Problems When Babies Nap After 3 p.m.
When you're busy running errands and your baby hasn't gotten his afternoon nap, you might dread putting him in the car for the ride home. You know he'll fall asleep -- and it's already after 3 p.m., which means he'll sleep until nearly dinnertime. Late naps can be the bane of a parent's existence, messing up bedtime and causing general crankiness -- yours as well as your baby's.
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Sleep Needs
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Most babies take two daily naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. By the time they're toddlers, most children consolidate nap times, eventually settling for one afternoon nap, generally starting soon after lunch and lasting one to two hours, pediatrician Dr. William Sears explains. If you can't get your baby to bed at his usual nap time, he won't be able to stay awake until bedtime. He'll either fall asleep as soon as you put him in the car and start the engine or in the mashed potatoes over dinner, if he makes it that long. If your child needs his afternoon nap, he will take it at the least opportune time if you don't maintain his schedule.
Day-Night Confusion
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Babies have no sense of time when they're born. They're used to living in the dark, so they don't connect dark with sleep time. Some babies confuse their days and nights, sleeping more during the day and being up and ready for fun at night. Day-night confusion is more likely to occur if you let your baby nap for more than three hours at a time, particularly in the late afternoon, the Mayo Clinic website warns. Babies who nap for too long during the day won't be ready for a long sleep at night.
Crankiness
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A late nap often means that your baby won't be ready for bed at the usual time. He'll stay up later, which often results in an overstimulated, cranky baby. When he stays up later than you would like him to, it cuts into your adult down time. That can result in a cranky parent. If you've gotten into the habit of taking a little snooze when your baby does, taking a late nap might make it hard for you to get to sleep that night, which will make you sleep-deprived, irritable and unproductive the next day as well.
Sleeping In the Next Day
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If you hope that staying up late at night will encourage your baby to sleep in the next day, forget it. The idea that staying up late will help your baby sleep in is a myth, according to the Zero to Three website. Babies sleep better, stay asleep longer and cry less when you put them to bed early, sometimes as early as 6 to 7 p.m., the site explains. A baby who naps until 5 p.m. won't be ready to go to sleep for the night after he just got up. The Nationwide Children's Hospital website advises not letting your baby nap past 4 p.m.
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