Moving To One Nap
Moving to One Nap
Are you finding it harder to fit in two naps, or is bedtime starting to creep later and later? If so, it might be time to think about transitioning your little one down to one nap.
For most toddlers, this change happens somewhere between 13 and 16 months, with many starting to show signs of readiness around 14 months. Like all nap transitions, it can feel a bit wobbly at first, but with the right timing and a gradual approach, things usually settle.
What Should Sleep Look Like Before the Transition?
Up until around 12 months and beyond, most babies manage well on two naps a day. Ideally, the first nap is shorter and the second is longer and more restorative.
In the lead-up to the transition, it often helps to keep the morning nap brief so there’s still room for a good lunchtime sleep. Many babies do well with a short nap around 9:30am for about 20 to 30 minutes, and a longer nap around 1pm for up to two hours.
As long as your baby is awake by around 3pm, you’ll usually be able to aim for a settled bedtime around 7pm. A gap of about four hours between the end of the second nap and bedtime often works well at this stage.
Signs Your Child May Be Ready
From around 14 months, as a general guide, you might start to notice signs that two naps are no longer working as smoothly. These can include:
Waking earlier in the morning
Taking a long time to fall asleep at bedtime or resisting bedtime altogether
Resisting one of the naps, often the morning one
The second nap creeping too late in the day or becoming very short
Sometimes babies skip a nap because they’re busy learning a new skill or having an exciting day, and that doesn’t always mean they’re ready to drop a nap. But if these changes have been happening consistently for a couple of weeks, and adjusting nap timings hasn’t helped, it’s often a sign your child is ready to move to one nap.
How to Make the Transition
When you decide to make the change, the simplest approach is to skip the morning nap and keep your child awake until close to lunchtime. For many children, somewhere between 11:30am and 12pm is a good starting point. You might need to bring lunch a little earlier at first to make this work.
The first few days can be a bit tricky. Your child might not sleep for as long as you’d hope, and that’s okay. If they wake early from the nap, try to resettle them so they can get closer to a longer, more restorative sleep in the middle of the day.
As their body clock adjusts to the longer morning awake time, most children start to sleep more solidly at this nap. Over a few weeks, you can gradually shift the nap a little later so it falls nicely after lunch.
How Long Does It Take?
The move from two naps to one doesn’t usually happen overnight. It often takes around 10 to 14 days for things to start feeling more settled, and sometimes a little longer for everything to really click into place.
Once your child is comfortably on one nap, you’ll often see night sleep become deeper and more consolidated, and early mornings can improve too.
During the first month or so, some children are more prone to becoming overtired by the end of the day. Bringing bedtime forward to around 6pm for a while can really help protect night sleep during this adjustment period.
If your child really isn’t coping and you feel the move was too soon, it’s okay to go back to two naps and try again a little later. Every child is different, and timing matters.
A Gentle Reminder
Nap transitions can feel big, but they’re a normal part of your child’s development. With a bit of patience and consistency, most families find their rhythm again.
If you’re finding this stage hard to manage or you’re not sure which way to go, you’re very welcome to get in touch.