How to Help Your Toddler Transition to One Nap

Wondering if your toddler is ready to transition to one nap? Learn when to drop that second nap plus get essential tips for a smooth process.

Transition to One NapDid you notice back in the newborn days we never bothered to count naps? It seemed like we were trying to get our babies to nap so often that we lost count.

But as they grew up, we began to see patterns emerge and created schedules and routines. We may have started with four daily naps, before it became three, and finally two.

And just as we had been holding steady at two, our toddlers began to show signs that they were ready to transition to one nap. This one-nap schedule can be the one they might have—if you’re lucky—all through their preschool years.

So, how can we make that nap transition smooth and establish good napping habits?

How to transition to one nap

My twins had taken one long midday nap since they were about a year and a half old. While the dwindling number of naps seemed like fewer opportunities to catch a break, I enjoyed the long stretch of uninterrupted time. I also loved how we could plan longer outings for the morning or afternoon with just one nap time to schedule our days around.

If you feel like your toddler is ready to take one nap, try the following tips below for a smooth transition:

1. Follow your child’s cues

Every child has different sleep needs. While most toddlers tend to drop to one nap around 14-18 months old, this doesn’t mean your child has to follow suit. Instead, follow her cues and whether they point to her readiness to transition to one nap. You might feel she’s ready when she:

  • Doesn’t nap well for one nap, especially for five consecutive days
  • Can remain happy and alert for at least four straight hours of awake time
  • Takes a long time to fall asleep for the morning nap
  • Takes a short nap

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2. Push the morning nap back in 15-minute increments

Making the transition to one nap is much smoother when you do so gradually instead of cold turkey—don’t go from two naps one day and one nap the next.

Instead, move sleep times around by 15 minutes at first. If you think your child can hang with it, try for 30-minute increments, but aim for a more gradual transition at first.

So, what does this look like for a typical day?

Let’s say she naps from 10-11am, but you’d like to establish one long, two-hour nap from 12-2pm. On the first day, move the first nap to 10:15am. Keep her at this schedule for two to three days before pushing it further to 10:30am. And keep moving this back until you finally hit 12pm.

Get more tips on creating a toddler schedule.

Toddler Schedule

3. Let your toddler sleep in for the morning nap

After you begin to push back your child’s morning naps, allow him to sleep in. Let’s say he naps for an hour—don’t wake him up an hour from when he naps. Instead, allow him to sleep in as long as possible.

This might disrupt the afternoon nap, but you’re helping him stretch one morning nap into one long afternoon one.

Learn 5 reasons your toddler is going through the 1 year old sleep regression.

1 Year Old Sleep Regression

4. Take a late afternoon cat nap if needed

With your toddler sleeping in for that morning nap, she might need a quick cat nap in the afternoon. Base the time you put her to nap on her behavior. If she feels grumpy or sleepy during those wake windows, let her sleep for 30 minutes in the late afternoon.

Time it well so the cat nap isn’t too close to the bedtime routine, either. Wake her up if need be so she has enough awake time before bedtime.

The goal is to drop this cat nap. With consistency, you can lengthen and push the morning one later in the day.

5. Move bedtime earlier if needed

At some point, your toddler’s morning nap might move later in the day that it doesn’t make sense to put her down in the crib for a second cat nap. But at the same time, she might begin to feel sleepy long before the regular bedtime.

To accommodate this new napping routine and need for sleep, experiment with an early bedtime, even if just temporarily. If she regularly sleeps at 7pm, see if you can move bedtime earlier to 6:30pm. She might feel sleepy taking only one nap for the day, and the earlier bedtime can help make up for the lost hours.

6. Be patient during your child’s grumpy moods

A big change like this is hard on everybody, both parents and kids. You’ll likely find yourself with a grumpy child struggling with the lack of sleep as she makes this switch.

Move to one nap when you know there isn’t much else going on in the day. Don’t start on the weekend you’ll be out and about with lots of action. You might end up with tiredness and a crabby child on your hands.

And when crankiness creeps in (especially with those long hours of wake time), keep in mind that this new schedule is a big adjustment to her daytime sleep. Give her lots of grace and patience while she moves to one nap.

Learn how to create a toddler sleep schedule.

Toddler Sleep Schedule

Conclusion

Making the transition to one nap is a bittersweet moment. We’re letting go of the baby stage as our little ones grow into the toddlers and preschoolers they’ll become.

But switching to one nap is also a convenience many parents welcome. We can be out and about more with only one nap to contend with. And we get a longer period alone instead of broken into smaller chunks.

Long gone are those days when our babies napped so often we lost count. Now we have one long, mid-day nap, just what our toddlers need.

