If you have not already done so, please read Blog Posts 1 through 5 that describe how sleep is important and beneficial. I will post specific information for parents and children based on my book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” Please do not be put off by my book’s length. This is a reference book. Read only the topic of interest to you.
A 2024 European study of 12,00 children from the UK, France, and Spain showed that less sleep at 3.5 years is associated with more behavioral (internalizing and externalizing) problems at 5 years.
A 2024 Australian study of 1,300 2-year-olds showed that less sleep is associated with worse emotional regulation. (Blog Post 217).
A 2015 Norwegian study of 33,000 children showed that less sleep at 18 months is associated with more behavioral (internalizing and externalizing) problems at 5 years.
A 2011 Dutch study of 5,000 children showed that less sleep at 2 years was associated with more anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 3 years.
A 2007 Canadian study of 1,500 children showed that less sleep before 3.4 years was associated with more ADHD symptoms at age 6 years.
Dr Weissbluth, I would appreciate your thoughts on how to proceed with bedtime the days following a missed nap. My 3.5 year old will miss a nap for reasons out of my control such as illness, hearing noises in the home he’s curious about, cumulative sleep debt (I would NEVER intentionally skip naptime). We have had sleep rules implemented for the last year and they worked very well overall. But sometimes he will still skip a nap. I put him to bed at 5pm and he will be asleep by 5:30pm on these days.
My problem is the next day he will be OK in the morning but need nap a little early, do a decent nap but wake up like 15 mins earlier than usual (1.75 hr nap instead of 2 hrs), then be a big crank the afternoon. I have started to do a 5:30pm bedtime the day after a missed nap. This seems to work well for mood but it will take him several hours to fall asleep. If I try to do normal 7pm bedtime the day following a missed nap he won’t fall asleep until SUPER late and will be a monster the next day.
I know the day of a missed nap you recommend 5pm bedtime. But what do you recommend for bedtime in the days following to get back to normal bedtime?
“My problem is the next day he will be OK in the morning but need nap a little early, do a decent nap but wake up like 15 mins earlier than usual (1.75 hr nap instead of 2 hrs), then be a big crank the afternoon.”
My suggestion is to try to delay the nap to about the usual time so he is not a big crank in the afternoon. The delay in the morning might require more distraction and soothing but his fussing then should be less than what you see in the afternoon because he is better rested in the morning from overnight sleep.
The general conflicting goals are:
1. Keeping him up a little to have a sleep period in synch with his biological rhythm.
2. Keeping him up too much might cause pre-sleep arousal and make it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep.
Your “normal 7pm bedtime” is probably a little too late and is contributing to his difficulty recovering from an unavoidable missed nap. Practice an earlier bedtime for 7-10 nights to see if he will fall asleep at an earlier time to convince yourself that 7pm is or is not too late. Watch closely for drowsy signs before 7pm.
Does this help?
Thank you that does help. His normal naptime is 12:30 but I tend to move it up to 12pm the day following a missed nap. I will try to get him closer to 12:30 with a longer soothing period on these days.
Regarding his bedtime, on a regular basis I have actually questioned if it 7pm too early. How long should it take him to fall asleep at night? He goes upstairs without trouble for his nighttime routine (bath, pjs, books) at 6:15pm. But he usually takes a full hour to fall asleep after I leave his room at 7pm and doesn’t fall asleep until 8pm (does sleep rules). It has made me wonder if needs a later bedtime on a normal day.
In my nap study, on the third birthday (age 36 months), 92% of children were napping 6 days a week and on the fourth birthday, 57% were napping 5 days a week. At age 3.5 years, your expectation is that he will stop napping in the near future based on his age.
One possibility is that his current need to nap and his long latency to sleep onset is because the bedtime is too late. The long latency to sleep might represent mild pre-sleep arousal. Watch carefully his mood and behavior when alone with toys (no screens or parental involvement) between 6-7pm and read Blog Post 83 and 115X carefully to note if and when drowsy signs appear and report back.