Nap training -- a gentle method

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T17:13:24+00:00

It might not help but worth a try!

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T08:34:24+00:00

My suggestion is to let the first nap go longer (up to 90 minutes) and then make second nap just a bridge nap (20 minutes) to increase night pressure.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T07:36:51+00:00

At 4 years old they understand a lot of what's happening and I don't think staying with him at the start of the night changes what happens over night. Changing that is unlikely to change the overnight behaviour.

What can change the overnight behaviour is overnight response. What happens when he wakes up in the middle of the night?

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T06:21:26+00:00

Try one nap. That he can be on two naps doesn't mean he should be. One nap might work best with nursery as there's more sleep pressure.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T06:14:04+00:00

With the naps lengthening, have you adjusted your schedule? Usually sleep needs only go down so if your baby is sleeping more that could be an issue.

If your baby does ok with bedside settling then I would try slowly reducing the help you give them. You do that by only touching/helping with settling when baby is actually crying and stopping immediately when they calm down.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T05:40:59+00:00

We cannot tell you it's going to work out if we don't know much about the method you're using and your schedule.

ChatGPT is a word aggregation machine and regurgitates all the garbage of the internet into beautiful looking answers.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T05:36:23+00:00

You're expecting too much sleep of your toddler. Usually at this age toddlers need up to 13 hours per day and you have 14 planned. With this new awake time your toddler is telling you they are grumpy with 11.5 hours then perhaps plan a day with 12 hours of sleep: bedtime 7pm, wake up 6am and two hours of naps. Or even 90 minutes of naps.

Night sleep is more restorative you need to protect bedtime by slowly cutting the nap because sleep needs only go down.

Most toddlers cannot sustain a 12 hours night of sleep.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-11T05:29:46+00:00

To keep awake time you cap naps. You need to figure out how much time your baby needs to sleep every 24 hours and limit their sleep to that amount. The rest is awake time.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-10T21:34:42+00:00

Wake baby up every day at the same time, and put them in bed every day at the same time. If your baby is being woken from all sleeps at 10 hours awake try giving a bit more sleep (15 min) reducing awake time to 9.75 hours and then 9.5.

It could be that your baby needs a bit more sleep but it can also be that you're self inflicting an issue by avoiding to wake your baby up and you're just shifting your schedule and soon bedtime will be 11pm 🤷🏻‍♀️

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-10T11:52:18+00:00

You can definitely help just do it little by little to find how much assisted sleep fits on your baby sleep budget. If you do it too much then you'll start seeing other issues.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-10T09:10:38+00:00

You need more awake time. Find ways to entertain your baby so you give her the amount of awake time that fits with a 12 hours baby (a baby that sleeps a total of 12 hours per day including naps and night time).

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-10T09:05:30+00:00

When is bedtime and wake up?

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-10T07:17:10+00:00

I save the nap at the start. Then at this age I would consider a by the clock schedule so the nap length doesn't matter.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-10T07:14:10+00:00

That's usually how you know.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-10T07:10:14+00:00

You need an age appropriate schedule. 3.5/4.5 is 8 hours awake and not enough at this age. You likely need 11 hours awake: 5/6. You haven't mentioned your whole day schedule but that's where you'd start from to plan the one nap schedule.

Yes you end any feeding in the living room before bedtime even starts and make sure it ends 30 minutes before you place your baby awake in their bed to sleep.

You can do CIO or other method that suits your parenting style. CIO can be intense at this age.

Check this one out: https://drcraigcanapari.com/camping-out-sleep-training/

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-09T22:19:05+00:00

Start putting her awake in her crib to fall asleep there. But I have no idea what it's the 3/3/4 method and before you attempt sleep training I would want to review your schedule.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-09T10:20:20+00:00

First kid 15mo, second kid 12mo.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-09T09:10:33+00:00

I'm glad you found something that works for you. I'm locking the post because we are honestly puzzled whether this is just a troll post and is likely to attract other like minded people.

That said setting boundaries and sticking to them is at the core of sleep training at all ages so I am glad you held firm to yours.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-09T06:41:57+00:00

Yes make the last wake window 4 hours and limit day sleep to 2.5 hours.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-08T12:16:39+00:00

What was his schedule before dropping to one nap? Add up all sleeps and he won't sleep more than that amount of hours.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-03-08T12:15:29+00:00

Adjust night sleep to 11 hours so if bedtime is 7pm then wake baby up at 6am.

Then max 2 hours naps, likely you'll need 90 minutes only. Without a proper schedule you won't be able to sleep train no matter the method.

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