Sleeping FAQ: 18-24 Months – Settling/Sleep Associations

My 18mth old daughter takes up to 2.5hrs to go to sleep at night which is affecting her by day.

I really hope you can offer some advice to assist with our daughters getting to sleep at night – whilst she is not crying or distressed I think it is starting to impact her during the day – she is always grizzling and seems tired
My daughter is taking up to 2 1/2 hours to go to sleep at night, and this is making her tired during the day. I suspect she is now using her day sleeps to make up for the lost sleep at night because she goes down so late. She is not crying while she is trying to go to sleep, she may occasionally grizzle or give a little cry but generally she is moving around, talking to herself, playing and has a lovely time! During the day she can be very grizzly and annoying to be honest! I think it is often because of being tired as all the other “triggers” like hunger, boredom etc have normally been dealt with. I really think that is because her night time sleep is quite short (between 9 and 10 hours and she always been a child who needs her sleep so has been on the “higher” side of the recommended sleep for her age).

My daughter wakes round 7am, and has a bottle followed by breakfast at 8am. No morning sleep, snack at abut 10am. Lunch at 12:00, and sleep at 12:30. We have few problems with her going down for the daytime sleep – takes about 15 minutes for her to go down. She will generally sleep until between 2:30 and 3:30 – we have a rule that we don’t let her sleep past 3pm though, so we wake her if needed then. We are only doing this as we thought it better that we didn’t let her sleep too late in the day. Snack at 3pm. Dinner at 5:20pm, bath at 6pm. Night bottle at 6:40 pm and then into bed at 7pm. Once she is asleep she rarely ever wakes up.

Things we have tried – we dropped her morning sleep and moved her afternoon sleep forward from 1:30 to 12:30 instead. Tried putting her down earlier (say 6:40pm – no difference – could take up to 3 hours to go to sleep) and later in the evening – 7:30 – sometimes seemed to make a small difference as she sometimes fell asleep after only 30 – 40 minutes but was not consistent and to be honest this isn’t my preference as I find it exhausting keeping her up till 7:30).

Other information, she does have a dummy but she has it in and rarely ever cries for it. She has a muslin wrap that she loves and she cuddles this when she goes to sleep but that is always with her. She is a good eater – she likes her food and I don’t think she is hungry. Her bedroom is a very warm room due to the hot Australian sun hitting her bedroom each afternoon – we have bought a cooler for the room and it keeps her a bit cooler but it is still very warm. She sleeps in very light pajamas and a light cotton sleeping bag. We have tried not putting her in the sleeping bag but then she treats her cot like a race track and walks around and around it so we try to always use it.

My daughter has always settled herself to sleep – in fact she has always been remarkably good at just going to sleep – I have never patted or soothed her – we put her into her cot, say goodnight, close the curtains and walk out.

Her night time routine consists of the dinner, play, bath, bottle and bed. We don’t read her books as she will not still for more than about 20 seconds so we gave up on that. We tend to not do anything special although we do have a verse we say each night as we put her to bed. She tends to watch the TV and play with us just as I have the TV on for the news (or Neighbours! how embarrassing to admit that!) just before the time she goes to bed so maybe that is too stimulating?

The amount of daytime sleep that a toddler of this age needs can vary from child to child but is usually between one and half to two hours. You need to take into consideration how active your child is during the day, what time she wakes in the mornings and whether she has dropped her morning nap.

Some toddlers will gradually cut back a little on their daytime sleep when the time is right, dropping their morning nap and having about one and a half to two hours at lunchtime so they are still ready for bed in the evening at their usual time. In your daughter?fs case this has not happened. You may not have been aware that she did not need so much daytime sleep as the problem seemed to happen in the evenings. If your daughter appears tired and grizzly by day it is entirely reasonable to think that by giving her a longer lunchtime nap she will catch up from the previous evening. She may have been a toddler whose needs changed quite suddenly, rather than gradually.

Cut back on her lunchtime sleep so that, for several days, she is only having 1-11/2 hrs. It may help if you move gradually towards to this shorter lunchtime nap by reducing her sleep by 15 minutes every few days. This way may take longer for her to reset her settling time at bedtime but could prevent her from being very cross and trying when woken in the afternoon. If you cut back her daytime sleep in one go you will have to wake her for a few days and cope with a toddler who may be rather cranky once awake.

Once your daughter begins to settle better when put to bed in the evening you might need to make the lunchtime nap slightly longer than the time she was having whilst you were dealing with the problem. On a day when she has had a busy morning, perhaps with an activity, she may need to sleep nearer to two hours at lunchtime but, on the days when she is just playing at home, one and a half hours may be enough. As an average at this age, the lunchtime nap is usually about 11/2-2hours in length, but can vary from child to child. Now you know the result of your daughter having too much daytime sleep you will be aware of the signs to look for and act accordingly.

It may help your daughter to wind down a little by going to her room for a short while, away from the TV, before you settle her for the night. After her bath take her to her room to have her milk quietly before settling her into her cot in the usual way. You could put out a few board books for her to look at, even if she is not interested in sitting still and listening to a story. Encourage her to point to pictures of familiar items. She may seem to lose interest quickly at present but, gradually, she will become more used to looking at a book for a short while especially if there is no TV to distract her. A calm and quiet bath and bedtime routine does help a toddler begin to switch off from the busyness of her day and prepare to settle down to sleep within a short time of going into her cot.