Lengthening naps

[MummytoS2023]

Looking for some advice for lengthening my 11 month old DD's cot naps. When napping in her cot she will have a maximum of 40 mins and will wake up, stand up in the cot and cry. If I let her fall asleep on our bed she will sleep for 1.5-2 hours, she will wake after around 30/40 mins on the bed but will go straight back to sleep. However when she's on the bed I obviously need to stay with her for the whole time. I would like to increase her cot nap time if possible so I can get things done while she naps.

During the night she will sometimes sleep right through the night in her cot, other days she will wake once or twice so she's obviously capable of sleeping for longer stretches of time in the cot but for some reason for naps she won't do longer than 40 mins and that's on a good day, it's usually 30 mins

For info she has 2 naps a day, she always sleeps better at night on the days I let her nap on the bed so I feel like she does need the longer naps

Any tips on how to help this?

how is she falling asleep in the cot? if it's not on her own, or with very little input from you, it sounds like she is waking after one sleep cycle and wondering where you have gone. if she can fall asleep on her own, or very little input from you (i.e. shes laying in her cot and you have your hand on her chest/back etc.) she is more likely to go back into another sleep cycle. sounds like she is napping for longer on your bed because you are with her.

Agree with PP, she sounds like she associates you with going to sleep so if you're not there at the end of sleep cycle she might struggle to go back down again.

Could you try a gentle fade out, so have her nap in her cot but stay in the room with her, and when you hear her stirring after 40 mins do some shush/patting, then move to just shushing but not touching, and hopefully then to not even needing to shush. Hopefully after a few days of knowing you are there she will start to link the sleep cycles, and you can leave the room.

Agree with @reabies this is what we used to do, at first we would go in when he stirred and finished the nap as a contact nap, then moved to settling in the cot without picking up with shushing and patting and then he eventually did it by himself

Thanks everyone. Most of the time she will fall asleep by herself if I stay in the room with her, occasionally I'll have to hold her to get her off to sleep.

I'll try staying in the room with her for a few days or going in just before she usually stirs to try and get her back to sleep and fingers crossed will see an improvement over the next few weeks