3:30 or earlier - never any later then 4:00. If he is asleep at this time...you wake him up. Bedtime for a 2yo should be between 6:30 and 7:30. Sound like your son is over napping hat he cannot fall asleep at night.

Morning naps are definitely gone at this age.

In response to some of the other posts where the child is staying up super late....this was happening with my 3yo (at the time) and my pediatrician recommended giving her ONLY a cat nap of 30-45 min. To take the edge off. Once I did this - and put her to bed at a normal hour (7:00-7:30). She no longer got out of bed, read books in bed etc. She went straight to sleep.

All three of my children wake between 6 and 7 AM everyday.

Good luck.
Mom of three-6.5yo, 3.5yo & 2.5yo

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well, counting back from 4-6 he starts his nap from 1-3. He's waking up too late. Your going to either have to wake him up at 8-830am and have him take a nap at 12-1230 and wake up no later than 3 or rethink your adamant nap thing. Kids change through the years, they can't just fit your preferences (that isn't meant to be rude at all). When my daughter wakes up at 930 she won't nap til 1 or 2 and I kick myself for it. So I wake her up at 8-815am and she will be tired and ready for a nap at 12ish and sleep til 2 then has plenty of time to burn off energy and be tired at bedtime. You may want a nap system but you have to fix the one you have if you want it. I agree with Amber, that's what I do too.. nap right after lunch. They fall asleep faster on a full tummy anyways. If she woke up at 6 I'd feel silly just thinking about wanting her to go to bed at 830 which is only 2 1/2 hours later. Do the kids have to sleep til 4-6 to get their sleep or to give mom and/or dad a break?

I would try to do mornings so he will be nice and tired by 12-1230

His schedule is rather odd. Why is he taking such a late nap? Most kids lay down right after lunch about 11:30 or noon. Then they wake up close to 2:30 or 3 and then are ready for bed at a normal bedtime in the evening. His nap is WAY too late in the day. He still needs one, he's too young to stop. He just needs his schedule tweaked.

My typical schedule for the kids is getting up, on their own time frame, about 7:30 or 8. Then dong stuff until lunch. Then it's down time until we go get school kids. After that it's play time until dinner, baths, then reading and quiet time to transition into bed time. The kids are out by 9pm. If your child is not sleepy then he may need more gross motor play in the afternoon. Being outside, running, kicking a ball, catching one too, riding a bike, climbing and swinging, etc....

My personal opinion is that kids need naps until they finish the first semester of Kindergarten. That is when the school starts weaning the napping kids off naps at school.

Our son phased out his nap on his own timeline, right around 2 years, 9 months. He will still nap occasionally, but more often than not he will just have "quiet time" (no tv, no toys, in his bed, but he usually will look at books and will sometimes fall asleep). We weren't ready for him to do it, but it just happened on his own when I went back to work last fall, and he couldn't stay up so late any longer because he had to get up at 6:30 am to be at daycare. He is 3 years, 3 months now, he goes to sleep every night by 8, and wakes up at 6:30 during the week, and around 7:15 on the weekends. I love the days when he still naps, but it is much better for us that he goes to bed an a consistently earlier time.

Time to quit the morning nap.

Wake up, have breakfast, active play (running, screaming, climbing, swinging, pedaling)outside for an hour and a half or 2 hours, run errands (take a snack) or stay home and do a craft or project, maybe go to a storytime somewhere, quiet lunch at 11:00, wash up, then nap by 11:30 or 12:00.

Nap for 2 hours, snack, playtime inside.. or run errands, then play outside for some active play again for hour or hour and a half, QUIET bath, pj's stories, but not with any interaction (not the time to ask questions), just straight reading, then sleep. They should be in bed almost asleep by 7:30pm

Make sure their room is prepped for sleeping, dark with a sound machine and cool maybe a fan going The whir and hum of the fan can block out household and neighborhood sounds. ..

With summer, swimming or pool time can be awesome to also get rid of all of that energy.

make sure he goes down for his nap no later then 11:30 am - this may mean that you have to gradually get to that time, but then if he is sleeping 4 hours he is up by 3:30. After he is up, give him snack then RUN HIM RAGGED.

