The 2-hour long lunch nap is a glorious thing! If you are still getting short naps that don't go over 30-40 minutes, there is a reason why. If you are following my free schedules, you know that there is always one long lunch nap in the middle of the day. This nap is intentionally recommended at this time for a reason. It balances your day sleep (so your little one is not overtired by bedtime), takes advantage of internal rhythms and peak sleep times during the day, and it's the most restorative nap you can get.
You will see a huge difference in your baby's mood, and bonus, you get 2 hours in the middle of the day to yourself (or to watch them sleep peacefully on the monitor when you should be getting stuff done).
So, how do you get this unicorn nap?
There are four key factors that create the conditions for this nap:
Timing - Getting the right amount of sleep pressure is essential for a great nap. If your awake time is too long, your baby can easily get overtired, and that causes short 30 min or less naps. If your wake windows are short, however, you will get a 40 min nap, and your baby won't be able to re-settle (go back to sleep after one sleep cycle). They won't have enough sleep pressure to do so.
It's also important that your first nap is not too long (yes, sleep drive is higher in the morning, so their is a tendency to want to have a longer nap in the morning). Believe it or not, keeping nap 1 short will create the best conditions for a long lunch nap because a long first nap will take away from your afternoon sleep drive. A short lunch nap will, in turn, cause your baby to be overtired for bedtime, leading to fractured night sleep.
Changing how baby falls asleep (Settling) - Another key determining factor of how long your baby sleeps is how they fall asleep at the beginning of the nap. If they are rocked, bounced, fed to sleep, or have any other association (an action or thing they associate with sleep) as soon as their bodies hit a light stage of sleep, they will be fully waking, crying for that action to help them back to sleep (typically once they are up after a stretch of sleep, even if it's short, they will have a harder time going back to sleep). We want them to go down awake so they are not dependent on anything to fall asleep, and they can wake partially and put themselves back to sleep. That is not possible if they are assisted. If you do choose to assist to sleep, that just means you have to continue to assist in the middle of the nap to make it longer.
Re-settling - This is the ability to settle back to sleep after a sleep cycle. It's impossible to do this if your baby hasn't practiced settling on their own first. This is the harder part because after releasing some sleep pressure, they have to work a little harder to go back to sleep. Have you ever woken at 5 am and have trouble going back to sleep? There is little sleep drive left after a stint of sleep.
In order to teach your baby to sleep independently, you have to choose a sleep training strategy that you feel comfortable with. This is best done through a sleep plan, understanding your baby's temperament, and assessing the best fit for your family. You can get a personalized plan and support here inside your dream plan.
Environment - Our bodies are designed to stay alert in environments that are not familiar to us. This means that we don't fully achieve deep sleep on the go, until we become accustomed to the environment, but even then, we are always on the lookout for danger and a way of protecting ourselves. This is why naps on the go are often shorter, any change in environment will cause a wake-up, and if they are overstimulated with visual stimuli, re-settling (going back to sleep) will prove even harder.
This is why one can't be addressed without the other. Addressing all of these factors together, you will get those consistent long consolidated periods of sleep, guaranteed.
How do you do this? Reach out and let's build you a sleep plan that works for your baby and family.
