Four-year-olds and afternoon naps

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My little man turned 4 almost a month ago and is still having afternoon naps (when he is not at nursery - long story on why that stopped!).

He's usually at home for 4 days per week (unless it's the school holidays, when he doesn't go to nursery at all) and in nursery for 3 days per week.

His naps are usually for 2 hours but, a few weeks ago, he went for over 3.5 hours! His nap can start at any time from 11:30am to 4:30pm. Regardless of the time his nap starts and finishes, he goes to bed very well (usually asleep for 8pm), sleeps through and wakes between 7am and 7:30am.

I just wondered how many others have 4 year olds napping this much?

The poor lad isn't going to know what's hit him when he starts school in September!!!

Does he nap at the weekend too? It’s verging on the unusual. I’d suggest having his iron levels checked to make sure he isn’t anemic.

Yeah, he naps whenever he's not at nursery.

Thanks for the heads up about iron ☺️

That’s very unusual, in my experience of friends’ children. I’m pretty sure at my son’s nursery they don’t even offer a nap in the preschool room (maybe for individuals if necessary but it’s not on their little daily timetable).

My 4 year old will sometimes pass out in the car but only after a really intense day of activities and then its a rarity.

DS2 is at the young end of the year so only turned 4 two months before starting school and he definitely wasn't napping there.

In the UK there’s a rush to drop the afternoon nap because children go to bed so early but in other countries 4 year olds nap when they start school as the teachers say it’s better for learning. It was really positive for both my children to continue with the nap and though they went to bed later, they were much happier and even-tempered for the second half of the day and slept better at night. I’m sure he’ll adapt quickly in September but until then why not let him nap if he wants to? If you don’t want him to sleep as long you could stop being careful about noise after 30 minutes or an hour.

This is part of my thinking. In the week, we have a rough bedtime because we all have a rough routine with work and nursery etc but, if there is something on (be it in the week or at weekends) we are very relaxed about bedtime.

We go to Spain with relative frequency and love the Mediterranean approach to life!

On the days he doesn't nap, he gets very upset in the afternoon/evenings and struggles to regulate himself. When he's had a nap, he's his typical wonderful self, all day and night long.

I was thinking, earlier, some days he doesn't start his nap until around 4pm so maybe he'll just come home from school and nap (if he needs it) 🤷🏼‍♀️

We don't do quiet time for naps (or sleep) - never have. I'm usually in his room, once he's conked out, tidying up and putting clothes away 🤣 I haven't gone so far as to vacuum his bedroom while he's snoozing but I've definitely done the landing right outside his door!!! Little lad managed to sleep right through the Eurofighter flying directly over our house, three years in a row so I think we can safely say he sleeps (and wakes) at his own pace!!!

One of mine had quit napping at 18 months, the other still napped after school aged 5

DS was the same and I was so worried but he did really well and just got used to powering through at school. I don’t think I let him sleep after school as that would have messed up bedtime.

My middle child stopped napping at 18m. My youngest is now 2 and cannot have anymore than an hour or he’s a nightmare at going to sleep.

I would say I was like your son. I could nap and would happily go to bed and sleep all night. I’d honestly love a nap most days now.

My oldest stopped napping age 2, my youngest was still having one after school till almost 6 (bloods checked all ok, I have an underactive thyroid and it’s genetic in my family, he was in bed asleep for 11 hours at night etc).

I still napped after school when I was 7!! It was only about an hour and I went to bed quite late as my parents only came home from work very late too. I'm not British raised, it was normal to still nap at age 7/8 and go to bed around 10, even 11pm.

That amount of sleep sounds a bit unusual, I'd be tempted to do some blood tests for deficiencies.

Mine was napping until 3.5 years but was falling asleep about 9pm when still napping. She still falls asleep in the car quite often. She will be 4 in July. She does have low muscle tone which means she can get fatigued more easily than other kids.

My friend’s DD was like this and she was worried about her starting school! What she did was gradually decrease the nap time then move her bedtime earlier.
So if nap time is usually 2h wake him up after 1h45 then 1h30 etc and move his bedtime too so he’s eventually not having a nap but in bed by about 7pm

Our eldest napped on non preschool days and weekends until he was about 5, even on preschool days he'd conk out in the pushchair as soon as I collected him.
I think some children just take things in very intensely from the world so they can't stay awake as long.
Once we started walking home he generally was ok during the week, but he was in bed about 5.30 at one point then he was about 4 1/2, I think he was basically having his nap and night time sleep kind of lumped together.

I think keep an eye but if it works for your family then just go with it. Even in reception there were one or two children that napped in my son's class, but by y1 it seems they stopped.

Having said all the above our youngest stopped naps completely at 3!

My DD would nap in the afternoon, she would still go to bed around 7 to 7:30 and sleep till 7am. She is now 23 and will happily do much the same now, but bedtime is later, and will still sleep 9 to 10 hours.

It's completely cultural. Most people in the UK stop DC's naps well before age 4 because they start school by then. But in other countries (not all obviously, mainly hotter countries) it's completely normal for children to still have an afternoon sleep up to a much later age. Not all of them do it but many will. In the US a generation ago it wasn't unusual for children to have an afternoon nap in Kindergarten, aged 5-6.

Weirdly DS2 had stopped napping but when he changed to a different nursery at age 6 he was so overwhelmed that he would go to sleep when they had quiet time after lunch. 6/7 months later they did drop it for the older children who were moving to school. It massively improved his mood in the afternoons, though.