When should my baby only have one nap?

All babies (and adults!) have different sleep needs. Some people have low sleep needs and just don’t need as much sleep as others with high sleep needs. With that in mind there is quite a range whereby little ones might be ready to drop to one nap. Generally babies won’t be ready for one nap before they’re one, they’re more likely to be ready between 12 and 18 months.

Ideally as they approach their first birthday your one year old will be having a short nap in the morning and then a longer one in the afternoon. To transition to one nap you want to cut down that morning nap initially to 45 minutes and then after that to just a 15 minute (max half an hour) power nap to help get them through to the afternoon nap. The afternoon nap can then be a chunky nap that they have between 1:30-3:30 initially and then when the morning nap goes it will more likely be 1-3pm.

To cut that morning nap down you could look at moving it from a cot nap to a motion nap. They’re more likely to nod off in the car or the pram and also you can keep an eye on how long they’re napping. If they don’t end up falling asleep you can push through and bring the lunch time nap forward and then go for an early bedtime.

Never be afraid of an early bedtime, far better to get them to bed early than keep them up and risk them getting overtired. Overtiredness can result in bed time struggles, false starts (waking up shortly after going to sleep) and early wakes.