Day Nap Time by Jo Tantum

Jo Tantum is the UK's No 1 baby sleep expert. Her best-selling book Baby Secrets is available at all good bookstores and also available through Amazon.

Is a 30 - 45 minute day nap time ok?

Jo Tantum says

Thirty to 45 minutes is OK but even better if you can stretch it to an hour or longer. This is a baby’s daytime sleep cycle, which is a light sleep. Babies who sleep longer still do this but just stir and continue sleeping. To stretch your baby’s naptime, when she wakes leave her for five minutes to see if she will re-settle, instead of rushing in and getting her up.

Just stroke her head and say SHHH for one minute, then leave the room for five minutes. If the baby still hasn’t settled after this time then get her up. This way you are gently reassuring the baby that it’s OK to sleep longer. If you continue this each naptime for around a week the baby will learn to fall back to sleep and her naps will become longer each day. Soon the baby  will be sleeping an hour or more.

Getting baby into good sleep patterns at the beginning is the key. Babies learn from what we teach them, so if we teach them to love their sleep, you will get a toddler who loves sleep!