Should I wake up my 18 month old from a nap?

[HopeNope]

DS has started having long daytime naps but then waking up in the middle of the night wide awake. I noticed the day he doesn't nap, he doesn't wake up. He's now gone down for a daytime nap and it's been over two hours. Should I wake him up?

How many hours of daytime nap do they need at this age?

I think you've kind of answered your own qu. really. I'd say it depends on the days he doesn't nap, is he hard work? I think at that stage ds was sleeping for about an hour, no more than 1.5hrs. At 3 ds now only naps on a Saturday, after swimming. We're now having to limit that a bit to about an hour otherwise he's awake till 9pm!

It's really tricky. Some children will happily stop naps on their own, and you just have help keep them awake around 5 pm ish to stop them falling asleep then until they get used to it.

Others will still nap and then won't go to sleep until really late or go to sleep and wake up in the middle of the night.

I was lucky in that mine kept themselves awake, so I just had to avoid driving around after 4 pm, or putting them in a buggy for a long time to stop them from falling asleep.

If yours go down for a nap willingly during the day, you might find it better to reduce the nap length first, and see how it goes for about a week (it takes more than a few days for sleep patterns to settle down).

Also, some children find it hard to sleep properly at night if they are OVER tired, so it pays to be wary of that.

Do a bit of trial and error - shorter naps, every other day naps and earlier bedtimes to find what works for you.
We're still muddling through as this stage (ds is 2) has been tricky to minimise nighttime waking a or late evenings with a nap.
Goodluck

Thanks everyone! I think I need to try limiting the nap to an hour and see whether that works, if not keep her up.

If she doesn't nap at all, then at 5pm, she gets very grumpy.

They're all different. Dc1 never napped willingly after 12 mos, dc3 still has 2-2&1/2 hours 5 days a week (19 mos) On the 2 days he's at the childminders he only has around an hour. I too would try cutting your ds's nap down. I generally wake my son after 2 hours unless I think there's a reason he needs longer e.g. illness, otherwise we get early morning waking. (but woe betide you if he's allowed to get over tired)