Is there anything that can be done to help my toddler sleep more at nursery?

[TheBeesKnee]

18 month old DS attends nursery 3 days per week. When he's there he will nap 40/45 mins max. Sometimes he might do an hour.

At home he easily naps 2+ hours.

There's not much variation in his sleep schedule overnight. He will sleep 7pm-7:30am give or take 10 minutes regardless of how much he's napped or when I put him to bed. If I try to put him to sleep at 6:30 he will fuss and mess around for half an hour.

Anyway I really notice the difference in his behaviour on nursery days when he's clearly tired and going crazy in the evening, throwing tantrums, whingey, just an unpleasant handful I hate to say it so bluntly but it's exhausting.

They don't have a separate nap room but I was just wondering if anyone had any tips or experience, or is this a lost cause?

I have worked in nurseries for 20 years and unfortunately kids are different in nursery than they are at home. Routines change etc it is what it is. Be grateful he is sleeping for 45min in a room that still has awake children in it

DD used to do an hour in nursery and 3 hours at home (she loved sleep).
I think nursery is just more exciting and stimulating and harder to switch off from.
Id concentrate on developing a low demand routine on nursery days to help them unwind. Whatever works for them, watching a film, longer bath fime, easy food (I imagine they’ve had a proper meal at nursery). It’s one of those things that will get better. Change of season and dark nights don’t help.

Is he still in the baby room where kids will be napping at different times? It might change once he is in an older room and they are all sleeping at the same time.

It's quite normal unfortunately. DS1 did this and did eventually start napping for longer by about 2 years, though they did have a separate room for sleeping.

DS2 however (now 2) has always averaged about an hour, and evenings after nursery are always difficult. Its a really awkward age where they're still so dependent on getting a good nap during the day.
(Only for some reason ours have started to ASK him if he'd like a sleep instead of just talking him😠, so unsurprising he's started to skip them altogether.)

So be warned, this could happen again later on where he still naps at home but refuses at nursery altogether😬

Yes still in the littles room!

You've just reminded me how miserable those evenings after nursery were! Unfortunately quite normal I think and not sure there's much you can do. Be thankful he naps for 45 minutes! My dd wasn't a great napper at the best of times but did not sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time at nursery, it was hard. Just remember this will always get easier, the older he gets the less sleep he'll need and you might find the longer he's at nursery, the more content he'll become and sleep more. Tbh, I think the general constant stimulation of nursery and being away from home all day makes them over emotional in the evenings even if they are having their full sleep at nursery.

Mine is opposite - won’t nap at home anymore but naps hour and half at nursery!