Get him INTO BED no later then 7:45 pm - lots of times parents MISS the window of sleep. Children go to hyper when they miss that window. If that time doesn't work go EARLIER. I honestly recommend a 7 o'clock bedtime for kids under age 6.

Make sure that the room is DARK - I use two layers of black felt. I put the scratchy side of velcro up on the window frame then just stick the felt to that. Instantly NIGHT and easier to sleep.

You may have to wake him up at 8 a few days in a row for his body to get used to the new schedule, but trust me if you wake him at 8, he will be ready for nap at 11:30, nap for up to 4 hours, and he will be ready for sleep by 8 again.

The 2 year old needs to be taking a nap right after lunch and up by 3 or 3:30. The problem is if he sleeps until 9;30 in the morning, he probably isn't ready for a nap after lunch. Then he takes a later nap, wakes up close to dinner time and isn't ready to go to sleep until late at night. It is going to be tough at first. I would figure out how much time there is between when he wakes up and when he goes down for a nap. So if he wakes at 9:30 am and takes a nap at 2, that's about 4 1/2 hours. To get him to nap at 1, he needs to wake up by 8:30. I would start waking him up earlier in the morning so you can adjust his nap time. Then he will start waking from the nap earlier and will go to sleep earlier in the evening. We had to do this with our kids. The late night bedtimes were killing me!!! We would put them to bed and they would talk, play, get up over and over until really late. It got better once we adjusted the nap times. I definitely don't think it is time to phase out naps for him!!

My twin 2.5 year old boys are on a similar schedule, but they wake up around 8:00 and go to bed at 9:00. Try waking the toddler up earlier and see if that helps him go to bed earlier. He's not ready to drop the naps since he still does sleep for three hours at a time. His total amount of sleep seems right, it just sounds like you want his times adjusted. Play around with waking him up earlier to see if it helps. If he's up by 8:00 he might be in bed by 9:00. Good luck!

Added: I've seen some responses to get him down for a nap sooner. As you may already know, that doesn't work for every child. If we put my boys down earlier, they play and scream and destroy things until they are ready to fall asleep. Plus, if he's getting up at 9:00 or 9:30, he's not ready for a nap two hours later.

My daughter is 2, and she takes one good nap a day. This past week with her being sick, shes taken 3-4 naps a day and still slept through the night.

I don't think at 2 or almost 2 years old you should phase out his only nap of the day (it could make him crankier and hard to deal with), just try to make it a little earlier. Get him to run out his energy outside or inside before the baby goes to bed at 8:30. If need be, wake him up after an hour or 2 of napping. After 8:30 make it bathtime and story time, and put him to bed.

I work 2nd shift, and my daughter goes to bed around 11:30pm-Midnight (I ask daycare to keep her up for me so I can spend a little time with her before bed) She gets up around 10am and she takes one nap for an hour and a half to 2hrs around 4 or 5pm.

My 3 year old and 1 year old go down at 1-130pm every day and both don't wake up until 4 or sometimes 5.
So they both are getting 3-4 hours of sleep everyday.

Bedtime for the 1 year old is 830 and she will talk to herself for a bit, but is off to sleep in 10 minutes or so. She will sleep until 630-7.

Now the 3 year old we start to do bed at 830. Read books, brush teeth, potty, all that good stuff. She is in bed with lights off around 9-915. While we do feel this is a bit too late she isn't cranky and goes down easily. BUT she will be in her room "reading" until 10-1030 most nights. It drives us nuts, but we figure she is being good and leaving us alone, so what is the harm.
Once she is asleep she sleeps all night and will get up around 7.

When most people hear this, they tell me she needs to phase naps out. But I wonder why I need to??? Yes a few times a month she doesn't take a nap, but really her night routine seems the same. But perhaps she is asleep a bit before 10. I figure if her body is needing and wanting 3 hours, why take that away right now??? I will be curious to see what other think. But at least you know there are other kiddos doing the same thing :)

naps a great and truly necessary - but three hours is a long time. maybe cut it to 1 1/2 or 2. if you stick to the same routine of putting him down right after lunch (best if it's at the same time every day) then he should never be sleeping past 3 or so - i found that if mine wasn't up from naps by 3:30 at the latest, he had a hard time going down at night - and bedtime is always 8:00. my son is 4 1/2 and only occasionally misses a nap. it's not the end of the world, but i don't see naptime ending anytime soon.

