Eva (00:04):
Hey there, you’re listening to the My Sleeping Baby podcast, which is all about baby and child sleep. I’m so excited to teach you how you can get your little ones sleeping so that you can sleep too and enjoy parenthood to its fullest. I’m Eva Klein, your resident’s sleep expert, mom of three, founder of the Sleep Bible online coaching program, and lover of all things sleep and motherhood. If you’re looking for tangible solutions for your little one sleep woes or you simply want to learn more, this podcast is for you. For more information, check out mysleepingbaby.com and you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook @mysleepingbaby, and you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook at My Sleeping Baby.
(00:46)
All right, welcome back to the show. So today we are going to talk about a very common topic that comes up amongst my one-on-one Clients my Sleep Bible programs, and that is naps. How'd you get Your Little One? Settling on their own and giving you solid, reliable, consistent naps during the day. Easier said than done, but very important regardless. And so today we're going to specifically talk about some effective strategies and techniques that you can use to help sleep, train your baby and toddler for naps. And this way you can ultimately get yourself a consistent nap time routine, some solid sleep habits, and ensure that both you and your little one can finally get the sleep that you need. Okay, so before we talk about NAP training, let's actually take a step back and talk about sleep training as a whole and talk about what specifically it is.
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So sleep training refers to teaching your baby or child how to sleep independently. And so this involves establishing a consistent routine that allows your little one to learn to fall asleep on their own without relying on any external props, crutches, or interventions that they can't recreate on their own. The ultimate goal of sleep training is to teach your little one how to fall asleep independently and connect their sleep cycles on their own so that their sleep is maximized and everyone is well rested and it is proven to get you longer, more restful periods of sleep throughout the night as well as during the day or really limit, if not completely eliminate any unnecessary night wakings. Now, sleep training is not only cry it out, cry it out, is a very famous form of sleep training, otherwise known as extinction, where you basically put your baby or child in their crib or bed, say goodnight, leave the room and not go back in.
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And while that might be a good fit for some people in certain circumstances, I find that the vast majority of my people are not comfortable with that kind of approach, and I want you all to know that that is okay. That is just one option, but that there are many other methods that you can use that will get you from point A to point B and will still teach your little one how to sleep independently. There is no one size fits all approach here. So that's what sleep training is as a whole, broadly speaking. Now, let's talk about how this applies to naps per se. So sleep training for naps is very, very important for a number of reasons. First of all, we know that it improves the quality and quantity of daytime sleep that your little one gets because when they know how to fall asleep on their own, it means that he'll know how to put himself back to sleep at the end of that sleep cycle, which is going to get you longer, more restorative naps.
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And that leads us to the second benefit of NAP training, which is that it will improve your little one's nighttime sleep because as the famous saying goes, sleep begets sleep. And so if your little one is overtired because they're not taking good naps during the day, you're likely going to experience additional unnecessary night wakings because of how restless your little one is going to be from that overt tiredness. But on the flip side, when your baby is able to nap for longer periods and isn't going to sleep for the night overtired, it's much easier for them to learn how to sleep more soundly at night with way less night wakings. Another very important benefit of sleep training for naps is that it is known to improve your baby or child's mood during the day. Remember, sleep deprivation from poor quality naps can cause irritability, crankiness more tantrums, it's no fun.
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And so getting more daytime sleep into your little one is going to allow them to be a lot more calm. And the last benefit that I want to touch upon when it comes to nap sleep training that a lot of people aren't so aware of is the fact that it can inadvertently help improve your little one's daytime intake of solid food. You see, what we tend to forget as adults is that eating for babies is actually real work because for us it's effortless, right? All we got to do is too effortless if anything. But for babies and toddlers, it requires a lot of focus, a lot of energy where they have to sit in that high chair and pick up that piece of broccoli, use that pinch or grasp of theirs, put it in their mouth, chew it, swallow it. There is a lot going on there.
