Reply To: 15 months old baby sleep issues

[Emma H]

Hi Elen,

I think a combination of things might be making nap sleep training a little challenging at this time.

Firstly, your little one has learned that for daytime sleep, she is either breastfed or rocked to sleep; at night, it’s a different routine. So, unfortunately, sleep training during the day is required to teach her the new routine for daytime naps. This in itself is an adjustment that your little one would need to learn.

Secondly, you’re transitioning to one nap a day, which can be challenging. Typically, there is an adjustment time as the child gets used to staying up longer. You’re stretching their wake window, meaning they will initially be pretty tired when it’s time to nap. As a result, they may need more support to settle to sleep. I don’t know which strategy you use to sleep train your little one during the day, but I expect they will need more help initially. Once your little one gets used to staying awake for longer in the morning, the difficulty falling asleep for that daytime nap should also lessen.

It’s important to remember that it can take babies up to 20 minutes to fall asleep. Plus, for daytime naps, only sleep pressure drives your little one to sleep. At night, your baby’s circadian rhythm and sleep pressure work together to fall asleep, so it’s often a lot easier to teach your little one to fall asleep at night independently than to teach them to fall asleep independently for naps.

Be consistent with using the sleep training method you have chosen for naps; your little one will soon learn to fall asleep independently.

Also, during this adjustment period of dropping to one nap, you might need to move her bedtime to an earlier time temporarily. Once she starts to fall asleep independently, the length of the daytime nap should increase, and you will be able to move her bedtime back.

I hope that helps!

Emma

• This reply was modified 11 months, 3 weeks ago by  Emma H.