The Five Main Causes of Short Naps
If you have a baby or have had a baby in the last few years, you’ll know how big of a pain trying to troubleshoot short naps can be!
This topic is commonly asked about and something almost every parent struggles with in the first months of their baby’s life.
Short naps can be narrowed down to five causes! Your baby’s short naps might be due to one of these causes or a few of them. Going down the list and ruling out each cause will help you get closer to longer naps!
Cause #1: Age
The first cause is something we can’t really control: age. If your baby is younger than 5-6 months old and you have looked at the other causes and those aren’t a factor, their short naps could be developmentally appropriate! Some babies aren’t capable of napping longer until their wake windows are a little bit longer to give them more sleep pressure to nap longer. If your baby is on 4+ naps, the short naps could be them saving sleep time for their other naps. For example, if your baby is 3 months old and naps 4.5 hours across four naps, it makes sense that one might reach 1+ hours but the others are only 30-45 minutes!
Cause #2: Under or Over Tired
Sleep timing can make or break a nap. If you are putting your baby down for their nap and they don’t have enough awake time before it, you’ll likely run into a short nap because they don’t have enough sleep pressure to sleep past one sleep cycle. On the other side, putting your baby down past their optimal time can also lead to a short nap due to the extra cortisol build up that happens when babies become overtired that can make it difficult for them to connect sleep cycles.
If you aren’t sure what your baby’s wake windows are, email me at fullbloomsleep@gmail.com and I will send you my wake window chart! These numbers are averages and will give you a good place to start and then you can tweak as needed. A good sign your baby’s windows are appropriate are
· They are easy to get down for the nap
· They fall asleep within 1-20 minutes of trying for the nap
· They sleep past one sleep cycle (even if you have to extend it by holding, rocking, etc.).
Cause #3: Pacifier Is Falling Out
The pacifier is an amazing tool in the newborn period and can really help your baby settle for sleep! But once sleep cycles mature, it tends to disrupt sleep more than help it because when your baby wakes slightly at the end of sleep cycle now and the pacifier has fallen out of their mouth, they will call for you to replace it for them to get back to sleep.
Your baby may be able to put themselves to sleep with the pacifier, but if they can’t replace the pacifier themselves, they will call for you to do this to help them transition sleep cycles.
The solution? Ditch the pacifier for sleep or accept the short naps and frequent night wakings and wait it out until they can replace it themselves!
Cause #4: Sleep Environment Needs Adjusting
Darkness and white noise are extremely beneficial for sleep, not just for our babies but for all of us! Think about it, do you have an easier time falling asleep in broad daylight with lots of day time noises going on or in a dark room with silence or consistent white noise or a fan going to help block out day time noises?
Once your baby is out of that newborn phase, they aren’t going to nap well just anywhere! Providing them a pitch-dark room and utilizing white noise to block out any noises that could wake them up will help them fall asleep easier and connect sleep cycles!
Try getting their room as dark as you can and turning the white noise up a little bit to see if this will help their naps extend!
Cause #5: Independent Sleep Skills Needed
When babies are independent with sleep this means they have the ability of putting themselves to sleep from wide awake in their own sleep space without their parent presence. Why is this so important?
If you are providing a lot of assistance in getting them down for the nap (feeding to sleep, rocking to sleep, holding to sleep, etc.) they will need you to provide this for them when they wake at the end of a sleep cycle.
When your baby is doing the work of putting themselves to sleep without you being there, they will be able to transition into the next sleep cycle all on their own because this is how they initially fell asleep.
I always recommend working on independent sleep at bedtime first because you have circadian rhythm on your side that helps them fall asleep easier when changing routines. Once they have practice with the new routine for sleep for a couple nights than you can implement the bedtime routine for naps as well!
Questions on any of these causes? Email me and I would be happy to chat!
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