Sleep breeds sleep?

[loveskaka]

Do yous think your toddler sleeps better at night if they nap during the day? If so how long a nap and what time?

I was wondering the exact same thing but about newborns! If anyone has the answer..

I’ll start with all children are different!!!
But in my limited experience if two, definitely!
My 4 month old literally napped all day and I was expecting a terrible night and she slept the longest in one stretch and latest she ever has - when she hardly naps and you expect better sleep it’s worse! My son was the same.
I read they get overtired and find it hard to settle and get into a good sleep pattern.
I read early wakings can be linked to this but how you get a nap refuser to nap who knows!
I’ve never had a good experience from waking a sleeping baby!

In general good naps can help a good nights sleep. When we eventually sleep trained ds1 he was having two proper naps and 12 hours sleep. However my ds3 slept amazingly (but far too long) in the day but horrendously at night. I actually found it worked for me. I had a small child and a toddler who needed my attention, food and clean clothes etc so in the day the baby had fantastic naps and I got stuff done and at night I accepted less sleep.

Without a doubt. Without sounding like a total loon (which I clearly am) - I have tracked all of my children's naps and nighttime sleep up until about 18 months. There's always been a definite correlation between day and night sleep and more day time sleep with more night time sleep. Massive caveat that it also depends on whether their naps in the day are at the right time for them and working that out is the hard bit.

My eldest used to have vast amount of day time sleep and slept 7-7 (sometimes longer). My second strictly never needed more than 14 hours in 24 hours and the days that she had bad naps she'd be up all night. My third who is still 7mo is a mystery and I can't get her sleep right (ie when to nap and go to bed) - what I do know is that on the occasions she has managed a lot of daytime sleep she has slept longer in the morning overnight. I have a family member with a child who when they were a baby, they said wasn't a sleeper and that she didn't need any day time sleep at all and would stay up until 11pm. They were adamant that was just the way she was. Whenever I saw her she was rubbing her eyes and snuggling into people's shoulders. She was also always getting poorly. I just think she needed more help to get to sleep because when her grandmother had her she always slept.

Mind you, sleep feeds sleep, also doesn't necessarily mean that they need 6 hours sleep in the day. It's more about maximising the amount of sleep that they "need" in the day to maximise night time sleep. As I say it's working it all out. My third is currently poorly but when she's better I'm sure I'll be posting for help with a routine!