5 clear signs your toddler is ready to stop napping– Nested Bean

When you have a toddler, you’ll have been used to your little one taking at least a nap a day since they were born – but when is it time to retire the naps for good?

Your baby’s sleep schedule changes a massive amount in the first couple years of their life – you see them go from sleeping a couple of hours at a time at all hours of the day to having a consistent stretch of night sleep with just one or two daytime naps to keep them energized.

Eventually, there comes a time when even your toddler’s afternoon nap will stop being necessary – but how do you know when your little one is ready to stop napping? In this blog, we’ll take you through the average ages that kids stop napping, as well as the most common signs that nap time might be over for good.

When do Toddlers Stop Napping?

On average, a two-year-old needs to sleep for between twelve and thirteen hours per day – and around an hour of this occurs as daytime sleep in the form of an afternoon nap. While your little one will have come a long way since they spent half of the day snoozing away, they’re still likely to need this rest in the afternoon until they’re around three years old.

But like every other aspect of sleep, when it comes to stopping naps, every child is different – while some will take time and need the extra rest for another year or more, others might take to no longer napping before they’ve reached the three-year mark. Whichever end of this spectrum your child falls on, being a little early or late to drop the afternoon nap is perfectly normal.

When your toddler stops napping may also be influenced by other aspects of their life, such as their personality, any other health conditions they might have, and whether or not they have older siblings close in age who have already been dropping naps.

Signs it’s Time to Stop Napping

It can be difficult to know as a parent when it’s time for your toddler to drop their nap, but there are some key signs you can look out for that often indicate they’re ready – here are five of the clearest signs that your toddler is ready to ditch naptime for good:

Not Falling Asleep at Naptime

The most obvious sign that it’s time to reconsider the necessity of naptime is if your toddler refuses to even lie down for one! Your toddler might sometimes be reluctant to go down for their nap if they’ve had an especially exciting afternoon or if they’re looking forward to something happening later in the day. But if they’re regularly having trouble falling asleep at naptime for days or even a few weeks consecutively, it’s likely time to think about dropping that nap.

On the other hand, if this is abrupt, has only been happening for a few days, and your child is younger than three, they may be going through what Dr. Craig Canapari calls a ‘nap strike’ – a temporary refusal to go down for their nap that doesn’t reflect a need to drop it. He explains:

A nap strike is when a child suddenly starts fighting back against an age-appropriate nap. It’s sometimes triggered by developmental changes, like learning to walk, potty training or teething, or by a cold. Often the cause is unclear. Continue to put your child down at the appointed time for 30 minutes. If this doesn’t work, try for a nap when you notice your child rubbing their eyes, acting cranky or otherwise showing signs of drowsiness.

So don’t give up straight away if your little one is struggling to snooze – give it some time, and if the struggle to nap remains for a significant period, it’s probably time to transition to no naps.

Waking Up During Naps

Even if your toddler is falling asleep just fine at naptime, you might find that they wake up in just twenty or thirty minutes instead of staying asleep for the full hour, and may wake up multiple times throughout this short period of sleep. This can also be a sign that they’re ready to stop napping during the day, as these wakeups are likely caused by not being tired enough to stay asleep.

Before you take it as a sign, though, you might want to make sure that there aren’t other factors impacting your toddler’s ability to nap. For example, your house may be especially noisy during the time that they’re trying to sleep, or they may be eating too much sugar before they lie down to snooze. Considering these elements will prevent you from dropping a nap too early.

Not Falling Asleep at Night

One sign that it’s time to stop napping is when your little one is having difficulty falling asleep at nighttime. Your child’s nap time should supplement their nighttime sleep, not replace it, and keeping a nap that pushes your child’s bedtime later can cause some problems for their general sleep schedule. So if your toddler is taking hours to fall asleep at night, it might be time to start skipping their afternoon snooze.

However, if your toddler happily sleeps through their nap and still seems tired at night, just unable to sleep, they might be struggling for other reasons, such as separation anxiety, which commonly develops at around one to two years of age. Luckily, there’s plenty you can do to soothe their worries, such as using a nightlight, establishing a soothing bedtime routine, and trying our soothing Zen Sack!

Like all of our Zen Sleepwear range, the Zen Sack utilizes gently weighted Cuddle Pads, strategically placed to mimic how your toddler feels when being held by a parent. This familiar, soothing touch helps them fall asleep independently, and even soothe themselves through any nighttime wake-ups.

Skipping Naps

Though we try as hard as we can to manage our little one’s sleep schedule in an effort to keep them happy and healthy, more often than not, children stop napping on their own terms: by skipping naps they don’t want to have!

It’s hard to differentiate between a toddler who’s ready to move on from naps from a little one who’s fussing for another reason, but if your child is consistently staying awake all through naptime and not seeming tired hours before bedtime, it’s likely time to stop. After all, they know their bodies and their feelings best!