If your son is getting up at 9:30 am, then his schedule is quite normal! Right now he's getting 11 hours of sleep at night and 3 hours of sleep during naps for a total of 14 hours! I wish my son had slept that many hours at 2 almost 3!

This really isn't about his nap schedule at all! It's about the timing of all of his sleep. You're focusing on the late afternoon/early evening portion of it. Most of the people responding have kids that wake up at 6:30 or 7:00 am.

If you want his going to bed time to change, it's going to effect his morning wake up time. I'd start there. Think about what time he needs to wake up in order to get to morning preschool. If he would need to get up by 7:00 am, try getting him up at 9:00 am for one week, then 8:30 am, then 8:00 am, etc. You'll need to shift his nap schedule and bedtime schedule as well, but he might begin to do that on his own.

His sleep and nap schedule sounds perfect for his age and for him. You just have to adjust when it happens. Good luck!

My son is almost 3 1/2.
He still naps most days.
If he has not taken a nap by 3:00- no nap.
He wakes no later than 7:30.

Today he took a very long 4 hour nap after playing outside all morning.
It was 6:00 before he woke up.
It was 10:00 before he was ready for bed.

I would wake your son up earlier in the mornings.

My daughter was/is going through this, and I had to start trying to move her nap time back earlier in the day (around 1pm ultimately), and then I also would wake her up after an hour and a half. If he doesn't take a nap at all, be prepared to put him to bed earlier than usual. On days when he does take a nap, put him to bed at a reasonable hour and let him play in his room for 30-60 minutes - set a timer for him to see and let him know that once the timer goes off it's time for him to go to sleep. Good luck!

You will have to wake him up so he doesn't nap so long. My 2 year old has mostly given up naps. When she naps it has to be earlier. It's best if she is awake before 5 and sleeps 1.5 to 2 hours at most (unless she is far off her regular schedule for some reason).

You've gotten lots of answers that I haven't read (due to having precocious kids myself :) haha), so maybe I'm reiterating something, but I just wanted to let you know what has worked for us.

I'm also a big nap-fan. We are very strict with our kids' sleep habits because I know how cranky they can get without the right amount of sleep; but I also know that the more used to a routine they are, the better they can slip back into the routine if we have events or whatever.

We kept my almost-8-yr old napping through kindergarten. We made sure that he got into a morning program so that he could go home and nap before heading to daycare (since I was working FT at the time, my MIL had to do the lunch/naptime). We finally phased out his nap during the summer before 1st grade. Was he probably the only kid his age in the school napping? Probably...but I don't care! He was such an ogre without it until he was more capable of managing without the nap. I did what was best for my child's napping needs. When he entered 1st grade, he was done napping and I became a SAHM after the birth of my second child. Now, my almost-2-yr old naps once a day for approx 2 hrs and I make sure she goes down at 1pm so that she'll be up--often by me waking her up--at 3pm to go get her brother from school. I intend to continue this pattern also through kindergarten for her. Also, whether or not she's showing overly sleepy signs, we get her to bed between 7-7:30pm. We did the same with my son when he was younger. I don't care if she's up there playing in her bed for half an hour as long as she's in bed. She knows what she's supposed to do and there's a better chance of her falling asleep if she's in bed than if she's hanging out with us downstairs.

So, given all of that, here are my thoughts on some things you might try:
Given the amount that he is sleeping total, I sincerely doubt that he's ready to give up his nap. Sleep helps their little brains develop...so I say, let 'em get as much as possible! :)
Are you making sure that your 2-yr old is going down for a nap at just about the same time every day? Since he sleeps so long, you might try getting him down around 12:30 so that he's up by about 3-3:30pm and then he's got almost 4 hrs to burn off his energy before bedtime.
Since he sleeps so late in the morning, if you make sure he's in bed by 7:30, he'll wake up at a more kid-appropriate time like 7 or 7:30am. This would be ideal for a morning preschool program that would then allow for the afternoon nap to happen, too.

