Moving from two naps to one

AAP endorsed the American Academy of Sleep Medicine range for ages 1 to 2: 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours, including naps. CDC milestones by 15 months and CDC milestones by 2 years use the same numbers. They do not tell you which month the second nap must die.

Many children still take two naps in the early part of this handbook. The first sign that two naps are getting hard is not a blog post. It is a child who refuses the morning nap, or who takes it so late that bedtime becomes a protest. Another sign is a child who can make it to lunch, then collapses in the chair.

Treat the change as an experiment that can be reversed. Hold a slightly later morning, move lunch earlier, and offer one longer afternoon sleep. If bedtime then slides past the child's usual window and nights fragment, you have your answer. The second nap was still doing work.

Grandparents and childcare rooms often run on a group clock. Ask what the room can do. A child who still needs two naps should not be kept in a dark room for a three-hour afternoon as a favor to the schedule. Ask for a morning rest if the group has already dropped it.

Try this

1. Change one thing: later morning, or one longer afternoon rest. Not both in the same week if you can help it.
2. Keep bedtime within the usual window while you test.
3. If nights fall apart, put the second nap back for two weeks.
4. Tell the childcare room what you are trying and what you will do if it fails.
5. Count the full day, including the car nap you did not plan.

Car naps count. They also steal from the nap you wanted at 1 p.m. If you must drive at noon, you may be choosing the car nap. That is a day plan, not a moral failure. Write it down so you stop being surprised by 4 p.m.

The third birthday is when AAP-endorsed hours shift toward 10 to 13 for ages 3 to 5. If you are near that line, ask the clinician which range fits the child's days. Do not retire a nap because a cousin retired one.

In the house this month

Childcare rooms drop the morning nap because the group dropped it. Your child is not the group. Ask whether a quiet morning rest is possible even if they do not sleep. A rest is not a full nap. It can still save the afternoon.

Weekends will tempt you to keep two naps so you can have a morning. Then Monday will be a fight. If you are testing one nap, test it on a day you can protect the afternoon sleep. Do not test it on the day you also travel.

Watch the clock between wake and the remaining nap. A child who is up at 6 and offered a nap at 2 is being asked to hold a lot of hours. An earlier lunch and an earlier nap may be the whole experiment.

If one nap works, protect it like bedtime. Visitors can wait. The nap is how you buy a human evening.

What you can skip

Skip retiring a nap because a chart said 15 months. Skip testing the change on a travel day.

Skip a three-hour dark afternoon as a favor to a classroom clock if the child still needs two rests.

Keep the range in view

The job is the day total, not a one-nap badge. If nights fall apart, the second nap was still working. Try again later. Childcare clocks are not developmental law.

Check in if

Call your pediatrician if the child cannot stay awake for a reasonable morning, snores, or seems unwell. A failed nap experiment is not a sleep disorder. Put the second nap back and try again later.

Related ages: 12-18 months, 18-24 months. Pillars: Sleep.

Sources

1. AAP endorsement of AASM pediatric sleep duration recommendations. Pediatrics. 2016;138(2):e20161601. publications.aap.org
2. CDC. Milestones by 15 months. cdc.gov/act-early/milestones/15-months.html
3. CDC. Milestones by 2 years. cdc.gov/act-early/milestones/2-years.html