3 year old napping

[hayc1991]

Hi. My son is 3 and a half and has been going to nursery just in the mornings since January. He stopped having afternoon naps ages ago, however recently he's been wanting to have one in the afternoon. I've been trying to stop him as otherwise he won't go to bed. He hasn't got a temperature so I can't put it down to him being unwell. It just seems lately he'd rather sit on the sofa and go to sleep than play with his toys. Is this normal for a 3 and a half year old to be acting like this? I'm really worried there's something wrong with him, or I'm just not doing a very good job therefore he'd rather just go to sleep

End of term flagging! Ds 3.6 is the same.

I've never noticed him behaving like this before previous half terms, as I did originally put it down to that myself but now I'm not so sure x

My dd is 4 in July and she’s like this, although she does nursery in the afternoons so it’s 4pm she wants to sleep!
However she will also sleep at weekends in the car if we’ve been out and about so it’s not really unusual for her

Totally normal. DS 3.8 exactly the same as are all his little mates. Also does 5 mornings 8-12.

My 3 and a half year old naps 1-2hrs 2 or 3 times a week. I have to be careful that he doesn’t nap 2 days in a row as he won’t sleep at night, but letting him nap stops a lot of tired whinging! If they’re tired... they’ll nap!

My friends DS has the same routine of morning sessions does this too - typically more when it’s warmer weather and they’ve been playing outside a lot at nursery. Now long is he napping for? She wakes him up after 30 mins which she says allows him a rest but doesn’t impact bedtime... works for them!

Thankyou you've all made me feel better about him napping. I've woken him up now after 30 mins but now he still keeps nodding off. He also naps in the car at weekends and if it's a relatively long journey so I guess the napping isn't unusual as such, it's just because he doesn't usually do it after nursery. He did have his pre school boosters a week and a half ago, you don't think it could be related to those maybe? X

He goes to bed at 7pm, but he has been waking up at 6am most mornings since we've started to get sunny weather so I'm wondering if it's because he's up so early in the mornings

I let my son have a nap at 4pm for an hour and a half... he then goes to bed at 9pm and sleeps very well.
Hes getting the same amount of sleep as if he were going to bed at 7 this way and he gets to have a short rest in the afternoons when he is most tired.
Ive been doing it like this because I was finding that if I didnt hed be half asleep from 4 anyway and want to go to bed around 6... hed then be waking up 5-6am which was causing us a lot of problems with sleep loss!!