2-1 Nap Transition
The biggest change in sleep for your child to navigate is the 2-1 nap transition. It is the hardest of all the transitions for your child. Your child has to consolidate all of their daytime sleep into 1 nap and maintain large wake windows of at least 4-5hrs.
While you might find a dayhome and child minding service advise your child at 12 months old should be on 1 nap, for the majority of toddler this is not the case. Most children need the second nap until 15 months of age on average, and it’s not uncommon to keep it for 18+ months.
Keeping to 2 naps as long as possible works best for your child and family in the long term. While your little one might be increasing their wake window tolerance it will take some time for it to become consistent. To help with this you may have to cap the morning nap to preserve the afternoon nap.
For some parents they are not given a choice in whether or not their child’s stays on 2 naps because of dayhome schedules. What happens if your child transitions too soon to one nap? Often they become irritable late in the evening, they can have trouble falling asleep at bedtime, may seem overactive or hyper and they may wake frequently during the night. These are obviously things we want to avoid. If this is the case for your family. Adjust the schedule by allowing more night sleep to make up for the lost daytime sleep this may mean an earlier bedtime. Another way to catch up on sleep would be to allow car naps on the way to and from daycare.
How can you tell if your child is ready for 1 nap?
You child is at least 14 months of age
Schedule naps are being pushed later in the evening
Your toddler can stay awake longer without getting fussy up to 4 to 5 hours
One of the naps is now a cat nap (30 minutes) and is starting to be refused
Bedtime keeps getting pushed later and/or mornings start getting earlier
Your child takes a long time to fall asleep for naps or bedtime, but is generally happy in the crib while waiting to fall asleep
You should notice some or all of these signs consistently for at least two weeks before considering your child ready to drop to one nap. It is not uncommon for a toddler to refuse a nap as they become more independent. Keep offering the nap at the appropriate time and offer other choices for independents instead. For example offering two books to read and having them choose. Roll play with a favourite stuffy on how to go to bed for a nap etc.
Signs your toddler is NOT yet ready for 1 nap.
Can sometimes take a while to fall asleep for two naps. But WILL take two naps.
If a nap is skipped, your child gets cranky and fussy.
Your child gets cranky and irritable and prone to melt-downs after 3-4 hours of awake time.
Toddlers (and babies) can often tolerate wake windows better when they’re out being busy and distracted. Consider this when trying to assess if they are ready to drop to one nap.
I think my child is ready, how do I do this?
Capping the morning nap: A gradual approach is to cap the morning nap short enough your toddler will still take an afternoon nap at a reasonable time. If your toddler refuses afternoon nap for a day or two, shorten the morning nap some more. This is a good option if your toddler is having difficulty taking the morning nap or taking a short nap.
Push the morning nap: Push your toddler’s awake time 15-30 minutes every 2-3 days until your toddler is eventually napping at 12 pm instead of 9 or 10 am. Some days your toddler will be extra tired and may have trouble making it past 10 am or 11 am, and on those days you let your toddler nap early and adjust bedtime accordingly. This is a good option if your toddler is taking a solid morning nap and has difficulty taking the afternoon nap.
Drop the nap: Move your toddler’s nap to 12:00pm for a wake up time of 7 a.m. (adjust accordingly if your toddler is on a different schedule). Do this for several weeks. Your goal is to keep this nap around 12/12:30 (adjust for later schedules). You have 30 minute leeway with a by the clock schedule for a nap time, if your toddler is struggling one day, you can have them take a nap at 11:30am instead.
A few important notes on dropping to one naps
No longer cap a nap at 2 hours. One nap is now capped at 3 hours instead.
If your toddler naps less than 90 minutes, leave them in the crib for the 90 minutes. This is to help them consolidate napping times as their body may still expect a second nap.
Sleep needs do not change, sleep gets redistributed. For example, on two naps your toddler was maybe napping a total of 3 hrs and now only naps for 2.5hrs on 1 nap. This sleep may be added to nighttime sleep instead of daytime sleep.
Sleep development is never linear, expect some ups and downs as they adjust to the new schedule.
Bedtime on 1 nap is 4-5 hrs after the end of the nap.
Wake times for one nap are 4.5-6 hrs typically. Many toddlers will do the longer stretch before the nap (5-6 hrs) and shorter before bed. Some split right down the middle (5.5 each side). But the goal is 9-11 total wake hours for the day. In the beginning erring on the shorter side of each.
It’s typical to see some bedtime battles, early wakes and night wakes during the transition as sleep moves around for your toddler.
Flip flopping back and forth from 1 to 2 naps will delay the process. Sleep consolidation takes time as sleep needs to be shifted around. Be consistent and work with the ups and downs of this transition. It will come together!
Need more help with the transition or other sleep related issues? I have a range of programs to suit every family and can help you get sleep on track quickly. Email me at liz@littlesleepcoach.com