There is no definite age when your child should give up her afternoon nap. It depends on your child. If your child is at daycare and all the other children nap in the afternoon, she will likely continue this pattern until she graduates from day care and starts school.

However, if your child happens to be enrolled in an afternoon preschool, nursery, or kindergarten program, then she will have to give up her afternoon nap, maybe even earlier than you would have chosen. She may then adopt a schedule with one longer nighttime sleep episode.

The best way to know if your child is ready to give up her nap is to watch how she does during the day and if it takes her longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep at naptirne. Notice if she seems well rested. There can be many causes why children have trouble with behavior, attention span, or playing with peers, but remember that one possibility in your toddler and preschooler may be that she is not getting enough sleep and needs longer sleep at night or a regular afternoon nap.

Toddler Sleep Patterns
The sleep-wake cycle continues to develop so that by the time your baby is 2 years old, this pattern should be well developed. Between 1 and 3 years of age, your child now requires about 12 hours of sleep a day You maybe getting up with your toddler at night (like many parents with children of this age), but this is probably now just a habit that yoo and your child have developed.

We know that babies can learn to sleep through the night around 6 months of age, and definitely by the age of 2 years. Your toddler also has the capacity to learn to do this. At this age, sleep should be continuous at night. However, your toddler will still require a nap (usually in the afternoon) so her sleep will occur in two phases an afternoon nap and nighttime sleep.

This is pattern is very natural. In fact, adults in many cultures maintain this pattern of two sleep cycles a day one short sleep in the afternoon and one longer sleep episode at night. For most adults living in North America, the afternoon nap is no longer possible given work schedules.

Your toddler’s sleep patterns will also be changed when she learns to climb out of her crib and starts to sleep in a child- or adult-size bed. This may present new challenges if you are having trouble getting her to sleep at night or to stay in bed.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 10:32 am and is filed under Insomnia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.