Seeming Irritable

We might associate crankiness more with not getting enough sleep – after all, who doesn’t get a little grumpy in the mornings after a bad night of tossing and turning? – but it can be just as frustrating for your child if they’re being told to nap when they’re not feeling tired enough to fall asleep.

Tantrums around naptime are no fun for parents or toddlers and might happen for reasons totally unrelated to sleeping, such as wanting to continue playing. But if your toddler is getting upset time and time again when their daytime nap rolls around, it might be time to try retiring it.

Have you Dropped the Nap too Early?

Even when you’re keeping a close eye on your toddler for signs of needing to drop naps and following their lead, it’s understandable if you misread some of these signals and your toddler isn’t actually quite ready yet to let go of that afternoon nap. After all, every toddler is unique, and while their sibling or friend might have dropped a nap at a certain age, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be the right choice for them too.

If you’ve started to drop the nap but you’ve found that your little one is finding it hard to stay awake during the day before their stretch of nighttime sleep, becoming irritable in the evenings, or trying to sleep in after you wake them in the morning, you might be best reintroducing it for a little while longer.

Transitioning away from Naptime

If you’re looking to ease the transition away from having a nap, there are a few techniques you can try! For instance, introducing a slightly earlier bedtime for a while after the nap has been removed from your toddler’s schedule can help them adjust by ensuring they’re getting the same amount of sleep they were previously.

You don’t have to go cold turkey and stop them altogether from the getgo, either; here’s some advice from Natalie Willes of The Baby Sleep Trainer:

Keep attempting one daily nap for at least 60 minutes until your toddler is around 3 years old.

When it’s time to transition to no nap, start with one day “off” followed by one day “on.”

Continue adding one more “off” day before your next “on” day until you reach 7-10 “off” days in a row.

Don’t let your toddler fall asleep on-the-go, or take a cat nap in the afternoon on “off” days. (THIS IS VITAL!)

Take heart, and institute quiet time!

So take your time when helping your toddler transition away from napping – there’s no need to rush!

Commonly Asked Questions about when Toddlers Stop Napping

What to do if my toddler skips naps?

If you find that your toddler tries (or succeeds) to skip naps, there may be a chance that it’s time for them to drop their nap altogether – especially if skipping their nap doesn’t lead to signs of tiredness or needing an early bedtime!

However, when your child stops napping on their own, there can be other reasons behind it that have nothing to do with readiness. For instance, they might be going through a ‘napping strike’, where they resist napping for a few days before settling down again. Their skipping may also be because of circumstances they can’t control, like feeling too lively from eating sugar before a snooze or struggling to fall asleep because of the brightness of the sun or the noise of the house.

Generally, speaking, if your toddler has only been skipping naps for a few days, it’s best to keep persevering – when it turns from days to weeks, it’s a clearer sign that they could be ready to stop napping. It’s also important to note that your child not sleeping for any reason could be caused by a myriad of factors, and to make smaller changes to their schedule and lifestyle before you consider any interventions like sleep medicine.

Should you wake a toddler up if they’re napping for too long?

Your toddler needs you to help regulate their sleep schedule and give them the optimal amount of rest needed for the day – so this means you should absolutely wake them if they’re oversleeping through their nap! If you don’t, it can lead to a disruption in their schedule where they can’t fall asleep at night and ultimately experience less sleep in the long run.

If you’ve found that your toddler doesn’t naturally wake up from an hour-long afternoon or morning nap, it could be for a range of reasons. For instance, this may be a reason to revisit their sleep schedule – it might be a sign that they aren’t getting the amount of nighttime sleep that they need (at age three, your toddler will likely have eleven to twelve hours of nighttime sleep and an hour-long nap).

What is the best time to put a toddler to bed?

The best time for your toddler to be put to sleep can vary greatly due to a number of factors, from their own sleep preferences to the lifestyle and occupations of your family members. As a rule, if your toddler is still having a nap earlier in the day before bedtime, you should make sure that they’re being put to bed for nighttime sleep at least six hours after this to ensure they’re tired enough to fall asleep.

Assuming your toddler has stopped napping, their bedtime will be a little earlier to take their lack of an hour’s daytime sleep into account. An example of a sleep schedule for a three-year-old could be a bedtime routine starting at 6:30 pm before they’re put to bed at 7:00 pm to wake up after twelve hours of sleep at 7:00 am. If your little one is still having a nap in the daytime, you could put them to bed a little later – at around 8:00 pm, for instance.

How many hours should a three-year-old sleep with no afternoon nap?

Generally speaking, a three-year-old child should need around twelve or thirteen hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, with both naps and nighttime sleep contributing to this amount. Dropping a nap shouldn’t actually change this amount – in fact, when you’re transitioning away from naps, it’s a good idea to start replacing nap time with quiet time and making their bedtime a little earlier so the change doesn’t tire your child out.

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