01/09/2026
As children get older, parents may start to notice that the afternoon nap has a noticeable impact on nighttime sleep. A common saying is “sleep begets sleep” (meaning that the better a child sleeps during the day, the better they will sleep at night) but this seems to run counter to our experiences as parents. Most parents report that when their child takes a long or late nap during the day, they have trouble falling asleep at night and when they skip a nap, they fall asleep at the dinner table.
A review study published in 2014 found that napping during the day is consistently linked to falling asleep later at night as well as decreased sleep duration and quality of sleep at night. In other words, children who nap tend to go to sleep later at night and sleep for a shorter time and more poorly at night than children who do not nap. However, this association was strongest for children over the age of 2 years, suggesting that naps may only significantly impact nighttime sleep for children over 2.
Another recent study examined napping in 1.5-year-old children and how naps impacted nighttime sleep. The researchers found that the longer toddlers nap during the day, the later they went to sleep at night and the less time they slept at night overall. The timing of the nap also seemed to have a significant impact with late afternoon naps disturbing sleep to a greater extent. In other words, it may not be napping in itself that disrupts nighttime sleep but napping for longer or later in the day.
TRANSLATION: A shorter nap in the early afternoon may help if your child struggles with nighttime sleep. However, if your child is napping well and sleeping well at night, there is no reason to cut their nap short or skip it altogether.
Visit the Parenting Translator newsletter for more research on napping (including links to all of the research) including why children stop napping and what to do as a parent when your child drops their nap!
All information provided by Parenting Translator Foundation — parentingtranslator.org
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