"the better they sleep during the day, the better they sleep at night" - do you agree?

[Miaou]

So said my mum this lunchtime. Never thought about it before but I think she might be right! ds hardly slept during the day yesterday, so I thought I was in for a peaceful evening and nighttime - how wrong was I, he was still wide awake at 2am!!!! I'm interested in whether you've found this to be true too.

Have a read of Dr Marc Weissbluth's 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child'. He is very big on naps. Something to do with the body generating adrenalin in order to keep a tired child awake and as a result you battle to get them to sleep at night. He also says that if you want your child to wake later in the morning, put them to bed earlier, not later. Seems totally contrary to what most people think they should do (keeping the kids up till 10pm in the hope that they will sleep later), but apparently it works. Well worth a read.

Ds is probably the exception that proves the rule - he always sleeps badly (by "normal" children's standards anyway), except for occasionally, when he is exhausted. One day last week he skipped his daytime nap and then slept from 6.30 pm to 3.30 am without waking - believe me, for him, that's good. He is also easy peasy to put to bed if exhausted, whereas normally a nightmare.

Think it depends on the child. I agree ds is grumpy as HELL if he doesn't sleep in the day, BUT he will still go to bed at 8pm and still wake up at 7am regardless of the amount of sleep he's had during the day! Luckily

yes definitely true for my 2. If they don't have enough during the day then they usually sleep badly at night.

Totally agree, dd without a nap, makes for a stiring evening, and a very early morning....

100%

With ds his night sleeping was sorted as soon as I got him into a good day time routine that involved 3 naps (kind of a relaxed Gina Ford routine).

With dd she is, and always has been, hopeless at day naps and is only just now beginning to sleep through the night (she's 9 motnhs).

BUT, while it's true with dd that reasonable day naps lead to a reasonable night, there is a balance to be found. If she has much more than 2 hours in the day she's just not tired enough at night but if she has less than 2 x 35-40 mins then she is overtired and doesn't settle well.

dd2 only had a 30 min nap yesterday and as you can see I'm up at 2.30 with her. I will probably be up for around 2 hours with her. But usually she will have a good day time sleep and sleep 11hrs at night

mee too! dd slept for 30 mins yest am, has woken at 3.30/4 and 4.30 although she also has a stinking cold it appears.....calvol n drugs added! pleaseeeee go back to sleeepppppp

dd only had 40 mins yesterday and I was up for about 3 hours last night