When to drop lunchtime nap - 18 months?

[LemingtonPolly]

My son is 18 months old and for the past 2 weeks or so his sleep is all over the place.

He is waking up every day before 6am, usually between 5.15 and 5.45am.

His lunchtime nap can be anywhere from non existent to 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours.

I generally don't let him sleep more than 2 hours unless he is unwell.

We have played around with bed times too but his sleep is getting worse and more unpredictable.

Typical day before looked like.

6.30-6.45am - wake
12.15-12.30 - begin nap
2.30 - wake
6.30-7pm - bed

Now he can be still awake at 8.30pm despite being put down at 7pm.

He is waking every morning crying too so he hasn't had quality sleep.

He is also having several false starts and night wakings too.

He dropped his other nap very early at around 12 months. I don't think he is ready to drop his nap but is is impacting on his sleep.

I would look at shortening it to maybe 45 / 60 minutes. He still needs a rest in the day at 18m

I think they go through various sleep regressions etc. DD has had patches of looking like she’s going to drop her nap but then gets verrrrry emotionally unstable if she misses it and her night sleep is worse with multiple wake ups.She’s 2.5 now and still needs a nap. I would stick with trying to keep putting him down for a few weeks. He may need a later bedtime as well.

www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/toddler-schedule/#18months

this was roughly right for DD

My dc napped til 3 years old! I think around 2 it was.
7am wake
1pm nap
2.30 wake
700pm bed

Our son is 18months. His day is roughly -
5:30 Up for the day
11-1 Nap
7pm - bed

This is working for now, but gradually I expect his nap to shorten, especially if bedtime becomes harder.

Could he nap earlier in the day? 30 minutes earlier may help? Good luck!

DD went through phases of nap refusal probably around the same age where I thought she was about to drop her nap but we continued putting her down and she is still very happily napping at 2.5 years. I think however much they fight it, 18 months is very little and they need that period of sleep in the middle of the day. I also doubt that with him only having one nap that too much day sleep is the reason he is struggling with night sleep.

Have you got blackout blinds in his room? Could it be the light that is waking him early and making it difficult for him to nod off?

Could you try bringing his nap earlier? If he's waking at 5ish and going to bed at 6:30 then a midday nap means a long 7 hour wake window in the morning and a shorter 4 hour wake window before bed. Could it be possible he is overtired by lunchtime if he's already waking up in the morning quite tired? And possibly 4 hours after waking up from his nap he isn't quite ready for sleep again.

Hope you manage to resolve this and you're all sleeping better soon :)

@ModerationInEverything thanks yeah I suspected his nap might need shortening. Anytime I do wake him he just screams as if he is still tried but I suppose this might be temporary until his night sleep is sorted.

@wotwududo I do think he still needs a nap but it's honestly such a fight, sometimes he's just down and it's nearly time to get back up because its ran so late in the day.

@OystercatchersPaddling yeah I might trial an nap before lunch at round 11am

@daisychainsandrainbows we have blackout curtains and white noise for every sleep and nap.

He used to be so good at settling himself down bur it's a battle for every nap and sleep now.

We did controlled crying when he was around 1 as his sleep was shocking and after 3 nights of hell he sleep through. It's almost like we need another burst of sleep training.

My just 2 year old needs very little sleep it seems.
From about 18 months he doesn’t nap every day as some days after 2 hours trying he’s still awake. When he does nap I limit to 90mins.

Usually:
6-7am wake
1.30/2- 3pm nap if he has one - I often start at 1pm but it takes forever for him to sleep
8.30-9pm bedtime - sometimes I start at 8pm but he’s still awake at 9.30pm

Never in his life has he slept 7pm-7am

He also spend most the day outside, walking, running, using energy but can easily go 6am until 9pm without even sitting down more than 5mins here and there if he decides not to nap.

I recently shortened LO’s nap to a 2-hour limit and no sleeping past 2pm and it’s made bedtime much easier. I think I read somewhere that you want around 5 hours of awake time at this age.

Also look at what he’s doing. If he’s not very active, he won’t be as tired. I often find an afternoon visit to the play park helps tire out LO. And some sunshine during the day helps them to produce melatonin, which is needed for sleep.

@Williams3001 he is literally on the go all the time.

We do classes and walks and park visits and play dates.

I don't know how he is not exhausted