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24 Comments

  1. Melissa Monaco says:

    Hi! When you put your a child down for a late afternoon nap, what time should that start/end? Should it be 3 hrs after they wake from their first nap? Should you push bedtime back a little later if they take a short afternoon nap?

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Melissa! The afternoon nap can start or end depending on many factors, from what time they woke up from the first nap, to when bedtime is, to how long they’ve napped, etc. Usually you do want to allow enough awake time between the time they woke up from the nap to bedtime, so that they can still sleep comfortably at night. As far as pushing bedtime back, it all depends on how well your child sleeps with the amount of awake time they had during that time. Usually a short afternoon nap is for those times when the one nap is too far away from bedtime, and the short nap offers a quick refresher before bedtime, so I wouldn’t push bedtime back for that purpose, but rather wake your child up and keep the nap short.

  2. Hello,
    Our daycare is moving our daughter to the toddler room at 12 months and gave me their schedule and it states only 1 nap at 1pm. My daughter is currently taking 2-3 naps a day still. Is there any guidance or pediatric recommendations out there on when to change to 1 nap? I don’t feel like she is developmentally ready for 1.

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Jenna! I hear you—it’s tough when daycares have kids move to a new schedule when they’re not ready for it yet. See if the daycare is willing or flexible to work with your baby’s needs, like giving her an extra cat nap or letting her sleep longer than their schedule. If they can’t, then adjust what you need to adjust for the remainder of the day, like making bedtime earlier or letting her sleep later in the mornings.

  3. I’m working with my 17 month old to transition to 1 nap, as he has been frequently refusing either the morning or afternoon nap for some time now. On other days, however, he sleeps well (1-2 hours) for both. Is there anything ‘wrong’ with alternating days of 2 naps and then 1 nap, depending on what we are doing that day (I’m a stay at home mom) and what time he wakes in the morning? There is not much predictability in this routine at the moment is my only concern, for both of us. He is currently going to bed between 6:30 and 7:30pm (depending on how the day’s naps went) and waking 11.5 to 12.5 hours later, so he is generally getting plenty of sleep at night. He starts 2 days/week of halfday daycare next week, so on those days he will up be awake until I pick him up at 1!

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Alison!

      I don’t think anything seriously bad will happen if you alternate, like if he wakes up late in the morning, then yes it makes sense to do one nap since fitting in two might be too hard. And of course there are days when naps fit around your schedule instead of the other way around (for instance, if you have a play date, then it’s okay to switch your naps around to make it happen).

      That said, it does help to be as consistent as possible all other times. If your day allows it and he wakes up regularly, see if he takes those two naps. Over time, he’ll likely be consistently skipping one of them, at which point it’ll be pretty clear that he’s ready to go down to one nap.

      Hope that helps! Nina

  4. Hello!! My baby is 15 months. She was sleeping 2 naps, one from 1015 to 1130 and the other from 230 to 330pm and goes to bed around 7 and 715pm. She was sleeping until 630/7am in the morning. For 2 weeks from now she was skipping naps (sometimes in teh morning she didint fell sleep until 11am or sometimes in teh afternoon she stays the whole hour in her crib but not sleep). In the weekends we go our beach house and there she was leeping only 1 nap fom 1 to 230pm.
    So, I am working with her in 1 nap schedule but it´s not working ver well. Some days she is very happy and quiet until 1230 and sleeps and other days she is confused bored and ver fussy and I have to make her sleep at 11am. Some days she sleeps only 1 hour and other times 2.5 hours. So we are very confused….I work so I can´t spend like 1 month increasing 15 minutes every day, its very difficult here (I am from Lima, Peru)…what can I do? Also, from some days she is waking up between 6 and 615 crying…hope you can help me please!!! =(

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Maria! That transition can definitely be a challenge. Change is often hard because they’re so unpredictable, and it’s a lot of balancing and tweaking like you’re doing. If you do decide to go down to one nap, I’d try to stretch her morning awake time as late as possible so that she’s sleeping around the middle of the day. Then to compensate for potentially not getting enough sleep, you can also move her bedtime up earlier if she’s super sleepy. Then for those days when she’s waking up at 6am, I would be firm about your wake up time and keep checking in every few minutes letting her know it’s not wake up time yet. For instance, if wake up time is 7am, check back in from the time she wakes up about 10-15 minutes, letting her know briefly that it’s still not 7am yet. Give her ideas for what to do like lie in bed, play with her toys, etc., she just can’t get out yet. If she’s exhausted from waking up so early, then perhaps those days you can have an earlier nap that will hopefully be one long nap, or if it’s a short one, you can do another short cat nap toward the late afternoon. I hope that helps! xo, Nina

  5. Hello! We have been transitioning our 16 mo old from two 45 min naps (10am and 3pm) to one longer for the last few days, since she has started taking much longer to go down for the second nap, cutting it close to her 7pm bedtime, or refusing it. I am having trouble keeping her down for longer than 45 minutes, so now her morning nap is late but short– 11am, for about 45 min still, and she’s not tired enough for a second. Is she just not ready yet? Should we just keep pushing it later, regardless of how long she sleeps? She’s been waking super early, will putting her down early make her wake even earlier?

