Sleeping FAQ: 6-9 Months – Daytime Sleep

Should I cut out my 8-month-old daughter’s morning nap?

My daughter is now 8 months old and I am wondering if I need to re-structure her day-time sleep. She wakes between 7/7.30am and has breakfast and then I try to put her down for a nap at 9.30am but for the last week she has chattered/whined for half an hour before eventually falling asleep at 10 for 30 minutes. I’m not sure whether to leave her or not put her down at all or just put her down at 10am. Her lunch time nap is very hit and miss. I put her down between 12.30/1pm; she sometimes has difficulty settling off as she sits herself up; she sleeps usually 1/1.5hours, occasionally 2 hours. Her average daily sleep very rarely goes above 1.5/2 hours. So far there have been no problems at night except the odd 6.30am waking or difficulty settling her off at 7/7.30pm. She is a really lovely, active baby who is just starting to crawl and pull herself up and is very curious about life. Even if she doesn’t sleep that much in the day she is rarely irritable. Could it be that she doesn’t need that much sleep in the day as her total sleep averages usually 13.5 hours?

Structuring the daytime sleep in the second half of the first year needs to be done carefully. At her age your daughter will still need her morning nap even if very short, although she sleeps well in the night and does not wake early. She is quite young to drop it completely. In the next few weeks as she perfects her crawling you may find she is more ready for a nap about 9.30/9.45am. Keep putting her in her cot for a 20-30 min nap at this time so she will be ready to go down by 12.45/1pm after her lunch. She is now able to stay awake longer than a smaller baby but if she becomes overtired she may well begin to really fight sleep and end up exhausted at the end of the day.
She is obviously a baby who does not need as much sleep as some others but being aware of her growing mobility and therefore the amount of energy she uses up you will see that she does still need two naps in the day, even if the first one is very short. It would be better to keep it in place rather than drop it and end up with a baby who is nowhere near as happy as your daughter is at present.