A baby who has been taking three naps suddenly refuses the last one.
Or they take forever to fall asleep, bedtime gets pushed later, and you start wondering whether that nap is on its way out.
Maybe it is. Or maybe you’re just having a weird few days.
Nap transitions are usually messy. For a while, the old schedule can feel like too much sleep and the new one like not quite enough.
One bad nap does not mean much
Babies refuse naps for all kinds of reasons.
They may be working on a new skill, teething, getting sick, waking earlier than usual, or simply not be tired enough at the normal time.
I would not change the whole schedule because of one or two difficult days.
Age can give you a rough idea, but I would pay more attention to what keeps happening.
The nap is getting harder to fit in. The baby takes longer and longer to fall asleep. Bedtime keeps moving later. Or they skip the nap and actually do fairly well without it.
That starts to look more like a real transition.
When do babies usually drop naps?
There is a wide range.
Many babies move from three naps to two sometime during the second half of the first year.
Later, the move from two naps to one often happens around 15 to 18 months, although some children make the change earlier or later.
If the current schedule is still working, there is no reason to drop a nap just because another baby the same age already has.
Sometimes the nap just needs to move
Before removing a nap completely, look at the timing.
A late third nap can start interfering with bedtime even if the baby still needs a little sleep late in the day.
A long first nap can make the next one harder.
Sometimes the answer is just to make the nap shorter or move it a little later.
You do not always need to remove it completely.
The in-between stage can last a while
A baby may need three naps one day and only two the next.
That is common.
After an early morning or two short naps, the extra nap may still help. On a better sleep day, there may simply be no room for it.
You do not have to force the new schedule every day.
Nap transitions often look inconsistent before they settle.
Bedtime may need to be earlier for a while
When a nap disappears, there is suddenly a longer stretch of awake time somewhere in the day.
At first, that can be a lot.
An earlier bedtime can help while the baby adjusts. It does not mean bedtime has to stay early forever.
Once the new nap pattern starts working better, bedtime often shifts again naturally.
How do you know you’re on the right track?
Look at the whole day.
The baby is handling the longer awake stretch reasonably well. The remaining naps are working. Bedtime still makes sense. Night sleep is staying fairly steady.
Some tired afternoons are normal.
But if the baby is exhausted every evening, falling asleep unexpectedly in the car, getting much more upset late in the day, or waking significantly more at night, the transition may have happened too quickly.
In that case, the old nap may still be useful on some days.
There is no benefit to dropping a nap early
Babies still need a lot of sleep across the whole day.
Current recommendations are about 12 to 16 hours in 24 hours for babies 4 to 12 months, including naps.
How that sleep is divided can look very different from baby to baby.
One baby may sleep longer at night and nap less. Another may still need more daytime sleep.
The number of naps matters less than whether the baby is getting enough sleep overall and the day still works.
What about toddlers?
The same basic idea applies later.
The move from two naps to one often happens around 15 to 18 months, although there is plenty of variation.
The last nap disappears much later, usually sometime in the preschool years. That transition can be very gradual, with naps happening some days and not others.
If skipping the nap leaves your child doing reasonably well through the afternoon and bedtime still works, they may be moving away from it. If every no-nap day ends in complete exhaustion, they probably still need some daytime sleep.
Give it a little time
You usually do not need to decide after one difficult afternoon.
Watch what keeps happening over a week or two.
If the nap becomes consistently hard to fit in, the baby handles the longer awake stretch well, and the rest of the day works better without forcing it, the transition is probably real.
Most of the time, it becomes clearer once you stop trying to solve every single nap.
Quoting these notes
You’re welcome to quote these observations in an article, newsletter, or post. That’s what they’re here for.
I only ask for credit: please name me, Margo Yudanova, and link back to the original page at margonova.com/blog/baby-refusing-nap-ready-to-drop.
If you’re writing something and want a comment, clarification, or a detail I haven’t covered here, write to me at info@margonova.com.
Want personalized help with your baby's sleep? Start with a sleep consultation. If your baby is four months or older and you'd rather have me in the room for the first nights, see in-home sleep training in San Francisco.