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And when they aren't sleeping well, they're not going to have the energy or the interest for that matter to be able to explore eating solid food, let alone actually do it. And that's why we often see that poor sleepers often become eaters. And so when you get that baby of yours sleeping better during the day, if they're struggling with eating to begin with, we very often see improvements in that department. So that's why NAP training is really important. I get a lot of people telling me, nah, I don't really care about the nap so much, I just want my little one sleeping well at night when the reality is that you usually can't have one without the other. But even if you could, you don't really want to have one without the other because naps are really important here. Now, NAP training is notoriously harder than nighttime training is for a few reasons, and I want you all to know that it's very, very doable despite the fact that it might be a little bit more challenging.
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And the reason for this is twofold. So first of all, daytime sleep is influenced by many other factors that nighttime sleep is not influenced by. So during the day, we have exposure to light, we have noise, we have distractions, and that can make it harder for babies, especially the ones with lots of fomo to settle down for naps in comparison to nighttime sleep. The environment can just be more stimulating with increased activity during the day. The second factor, which is very, very important here is that homeostatic sleep pressure, which is this external drive to sleep, is much weaker during the day than it is at night, despite the fact that daytime sleep is equally important to nighttime sleep. So in a nutshell, this means that your little one is getting less external help to fall asleep and stay asleep during the day making nap training that much more important because your little one is going to rely on their independent sleep skills that much more to be able to nap well.
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And the third reason why naps can be a little bit trickier than tackling nights is because your baby's sleep needs are constantly changing as they're growing and as a result, their nap schedules are going to evolve. And so it can be a little bit challenging to be on top of their ever-changing daytime sleep needs, but I want you to know that if this is something that you find especially overwhelming and challenging, I've got you covered because I do have a free sleep guide free nap guide specifically that you can download that has all of my suggested sleep totals, wake periods, nap totals of all ages, be for little ones, ages zero, all the way up to age five. So the link is included in the show notes and the blog post for this podcast episode. So definitely click on that link and grab your free copy.
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Alright, let's now dive in to the ins and outs of actually sleep training, your little one for naps. So I'm going to give you guys my top seven tips for NAP training to ensure that this process is successful for you. So tip number one is you need to make sure that your little one's sleep environment is optimal. This is really important because you don't want anything getting in the way in your baby's room of your little one giving you a long nap. And so that might mean ensuring that the room is dark enough during the day. So blackout curtains, blackout blind are your best friend. You want to make sure that the temperature is on the cool side and that your little one is dressed appropriately in a cozy sleep sack with a sleeper underneath. You want to make sure that the noise level is at a minimum.
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Definitely using a white noise machine is very important to drown out background noise and create that calming, soothing sleep environment. And if your little one is old enough, introducing some sort of transitional object like a blanket, a stuffed animal, a bunny, whatever it might be, is going to provide your little one with that extra comfort and support that they might need during their nap time. Tip number two is don't start nap training before you begin nighttime training. You either want to start sleep training your little one at night first or at the same time as nap training. See, this is because as I said before, sleep training your little one at night is almost always going to be easier than sleep training them during the day. Think of it like learning how to swim in the shallow end of the pool versus the deep end, right?
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And again, this is because during the night your little one has that extra external sleep pressure helping them fall asleep and stay asleep. And so the last thing you're going to want to do is be helping your little one swim in the shallow end of the pool, but then throw them into the deep end and teach them how to swim by themselves. That's just not going to work. You want to make sure that we're approaching things methodically in a way that makes sense. And so when you start with the knights and your little one using this analogy really is able to master swimming in the shallow end. It's going to be much easier to get them swimming in the deep end. It's going to be this natural transition and it won't feel nearly as cold Turkey. Tip number three is make sure you've got a short concise nap time routine for your little one.