If you're able to implement both of these changes, he'll be up earlier in the morning so that he'll be tired earlier for his afternoon nap, which means he'll be up earlier from his afternoon nap, making an earlier bedtime a distinct possibility.

Good luck to you!

i feel ya'. my son would nap from 12 or 1 to...well as late as i let him if i let him (on wknd b/c i work FT). anyway, i get him down NO later than 1p or i'm screwed regarding naps. since that's kind of a late start for a nap, i awake him no later than 430 or 445p. snack a little - mostly just water or juice, no food. then PLAYTIME! outside work/play or errands usually tire him out plenty for our 730 bath & 8p bedtime. the sucky thing is you're just gonna have to awake him a little earlier. he's getting plenty of sleep if he's napping 3 hrs & sleeping at night about 11 or 12 hrs. at least that's what i was told by dr. if i were you though girl, i would NOT be interested in phasing out naps. omg, my son's 2.5 & i yearn for them to continue as long as possible! that's the only time i get to sleep/relax/declutter/WHATEVER! :) hope that helps a little mama. good luck! :)

Hmmm. very good question. My 2 yr old will nap anywhere from 90 mins to 3 hours, but she still goes to bed by 9-930om and up by 7-730am. Everyone once in a great while she will go all day without a nap, not fuss and still be in bed by 9pm or slightly sooner and will get up at the normal time. I do notice that when she takes those 3 hour naps, she's eating a lot more so it leads me to believe she is having a growth spurt and sometimes it's when she has a cold. We had days where she would ease into taking a nap as early at 11am recently, but we DID have days where she wouldn't go down for a nap until 3 or 4pm. If she refused to nap by 5pm, i would just try to keep her going til 7pm-8pm and put her straight to bed. She would still stay asleep until 7am the next morning.

If i notice she is getting fussy about nap time or fighting it to the end, I would just take her for a ride before she misses the window. I learned my lesson, and if she gets on a later schedule it's hard to get her back on the right one. Just gotta be consistent. good luck!!

This seems like a pretty easy fix. I think that you are going to need to implement a change that will help his sleep schedule. Instead of letting him nap until 6, I would get him up by 445 at the latest. If you let him sleep any later than that, I would expect him to go to bed at 10 at night. He's probably sleeping late into the morning because he is going to bed so late. I would keep his naps to 2-3 hours. Maybe try putting him down at 1230 or 1 and then he will be up at a reasonable time. If he is 2 years old, then he is most likely going to keep his nap for some time. I think you just need to move his nap schedule around a bit.

Good luck!

I'm with J. G. sounds perfectly normal as far as overall hours he's napping. Just need to shift his wake up time gradually, and hopefully everything will adjust from there. Also, try to space his awake time evenly, that might help. So if he is awake 5hrs. in the morning then naps for 2-3 then is up for another 5hrs. in the afternoon that might help. Of course that's just an estimate--my 2yo son seems to be able to stay up a little longer in the mornings than in the evenings, so his pattern is more like 6hr/2-2.5hr/5hr. Hope that helps!

Hmmm, I relate. My kids used to take a 2hr nap, wake at 9:00am and go to sleep at 10:00 (still taking a while to actually fall asleep). Now, I am either letting them skip a nap and we do quiet time, or, if we've had a busy day, they nap for 1 hr only. The result is earlier bed time. Mine are almost 3 and just turned 4.

As a parent of a 2 and 31/2 year old and really prioritize my children's sleep, these are my thoughts. I would wake him up earlier,15- 30 minutes every 3-5 days, until he is up at 8 am. Your child does need a lot of sleep. Then I would put him down for his nap earlier, usually around 1 pm. If he is up by 4, he can go to bed by 7/7:30. I would not drop his afternoon nap. He needs it. And then get his 111/2 hours at night. I am with you, I need some evening down time. Both of my kids were in bed by 7and 7:45 tonight. He is getting up from his nap too late. He should be up the latest by 5 pm, if not, I would wake him up, so he is in bed by 8. There should be at least 3 hours from when he wakes up from his nap and goes not bed. It will be hard to wake him up in the morning and during a long nap, but his schedule needs to be adjusted. Also, I would go with the morning preschool program. He will need his afternoon nap.