Car naps…sometimes they are necessary and other times you panic because you know that it’s going to ruin sleep for the rest of the day.
Are you in a love-hate relationship with car naps too?
Let’s get car naps working for you.
Here are some guidelines that will help you navigate car naps and naps-on-the-go in general:
Environment - Just like everything else most babies especially those over 4 months cannot sleep in a stimulating environment. It’s definitely a temperament thing and although that’s hard to control for car naps, there are things we can do to optimize the environment for car naps.
Covering their window can be extremely helpful and will decrease the chance that they will get distracted by the scenery and miss their nap (especially while your stopped or in traffic).
There are so many sun shades you can purchase. Here are a few: Car Share Rollers BOGI, Enovoe, Tinabless
White Noise is also a great tool for car rides. You can bring a portable white noise machine like the Yoga sleep ROHM and it becomes a good sleep association helping your baby get tired and sleep longer on those car rides. Just make sure it doesn’t turn off.
Sleep props like a lovey they sleep with can also be useful. If your child has an already established association, for example, a lovey then bringing that along can provide comfort and help them associate it with sleep and making them sleepy. Just make sure it’s safe.
Lastly, a short 2-5 minute bedtime/nap routine can be done pretty much anywhere, anytime. So doing a short little routine and purchasing a sleep sack that fits in the car seat like the GRO BAG TRAVEL sleep sack and putting that on prior to buckling them in will help cue sleep (and also make transitioning straight into the crib on late nights easier).
Practice- The way to become more comfortable in an environment is to continue to expose yourself to it. Practicing car naps is important in helping your child become used to sleeping in this new environment. Knowing that naps will be short, chose a short nap like Nap 3 if under 8 months or nap 1 and use it to practice.
Timing- Like everything with parenting and sleep, we always have to factor in timing. If you want to aim for a car nap you have to keep in mind that it usually takes any human about 10-20 minutes to fall asleep. So getting your baby in the car seat at least 20 minutes before your expected nap is ideal. We can’t expect our little ones to fall asleep right away so buffering some time before the nap will be essential. Also, if you don’t want to cut it short you MAY get stuck in the car until the baby finishes their nap (usually stopping the car will wake them right away).
Starbucks drive-thru anyone??
If you are waiting for a nap to finish, do it in the car. Never take the car seat out and keep baby napping in the car seat. It’s dangerous to leave your baby sleeping in a car seat when it’s not in the car and can cause positional asphyxiation.
https://www.lilbabysleep.ca/freeschedules
Expectations- With any nap on the go, the expectations are that they will be shorter and not as restorative. If your baby does long naps on the go A-MAZING! but it’s not often the case and usually, this has to do with temperament and how good your little one is at putting themselves back to sleep. When the environment changes, we all sleep lighter, it’s just a protective mechanism for our brains to stay alert for danger.
Our expectations for car naps should be that they will be short (after 4-5 months our babies usually lose the ability to sleep anywhere) and as sleep pro’s (yes you!) we should be able to just troubleshoot the rest of the day. If your baby is well-rested and has great sleep skills that should be easy but if all else fails, don’t worry just move your bedtime up and continue your day tomorrow as if nothing happened!
The 10-15 minute car nap: This is a dreaded occurrence. You’re headed somewhere or back home and despite your best tries to distract your baby, they fall asleep! and you know this will ruin their next nap. What to do?!
Distract them, do your best to keep them awake but please stay safe and focus on driving. You don’t want to be zig-zagging around the road, body half-turned towards the back trying to frantically keep your baby from falling asleep (I’ve seen it).
If a nap is less than 10 minutes - You are generally SAFE, you can keep your schedule as is and still offer that nap when you get home. It’s not releasing a lot of sleep pressure so it will likely not affect the next nap.
If a nap is more than 10 minutes - This is considered a NAP. Depending on how long it is I would cut your wake window in half and offer another nap then. If it’s over 45 minutes keep the entire wake window and offer a nap again after the length of the awake time unless it’s too close to bedtime, in which case just move bedtime up as early as 6 pm.
You want to troubleshoot the rest of your day but the important part is that you OFFER a nap and continue offering sleep. If not just do an early bedtime and start fresh tomorrow!
If you are struggling with naps in general and need more help, please reach out! I can assess what’s going on and we can discuss how to resolve any nap struggles in the future.
One thing you must have in place before attempting car naps is a well-rested baby that can put themselves to sleep. This will help you avoid meltdowns and help you all sleep better at night.