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You want to make sure that you've got something that's maybe just one to two minutes long maximum that is going to cue your little one. That sleep time is coming a short consistent sequence of events. So this might mean you dimm the lights, you read your little one a story, and then you put them into the crib or you change their diaper, sing them a goodnight song and put them into the crib. It doesn't really matter what it is as long as what you are doing is consistent and happening for every single nap that's happening at home. Tip number four, know your baby's proper, correct wake windows and put your little one down for a nap at the right time. This is really important because you could be doing everything else correctly here, but if you little one is going down for a nap at the wrong time when they are either overtired because they were up for too long or they're under tired because they weren't up for long enough, that is going to create an uphill battle for your little one to learn how to nap.
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Well, at the best of times, honestly, it can very often just lead to a sleep training, nap training catastrophe. And so you want to make sure before you jump into sleep training of any kind that you've spent even a couple days observing and respecting your baby's wake windows so that you can really figure out what their sweet spot is and ensure that they're going down at that optimal time which allows for better quality naps. And so again, if you need some guidance on figuring out when your little one likely needs to be going down for their naps, definitely download a copy of that free sleep chart that I've got that has all of my suggested wake windows and nap totals for babies of all ages up to age five. Tip number five, make sure that your baby's naps and feeds are separated with awake time.
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You want your little one to be on an eat place sleep type of routine, or it might be play, eat, play, sleep. In other words, you don't want your little one to be eating right before they go to bed because that by definition is going to create a food sleep association. And that is precisely what's going to get in the way of any sort of NAP training actually working just because it defeats the purpose. And so you want to make sure that there is always some awake time in between the end of your baby's feeds and their sleep time. Tip number six, give your little one an hour to fall asleep when you are doing nap training. A lot of the time people pull the plug way too soon and give up on their little one's NAP training attempt when the reality is that sometimes it can take that full hour for your little one to figure this out.
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In fact, I remember when JJ was about 16 weeks old and he was going through a little bit of the four month regression. I mean, thankfully it wasn't a disaster because he was a solid sleeper, but he still experienced his version of this regression, and I had to do a little bit of nap training with him. I was using the sleep lady shuffle, otherwise known as the chair method or a gradual withdrawal method where I sat next to him for literally 55 minutes using this approach. I was hands-on with him. He was still young. I was picking him up every 10 minutes or so helping him deescalate, and he fell asleep at the 55 minute mark and then slept an hour and a half. Had I given up beforehand. I was about to give up. I was going to give up in five minutes when I had got into the one hour mark.
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But had I given up any earlier than that, he would've missed out on this amazing opportunity to relearn how to nap well. So don't underestimate what your little one can do. And that brings me to tip number seven, which is remain consistent with this. Remember that developing any new skill is going to require consistency and patience on your end. They can do this stick with your NAP training plan consistently so that she's got lots of opportunity to practice these new skills and always knows what to expect when nap time is coming. Remember that your little one can do this. Now for some babies, NAP training can take maybe a few days and they just get it so quickly. For others, it could take a couple of weeks. So be patient and stay consistent with it. In terms of the best age to begin sleep training for naps, I would say this, most babies are ready for NAP training and to learn to connect their sleep cycles somewhere between four and six months of age.
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Younger babies are usually not ready to be able to consistently connect their sleep cycles just yet. So to wrap up NAP training for your little one is very important and very doable. It really is the key for you to finally be able to get some consistent, good quality, reliable daytime sleep out of your little one so that they can feel well rested and so that you can finally actually get a break during the day. And if you feel like your baby, your toddler, or your preschooler is really giving you a run for your money when it comes to their sleep and you're still dealing with tons of sleepless nights, I want you to know that I've got you covered. I have a free masterclass called everything you Need to Know about Getting your Little One sleeping through the night, and like a champ, even if you feel like you've tried everything and you can go and watch it right now, I've got the link here in the show notes, in the blog post. So just click on it, sign up, and you can get this whole process started immediately. So thank you so much to everyone for listening, and I hope this was helpful, and you all have a wonderful day.
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Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a friend who can benefit from it. I also love hearing from my listener, so feel free to DM me on Instagram at my sleeping baby or send me an email at eva@mysleepingbaby.com. Until next time, have a wonderful restful nights.