Are naps and nighttime sleep actually linked?

[SunnyRoseSloth]

Can someone please explain if longer naps actually help with nighttime sleep? My baby has never been a good sleeper and rarely does naps longer than 30 minutes and wakes every 2-3 hours. I've tried encouraging her to sleep longer by patting her or soothing her before she wakes but that doesn't work. She's also sleep trained so I'm thinking sleep training is a lie.
My oldest would contact nap and it all feels like a blur now but if anyone has any advice or any similar experiences that would be amazing please?
I know she'll grow out of it soon but the lack of sleep really builds up

How old is she?

If she's having too much sleep in the day she'll sleep worse at night, not better.

As pp said, too much daytime sleep and night time is fucked. It's a balance. How old is your little one?

How old is she? My baby is 4 months and if he has more than two naps his night sleep is bad. If he sleeps closer than three hours to bedtime it’s awful. But he can only cope on two naps because he contacts naps and I can rock him to stay alert for longer periods. He just has low sleep needs. Sleep begets sleep is definitely not true for him. For some babies over tiredness is an issue.

Depends on age. After the newborn phase, the naps settle into a pattern of three naps, then two naps, then one nap, till the last nap gets dropped. Some babies resist the naps or will only nap on you (mine were like this). I only learned about the nap patterns with my second and it made things much better, but not perfect. I would rock to sleep at nap time before DS had a chance to get overtired. A regular(ish) nap schedule seemed to help with sleeping at night. That said, neither of mine slept through the night with any reliability until at least 18 months. But if they had a tiring day and fell asleep for a late nap when my back was turned making dinner, there was no hope of a good night.

So I guess the (annoying) answer is, it’s complicated. Plus it all goes to sh*t with teething, growth spurts etc.

No, less sleep during the equals better night sleep, same as adults. I really reccomend sound asleep guru on Instagram. She debunks sleep myths from parenting books.