Baby nap chart: how many naps your baby needs

‘When it comes to naps, the clock is your best friend,’ says Lucy. The early signs that your baby is ready for a kip can be fleeting and very easy-to-miss: a momentary eye-glaze, a quick ear pull or a brief eye-run. And then, all-of-a-sudden, your baby tips from playing happily to screaming with tiredness.

The cortisol kicks in and he’s too agitated to snooze, and you haven’t even got upstairs yet! But put your tot down for his nap before he gets too tired, and he’ll settle much, much more easily. Tricky to judge? That’s where the clock come in. ‘Use it along with plus the nap chart below to see when your baby is likely to need to sleep,’ says Lucy.

Make a mental note of the time your youngster wakes up from his nap and work out when his sleep window will be for his next nap – that’s when you need to start watching for those early signs that he’s nearly ready for some more zzz’s. ‘You’ll find it particularly useful on the days when your baby tries fighting off his need to sleep, simply because it’s more exciting to stay awake!’ says Lucy.

‘As your baby’s circadian rhythms kick in and he starts to learn the difference between day and night, he’ll begin sleeping for longer stretches when it’s dark,’ says Lucy. ‘And until the age of eight months, the first nap of the day is really an extension of your baby’s nighttime sleep, so I recommend getting four- to eight-month-olds down for their first nap less than two hours after they wake up.’

But once your baby is eight months plus, nudging that first nap forwards will help you build well-spaced naps through the day. ‘Wait until he’s been routinely sleeping well at night, with minimal parental input, for a good two-and-a-half weeks, before you start to work on his nap schedule,’ says Lucy. ‘But then nudge your nap timings so that his first snooze of the day doesn’t start any earlier than 9.30am. Now, that’s easy if you’ve got a youngster whose internal alarm clock wakes him at 7am, but what do you do if your eight-month-old is ready to start his day at 5am? ‘Take it really slowly,’ says Lucy. ‘Everyday, move his first nap-time later by just five minutes, until you eventually reach the time you want. The time he naps will gradually start to affect the time he wakes up in the morning, so you will create a positive cycle of later waking and later naps.’

It’s not easy to learn how to snooze during the day: it’s light, bright and noisy, and your baby doesn’t have the sleep hormone melatonin to help him drift off. ‘Babies start to produce melatonin at around six weeks old,’ says Lucy. ‘This builds up in his body towards the end of the day and helps prompt him to go to sleep at night. But he doesn’t have that natural snooze-cue during the day.’ And that’s why it’s important to give your baby a clear pre-nap routine so he knows it’s time to wind down ready for sleep. ‘It becomes a prompt – your baby will know that that a nappy change plus story plus cuddle and into his cot means it’s time to sleep,’ says Lucy. For maximum benefit, use a shortened version of your bedtime routine, as this will harness all the sleep associations he already has.

‘The best environment for your baby to nap is his cot,’ says Lucy. ‘It’s familiar, it smells comforting, and you can easily adjust temperature and the light levels, all of which means he’ll have a better-quality sleep than if were napping in his buggy, a sling or the car.’ So, whenever you can, it’s worth giving your tot his first nap of the day in his cot.

If your youngster has been used to having this first nap on the go, it can take him a while to get used to the change. But it’s worth persevering – two weeks of effort now will bring your baby better sleep for years to come.

‘Once your baby is six months old, he’ll nap more comfortably if he’s had a 45-minute window between lunch and his nap,’ says Lucy. ‘He’ll still feel full – so he won’t wake up because he’s hungry – but he’ll have done his heavy-duty digesting and his digestive tract will be relaxed, which will help him to settle and sleep.’ You may need to bring lunch forwards to manage this at points, but it’s well worth it.

Just like the jaune gilets, babies sometimes go on strike. Their beef isn’t about pay and conditions, it’s about napping. You want them to snooze. They want to stay awake and work on their skill set. ‘Nap strikes usually happens when your baby is 12 months old and again when he is two years old,’ says Lucy. ‘At 12 months old, he’s hard at work on his motor skills and he wants to be up and about using his muscles.

At 24 months old he has another developmental leap and his language skills blossom, so he wants to be up and chatting. And it’s common for youngsters to go on a two-week nap strike and resolutely refuse to go to sleep.’ Parents often think that their babies no longer need naps, so they stop the daytime sleep altogether. ‘But what you need to do is just keep on offering your baby his normal naps,’ says Lucy. ‘The nap strike is temporary and, after about two weeks, you’ll find that his snoozing just locks back into place.’