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Jessica!

      She’s likely going to resist the second nap with an 11am nap more so than the 10am one since she’s waking up at 11:45 instead of 10:45 like before. If she’s still taking only 45 minutes to nap even at 11am, see what happens if you move the nap mid-day to something like 12pm to try to get her nap longer. Another option, especially since you said she’s waking up early, is to nap at 11am, and if she only takes a short nap, move bedtime earlier so she can make up for lost sleep. Ideally you want her napping for a long stretch in the middle of the day. This transition can be tricky and be filled with lots of crankiness, so hang tight and harness all your patience 😉 Keep experimenting with nap times and bedtime until you find the right one.

  6. My daughter is 14months old. For 4 weeks or so, she has been really struggling at bed time taking an hour or more for me to get her down. Was thinking it was regression or teething, etc. But it’s been several weeks now. Her nap times aren’t affected typically. She sleeps mostly through the night…. mostly lol. We are on a 2, 3, 4 hour sleep routine. But bedtime has been super difficult. Time to transition to 1 nap even though her nap times seem normal? She typically wakes around 7, down for nap by 2 hours, around 9am, and sleeps for about an hour or hour and a half. Then up for 3 hours with nap around 2 ish. Then up for 4 hour and down for bed (or attempt) to be asleep around the 4 hour mark which is typically around 7:30. I’ve even tried extending that 4 hours to 5, and she still fights me. TIA!!

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Jennifer! You could definitely try going down to one nap, since toddlers tend to drop to that one nap a day schedule around 14-18 months old. You can also try to flip it where she has less awake time toward the end of the day, and more awake time in the morning. We get progressively worse in general as the day progresses, and she just might not have enough stamina by that point, leading to being overtired come bedtime.

      1. Jennifer Sudik says:

        I actually tried dropping a nap yesterday and it didn’t go well. I moved her morning nap to noon (she slept for 1.5 hours) and dropped the 2nd one. Offered down time with nursing and calm late in the day so she could doze if she wanted to but she didn’t and then down for bed at 8 (she had woken up for the day at 8am, but now I think I should have pushed bedtime up to 7 or 7:30) anywho, she obviously went right down bc she was super tired but them woke back up 30 minutes in, fell right back to sleep on her own for another 45. I went in and got her right back down. Uncharacteristically, she woke up at 2:30 am and then up for the day at 7. For sure signs of overtiredness and that she’s not ready to drop the nap yet right?
        Then today she was tired alllll day long. After waking at 7 she got a morning nap at 8:30 bc she was just so so tired. Then we had chiropractic appointments across town, etc so she got a 4 hour wake span which she might normally be ok with, but of course was super tired. Took 2, 1.5 hours naps today and was tired and cranky all day and super sleepy this evening so I did dinner at 5 and tried to get her down by 7 (only 3 hours wake time). No way man! She fought me until 9pm! I just can’t figure it. And with the time change coming, that will add another kink on sure. Lol

  7. Hello!
    My 13 month old went on a second nap strike, she went 11 days of just one 1.5 hour nap and then two days of 2 1+ naps and was semi easy to put down but now she’s back to just fighting her naps and it’s so heartbreaking l. She cries as soon as we go up to start her nap routine (diaper change, book, song, lay down) and I start her white noise about 15-20 mins before her nap. She is so tired in the mornings for the long stretch (4.5 hours) until her nap but fine in the afternoon. If I do an early nap (3 hours after wake up) then I can’t get her to nap in the afternoon and she is then awake for 6-7 hours. Also, now that she is typically taking one nap she falls asleep nursing before bed almost every night and doesn’t get to her book/song, even with an early bedtime – asleep by 6 pm!. She still is sleeping 11-12 hours at night which is good but I am so confused on what to do! Keep trying for 2 naps (I know she is young) or try sticking with 1?! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Katie! Try sticking to two naps for a few more weeks and see how she does. Maybe instead of having 3 hours of awake time before that first nap, see what happens if you put her down at 2.5 hours of awake time. Then, make sure she also has plenty of awake time between the first and second naps, even if it means waking her up from that first nap. And finally, try pushing that second nap later if need be, so that she also has more awake time between naps 1 and 2, push back bedtime as well if need be, and wake her up from nap 2 if it’s going on too long.

