16 month old refusing to sleep

[Roses121]

Lately bedtime has become a real struggle for us.
He normally wakes at 6/7am and is ready for a nap by 11/12. But bedtime he won’t sleep until 9/10pm.
For example today he woke at 7:30am and napped from 11:45-2:45.
I tried to get him to sleep at bedtime at around 8ish but he wasn’t having it, although he was yawning so surely that means he’s tired?
I gave up after 20 minutes and took him in the other room to play. Tried again at 9:00 and it took me nearly an hour.

Just posting because I don’t know what I’m doing wrong to cause this. Ideally I’d like him to be asleep at 7/8pm so I can have a couple hours myself in the evenings.

Is he having too much day time sleep which in turn is causing a knock on effect to his night time sleep?

My LO is slightly older than yours (19 months) but if she wakes from her nap any later then 2pm we would then struggle getting her to sleep before 8pm.

We do go off awake windows for her sleep so she is normally awake for 5 hours before her only daytime nap (nap starts between 12-12:30pm) and then she wakes between 1:45-2pm and has roughly 6 hours of being awake before falling asleep.

We spent a few evenings monitoring day time naps and then her awake window and then the time she fell asleep to see if there was a pattern. We learnt that her afternoon awake window needed to be longer than her morning one in order to go to bed at a reasonable time.

Hi sorry I don't have any advice but could have written this. My nearly 16 month old's sleep changed overnight a few weeks ago. Went from being able to put him down in cot following bedtime routine and him being very settled to looking for continual reassurance and settling taking around an hour, sometimes closer to 2 - if I leave him before he's asleep he's absolutely hysterical where that wasn't the case at all before. Also waking in the night frequently where generally he was sleeping straight through. Settling for nap has been marginally easier than night time but still not great. It's really hard going when you get no time in the evenings.

I did notice that his molars have been cutting so have wondered if that's been contributing along with increased separation anxiety, he does seem to be on a big developmental leap. I have just been giving the extra hugs/physical contact he seems to be seeking and do feel it's slowly getting a bit better but it's definitely not easy. I hope it gets better for you soon.

I agree with @gymgirl11. My little one is also 16 months and we were struggling a month or so ago with similar issues. I think it's too much daytime sleep. My little girl now wakes between 7-7:30am, naps at about 11:30 for normally 1.5-2 hours. She then has roughly 6 hours awake before going to bed at night at 7 and is normally asleep by 7:30 for a 12 hour sleep at night. I'd cut the daytime nap by half an hour, see how you get on, and if no improvement try by an hour?

Mine is 16mo, that would be too long a nap for him.

He wakes between 6-7am and has his nap 11-1pm.

We start bedtime routine at 6:30pm and he is asleep by 7pm.

It's definitely the first thing to try x

Thanks all- will try tweak the nap x

I have 15.5m and since a week now she wakes up around 6am and needs her nap 10-12, then awake 12-7pm. I agree 3h nap might be too long. Try shortening up to 2h and see if it helps. I can see with mine that her wake window suddenly just got longer very fast so I am conscious of not letting her sleep too much past 2h. Good luck!