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22 - 24 months

When will your child stop needing to nap?

10 March 2020 | By Vanessa Rogers

A newborn baby can only handle up to 45 minutes of awake time at a stretch, and similarly has a sleep cycle that lasts only 45 to 90 minutes in total.

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As a child gets older, however, their sleep cycles link more easily to the next one – meaning better quality and longer sleeps at night and much less of a need for naps during the day. 

According to the Sleep Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a two-year-old child needs 10 to 12 hours of sleep each night and one to three hours of naptime during the day  - making up a total of 11 to 14 hours of shuteye in any given 24-hour period. 

So, a child who nods off during a car trip, needs to be woken each morning, and gets overly grumpy during the daytime should, ideally, still be enjoying an afternoon nap.

How do you know if it’s time to phase out the afternoon nap?

If your child is a really good sleeper at night, where sticking to the same bedtime each night and implementing a soothing bedtime routine are important factors, the afternoon nap may be phased out before the usual age of around three years. 

Just watch out for signs of sleep deprivation, says author and professor of psychology, with a focus on paediatric sleep disorders, Dr Jodi Mindell, which can result in signs of hyperactivity or being overtired when bedtime rolls around. 

Mindell’s book, Sleeping Through The Night: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night's Sleep (2005), is a great resource if your child is one of the 25 percent of young children with some sort of sleep disorder. Parents say Mindell’s approach is particularly helpful because it emphasises the importance of winding down at bedtime, rather than resorting to sleep training in the middle of the night, which can prove extremely trying for exhausted parents.

Should you worry if your child needs more sleep than their peers?

Some children, just like some adults, need more sleep than others. Just when you thought your little one had given up their afternoon nap for ever, a major change in routine (when you return to permanent office hours after previously working more flexi-time at home, for instance) could see them playing all afternoon at daycare and nodding off for 30 minutes on the car trip home. 

But, if your child is napping in the afternoons again, and you simply aren’t around, make sure their daycare teacher or nanny fills you in on the details – an estimate of the hour they get sleepy, which toy or blankie is a favourite, so that you can implement the same napping schedule on the weekends until they have adjusted to the excitement of the change in routine.

A few words of wisdom for parents battling with sleep deprivation

The local sensory care manual, Baby Sense, has some amazing wisdom to impart to parents; particularly those battling with sleep deprivation due to their child’s unsettled nights. “It is important that…they sleep as much as they need to and when they need to,” say the authors. “If your child does not get enough sleep, they will become over-tired, fuss more, and be less likely to fall asleep easily at their sleep times.” 

The Baby Sense “Awake Time Between Sleeps” chart shows that after a solid five hours of being up and about, say between 08h30 and 13h30, a naptime will be pending for the average two-year-old; while an awake stretch between 14h30 and 19h30, should see your child beginning to nod off once again. 

This is, of course, assuming that they have been put down in a familiar and calm environment (preferably their own room), has been played a few lullabies or read to, has been tucked up with a soft toy or an item of clothing that smells like mom or dad, and receives that last feed with the lights out.

IMAGE CREDIT: shutterstock.com

 

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