      It’s rough, definitely in that “testing and experimenting” phase where nothing is clear cut. It’s likely she’s starting to phase out that second nap, but that doesn’t always mean it’s a clean transition. Over time, she’ll regulate herself, but just know that it might be rough the next few weeks, and to go easy on yourself if the naps are a bit weird right now 🙂

      1. Ok thank you! The issue I’ve been running into is thay she will go down fairly easy for her morning nap and sleep 1-1.5 hours, the last two days I’ve woken her after an hour (1030ish) and then tried a nap 3.5-4hours later and she just lays/talks/fusses in her crib for half an hour and doesn’t sleep so then she’s up from 1030-6 and passes out nursing within a couple minutes! She’s very happy and content after staying up that long just so tired once it gets to her bedtime routine … some days she will give in and take that afternoon nap but it’s probably been 4x in the last 2.5 weeks!

  8. I have been transitioning my toddler to one nap a day but he only naps one and a half hours after 4 -4.5 hrs awake So he ends up waking up around 1130 or noon. At what time would you suggest a cat nap or if I should provide one? Could you tell me what’s a good rule of thumb to how many wake hours should there be after a cat nap so it doesn’t compromise bedtime? Thank you for your help!

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Esli! I would try to make that 1.5 hours right in the middle of the day if possible. If he sleeps 7am-7pm, then you can do 12:15pm-1:45pm. If this is still too late for him, gradually do it in 15 or 30 minute increments. Or like you said, put him down for a cat nap, but cut it short (30 minutes) and make sure there’s still enough time for him to be awake before bedtime. I hope that helps!

  9. How do I get overtired kids back into a routine? Do I try putting down for a nap earlier (even if one loses it at the mere mention of resting)? Do I try to get them down to bed earlier? Basically where do I begin? Yesterday they woke at 5am but refused to nap till 3:30pm. Then I didn’t want to wake them because I know how tired they are so I let them sleep till 5pm. Then I kept them up later in the hopes they would sleep later but it backfired. They woke before 5am today. Please help.

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      Hi Bethany!

      I think the first thing to work on are those early morning wake ups. If the official wake up time is 7am and they wake up at 5am, do check ins until the official wake up time so that they know that this is when they’re supposed to wake up.

      Once you have them back to waking up at 7am, you might want to consider dropping that midday nap if it looks like they’re more or less content from 7am until bedtime. Of course, there will be a transition period where they’ll be grumpy, but if they’re resisting the nap and they’re pretty content, they might be ready to drop that nap. Right now it’s hard to tell because they’re exhausted from the early wake up, but if they wake up at 7am and you struggle with nap, it might be time to drop it.

      If you still need a break, you can still have “quiet time” for an hour or so, but don’t feel like they have to actually fall asleep.

      I hope that helps!

  10. My son is 16 months old and is going through a really rough stage. He is getting in molars and canines and is refusing to nap. We try and try and try. Even try just one nap because I keep thinking maybe he’s transitioning to that. He’s never been an amazing sleeper but at least used to lie down and nap for a few hours at a time. He also has several night wakings but not because he’s hungry but it seems like he’s scared. I have no idea what to do!

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      It’s definitely rough when kids don’t sleep well, especially when they seem to have regressed even more.

      At 16 months old, he COULD be transitioning to one nap (typically this happens between 14-18 months old).

      That said, if you feel he’s not ready, it might be other issues, like separation anxiety. This is also the age when they don’t like being apart from us, or feel like we’re going to go away forever because they can’t see us.

      Lastly, I’d make sure that his room is outfitted as best as possible for sleep, particularly with darkening curtains and white noise. This helps him relax and more likely to sleep.

      I hope that helps, Jill! Rest assured you’re doing a good job, mama, even if it doesn’t always feel like it sometimes <3

  11. My twins seem to only be getting about 9 to 10 hours sleep overnight, and they are sometimes sleeping up to 4 hours during the day across 2 naps. I feel that this is probably a bit too much day time sleep and I would prefer that they got a little more at night and slightly less during the day. So my question is, is this something I should try to change?

    1. Nina Garcia says:

      I do agree that reducing naps can help extend sleep at night. It’s amazing they take two two-hour naps, but they might not be sleeping enough come evening time. Many toddlers drop to one nap around 14-18 months. You might try sticking to one two- or even three-hour nap in the middle of the day, to see if that will help with nighttime sleep.

      Another option, if you feel like they still need two separate nap times, is to cut their nap times short. Rather than each nap running for two hours, cut each to one hour, or 1.5 hours, to see if that will help as well.