When should children stop napping during the day?

The answer to the question of when children should stop taking a daytime nap is different from child to child. Most two-and-a-half-year-olds need a period of rest and recovery during the day, but when it starts to become a recurring challenge to get a child to go to sleep in the evening, this could be a sign that it is time for the child to stop taking a nap during the day. However, there is no hard and fast rule as to the correct thing to do in any given situation – for some families, the best solution may be to plan things so that a child takes a long nap at preschool and then stays up until late in the evening at home. It is quite simply a case of finding the solution that works best for your particular family situation, and it is also important to remember that different children have different needs. No approach is wrong as long as the child seems to be in good spirits, with enough energy to cope with daily life without any major problems.

The benefits of a nap during the day

As the parent of a young child, it is not unusual to feel completely exhausted come the evening, and to then be faced with a rambunctious two-year-old who wants to stay up until nine or ten o’clock can be extremely trying... So it is completely understandable if you want to remove the daytime nap from your child’s routine at quite an early stage, in order to have earlier evenings and sufficient time for your own recovery. As a parent, it is definitely important to ensure that you get the recovery time you need, but it is still a good idea to consider what the consequences might be for your child before you actually decide to stop your child from napping during the day. If your child has to cope with long days at preschool, a well-timed nap could be crucial when it comes to making the afternoon a fun and enjoyable period rather than a struggle against the clock. Some children have a need to nap for a while during the day until they are relatively old, while others are able to cope without a nap from as early as the age of two. It is therefore important to always assess the situation based on your own child’s needs, rather than thinking that there must be some magical age at which all children should stop napping during the day.

Two signs that it might be time for your child to stop napping during the day

• The child has difficulty falling asleep during the day and is able to cope without problems if you skip the child’s daytime nap.
• The child wants to stay up for a long time in the evening, and it is taking longer and longer to put the child to bed.

The transition from daytime nap to staying awake all day

When it is time for a child to stop taking a nap during the day, routines need to change and the transition period can therefore be quite difficult for both the child and the parents. Everyone may feel tired as the established order of things changes and it is necessary to adapt to a new situation, but after a while the new routine usually starts to feel like the norm. The best indicator of whether or not a child is getting enough sleep is the absence of tiredness during the day. Bear in mind that, for a child, tiredness may be evident in the form of sleepiness, but it can just as easily be expressed through a bad mood and a lot of anger and crying.

The most difficult aspect of stopping a child from napping for a while during the day can often be that, to begin with, the child is often completely exhausted come the evening. Perhaps you feel sympathy for a child who is so tired that he or she can barely manage to stay awake? In such a situation, we know that it can be very tempting to allow the child to go to sleep very early in the evening, but it is far from certain that this solution will work out well – putting a child to bed too early means that there is a greater risk of the child waking up during the night, and you can almost certainly count on being faced with some extremely early mornings.

It is therefore better to try to provide your child with extra support and stimulation during this transition period, so that he or she has the energy to last all the way until bedtime. An extra round of activities at the playground, a long bath, playing with a parent or time spent reading fairy tales or watching TV together can all be ways of keeping a child awake and in a good mood all the way until it’s time for a little head to hit the pillow in the evening. A few extra little snacks can be helpful when the need arises to top up a child’s energy levels, as can carrying and helping a child with things that are difficult for children when they are tired.

If your child seems unable to get used to the transition and instead continues to be tired and lethargic during the afternoon, you may need to consider whether it was perhaps a little too early to remove the child’s daytime nap from your routine? Perhaps it would be better to simply make the nap a little shorter instead?

Replacing the daytime nap with a little downtime – for everyone

When you are in the process of removing your child’s daytime nap from your routine, it can often be nice to simply take it easy for a while and recharge some much-needed energy. A good idea for how to unwind for a while during the day without taking a nap is to try to introduce a period of downtime. It is usually easiest to do this together with your child, so view it as an opportunity for you to also put your feet up for a while – you could look at a few books or do some other relaxing activity together; perhaps listen to a favourite fairy tale, or just lie there and enjoy a little chit-chat with each other.

Please note that all information above is based on Swedish recommendations.