Ive started the naps plan just yesterday. Before I was putting my son down every 2- 2.5 hrs. But he was usually fussy by then and always slept only 40 minutes sometimes 30. So far yesterday after day one of the naps plan he had two naps that were 40 minutes and one that was an hour. Also last night he was up twice and usually it’s my h more frequent. I feel that it is working however my question to you is, I find that he doesn’t fall asleep easily at he 90 minute mark but I don’t think he’s ready for 3 hour stretch either. He’s 6 months old but gets VERY fussy by 2.5 hours. Any suggestions? We usually try to have him asleep by 7:30 and he always gets up somewhere between 6-7 am. Susan

Hi, Susan,

Ok, the book and the 90-minute cycle don’t speak specifically to this issue, but it never hurts to make the attempt at the nap after 90 minutes of waking. There are several things that might be interfering with his sleep at that point. The timing of initiating the nap is especially critical, if we wait 10 – 15 minutes, he may pass out of the window of sleepiness. This seems a possibility since as you describe he’s looking fussy and/or sleepy at the 2.5hr mark.

At his age, his wakeful periods are likely to be a mix of 1.5hr and 3hr across the daytime. The book goes into more detail about when these changes can be expected to take place.

Also, I know it has been a few days (!) since your question, it isn’t unusual for short naps to be the first response, but hopefully these settled into longer naps in the meantime

Polly.

Hi Polly

My little boy is 5 months and sleeps well at night. 7pm until 6am. He then naps 90 minutes after he wakes up but only for half an hour. He has another nap of between half an hour to an hour around 11.30. He then refuses to nap again until bed time at which point her is absolutely exhausted. I am aware of his sleepy ques (eye rubbing etc) so I know he is tired but he just will not nap. For all of his naps it takes around 20 minutes to settle him. He writhes around, rubs his eyes etc and just will not settle for an afternoon nap. For the first two naps, I am sure he wakes early from them as he is starting to get hungry again.

We have never used anything to get him to sleep ( swing, rocking etc). We used to swaddle him but stopped at 4 months as he could roll and we didn’t want his arms trapped. When we stopped swaddling, we would put m awake in the cot and he would just drift off. We only needed to hold his arms for afew minutes. We have tried a soother but he spits it out. I just don’t know what to do. Is 2 hours sleep in the day enough for him? I’m not sure it is as he is almost falling asleep on the bottle at bed time. We have to shout and whistle at him before we out him in his cot.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Kerry Southam

“The 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program” now available in Kindle version at amazon.com!

Dear Polly,

My son is almost 10 months and we are still struggling with him not sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time.  Please help.

Heather

Dear Heather,

Have you given the 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program a try? Sorry to ask what seems like an obvious question, but I can’t tell from your question where you’re at.

Polly

Polly.

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Hi Dr Moore,

I am so excited to have discovered your book. I’ve noticed my daughter consistently being drowsy at 90 minutes for about a month and just thought she was a very sleepy 4 month old. I try to get her down at the 90 minute mark and she goes to sleep quite easily. The problem is that she sleeps 30 minutes to an hour and wakes up still drowsy but unable to go back to sleep. I have a 2 1/2 year old that I do my best to keep quiet during nap times. What, if anything, can I do to help with the length of her naps?

Sincerely,

- Tracie

It sounds like the book affirmed what you suspected all along. I’m glad about that.

I think if I were you, I wouldn’t be doing anything differently from what it sounds like you’re doing: looking for signs of sleepiness, and responding asap by providing an opportunity to sleep.

Be guided by your observations. See which sleep opportunities at 90 minutes were followed by sleep and which ones weren’t.

My guess is it will take a few days or a week or so to sort it all out.

As a broad guideline, many (but not all) six-month-olds have a 3-hour stretch in the morning once they’re up for the day, and another before they go down for the night.

There might be other 3-hr stretches in between his daytime naps. You might not see this yet if he hasn’t been getting his full allotment of sleep for some time.

Once your little guy starts getting more regular naps and hopefully longer naps, you’ll know which are the real alertness intervals to follow up with a nap.

Make sense?

If it doesn’t, can you try to describe for me what cues you’re going by? That might help me be more specific.

Polly.

I have a 6 week old and he often only sleeps for 10-15 minutes before he wakes up, either on his own, because he’s put down or because of a noise around the house (I also have a 3 year old). I’m wondering if I should start counting the 90 minutes after each of these episodes? Or wait until a longer nap. When he sleeps this little, he often goes to sleep again before the 90 minutes, though.

Also, especially in the evening, I start counting the 90 minutes, and begin soothing him up to 10 minutes before he should be back asleep, but it often doesn’t work. It often takes 3 hours of soothing to get him to sleep. Is he just still young enough he’s still developing this in the evening? Or what could be the issue?

Thanks,

- Alisha

Hi, Alisha,

Goodness, your baby must be something like 3 months old now, I’m so sorry for the delay in responding, I just cannot humanly get to all these questions in a timely fashion as I would like, my apologies for the delay.

I’m imagining your baby now has outgrown these supershort naps and in addition is more tolerant of noise in the environment. Some of this change is purely developmental, and is outgrown, usually by the 3rd month.

