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Napping schedules often begin to be more regulated as newborns grow into babies who are more active when awake, and parents might worry about how long those naps should be during the day without interrupting night sleeping schedules. As every baby is different, so are their sleep needs and habits. However, there are some typical patterns that can be seen in babies as they grow that will determine their napping needs.

As babies reach 6 months of age, they are often sleeping for longer periods of time at night and taking regular naps during the day. There are several common factors that affect how many naps are needed and how long those naps last. Naps are necessary ingredients for healthy development of babies, and often both morning and afternoon naps are included in sleep routines. Some babies, however, will wake later in the morning from their night time sleep and not need a nap until early afternoon. Other babies will wake early, nap in the morning, the afternoon, and again for a short time in the evening. These naps might range from 30 minutes to 4 hours each, but often the afternoon naps are the longer ones.

Babies who sleep a lot during the day may have difficult times establishing good sleeping habits at night. When babies take evening naps, bed times can move later and later into the night, and result in fussier babies and frustrated parents. Bed time routines and night time sleep can be affected negatively if a 6 month old infant sleeps too long in the evening.

If the nap schedules are interrupting with night time sleep habits there are several things parents can do. First, parents should try to bring bed time back to a reasonable hour, and this often means readjusting the schedule for the entire day. This might mean earlier lunch and supper times and earlier morning and or afternoon naps. Then those babies who really seem to need evening naps will have enough time to take one before bed time.

Another issue parents should be aware of is to not let the evening nap interfere with the bed time routine. Often, as babies begin to have later bed times parents become more exhausted and sometimes less inclined to fully embrace all that goes into those routines. Baths, books, and quiet snuggle times should still be included. If parents are exhausted and the babies are still awake, it can be harder to be consistent when all that is wanted is to flop on the couch and watch the late news. Things such as television noise and distracted parents can lead to more challenges at bed times.

Some parents wake sleeping babies from evening naps if they fear that the evening nap will interfere with the night time sleep. Sometimes the actual results are babies who are more difficult to sooth and resist bed time even more. Their natural rhythms are interrupted and the imbalance disrupts their routines even more. It is actually better in some cases to avoid evening naps when possible or encourage earlier ones where babies can wake themselves naturally and independently, avoiding disturbing their own rhythms.

Establishing consistent nap schedules can be difficult for parents of infants. It involves creating reliable patterns during the day, and paying attention to the needs for play time as well as sleep time. Doing so will encourage positive, healthy sleeping habits, both for day time naps and deep night time sleep.

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