If you still have short naps, usually what I find is that the 90-minute cycle starts over again upon awakening, even if the sleep only lasted 15 minutes. That said, I’m sure there are babies or occasions that are the exception to this “rule.” If your son shows signs of sleepiness before the 90-minute clock would predict, then I definitely advocate for responding to his signs (that is, reading your baby and not the clock).

And yes, at six weeks, up until about 12 weeks, that evening fussiness lasts a doggone long time in the evening, and yes, he will outgrow it (if indeed he hasn’t already, again my apologies). You will not believe how sweet your baby is when he finally outgrows this. This is also a developmental phase that many babies just seem to need to go through.

Polly.

My son is 8 months on August 29, 2010. I feel he has reverted back to a newborn. Car rides take longer to put him to sleep. He cannot self-soothe and needs to be rocked in the rocking chair to be put to sleep, BUT recently he does not go to sleep. I have been writing down his awale and asleep times and there is absolutely no consistency or predictablility to his nap times nor his bed times. This is leaving me completely frustrated. I am tuned in to his sleepy cues – rubbing eyes, pulling ears, playing with hair, putting face into me, floor, etc., getting whiny. BUT when I attempt to put him to sleep ..he sits up he lies down in my arms, he sits back up, he tosses nad turns in my arms. So I place him in his crib thinking he is not comfortable in my arms and then he doe sit in his crib. By the time he is done he is in another wake cycle and the same cycle begins on both of our ends.

I found you book fascinating and it makes so much sense, but I am unable to enforce it with my son.

Please help!!!

- Tiffany

Hi, Tiffany,

Your son does sound terrifically sleepy and with the overtired babies, it is always such a challenge getting them to sleep, because they really know how to fight sleep. Also, his age makes it challenging, more challenging than if he were, say three months old. He’s got a different view of the world now!

If I were you I too would be frustrated out of my mind, and in my desperation, here is what I would try. I have no guarantee this will work and this suggestion may not even be something you’re willing to try (and I would support you in that decision, you know your child better than I). But I think your son needs a little more help getting to sleep for a few days, and I believe if you can accomplish this, you can help him turn the corner, so to speak.

Since he can’t self-soothe, for a short time, can you try a swing, something motorized, that can help him fall asleep?

Obviously you wouldn’t want to use this forever, in the book I advocate not relying on swings as they can be tough habits to break later on. But I think your son requires a few days of solid deep naps plus good sleep at night ASAP before you can re-establish a nap schedule.

If you can get him a couple days of solid sleep, I bet his sleep-resisting will diminish.

The car used to help him drift off to sleep, it sounds like. I wonder if the starting and stopping of driving are stimulating to him now, more than it used to be when he was younger, plus his vision is better and he can see more through the window and so forth. Your description of the emergent ineffectiveness of riding in the car triggered my suggestion of a mechanical baby swing, because it is monotonous and I suspect your son needs monotony to sleep right now.

If not a swing, then anything genuinely monotonous might do. He is having trouble disengaging from the very interesting environment around him, and this is interfering with sleep processes.

What do you think? Crazy idea (from a crazy lady)?

Polly.

Hi!

I just came across your book yesterday and am about half way through reading it. I have a 3 week old baby who has become fussier (part of it is due to having reflux) and who has been up every 1.5-2 hrs. at night wanting to eat. His day time naps have been more like cat naps and he seems to fight sleeping. This morning when he got up I decided to give your program a try. Sure enough, after about 70 minute or so of being awake he started getting fussy and sleepy. I soothed him and got him ready for sleeping and right at the 90 minute mark, he fell asleep. The trouble I’m having, however, is that he doesn’t like to STAY asleep. After five or ten minutes he wakes up and fusses. I try to soothe him back to sleep and sometimes it works, but often he will wake up again after only a few minutes. What causes him do do this and how should I handle it?

I would greatly appreciate your advice! Thanks so much!

A tired mommy,

- Jennifer

Hi, Jennifer,

I do get this question a fair amount and I only have a little bit of advice in addition to the things you’re already doing. Good for you for recognizing his signs of sleepiness. Hopefully this is helping you already, at least a little bit.

This difficulty with staying asleep can be somewhat common, especially in the very young babies like yours, and reflux can also contribute. These moms describe what you describe, which is a sense that the baby ‘wants’ to sleep, but simply seems unable to do so.

Seems to me there’s a certain percentage of babies who have this difficulty with staying asleep, and I think its just the way the babies are wired. Their nervous systems just get ‘irritable’, partly due to sleep loss, which instead of helping them sleep more deeply, it interferes with the sleep process itself. Babies as young as yours are unable to soothe themselves just yet. Mostly this is developmental. While there are some who would disagree with this advice, I suggest for the time being that you (and anyone else who can help you) provide the soothing for him, either by holding him (as much as is feasible, obviously this is impossible to do all the time), or by wearing him in a sling or carrier, something that provides contact and warmth. You will not need to do this for months and months, I predict. My hunch is you will need to do this for a few days, to get him ‘over the hump’ so to speak, and then he’ll have this problem less and less.

If you try this for a few days and see no appreciable difference in his ability to stay asleep, though it will not be easy or fun for you for a few weeks/months, chances are good he’ll outgrow it.

I apologize in advance if this advice conflicts with your parenting style, but this is what I would do if I were in your shoes. Hope it helps.

Polly.