Contact Naps: Tips & How to stop them
Contact naps can be the most beautiful thing in the world. Your baby is safely snoozing against your chest, in a carrier, or in bed with you. Contact naos can be a true life saver but also mentally very draining.
Many moms find themselves trapped in contact naps, which can cause them to feel overwhelmed. Contact naps are so beautiful, and while you snuggle up against your baby, they can also cause stress because household chores can’t get done, or you might never get a minute for yourself to finally take that shower that you have been craving for so long.
Benefits of contact naps
Ensures more daytime sleep, especially for babys younger than 4 months
It can be a great way to rescue or resettle a nap
Calms and regulates baby and parents
Promotes the release of oxytocin, fostering positive attachment and reducing stress
Ensuring safe contact naps
Make sure you, as a caregiver, are NOT drowsy
Please always remain awake while holding a baby
Follow manufacturer and safety guidelines for babywearing.
Why do some babies exclusively contact nap?
Sleep is a learned behavior, and contact napping is essential. If you teach your child that contact napping is the only way to go and stay asleep, they will essentially end up being exclusive contact nappers.
In almost all cases, parents start to use contact napping to ensure more daytime sleep (which is the right way to do this, especially if your baby is under four months old). Sometimes, parents resort back to contact napping when their baby is going through a sleep regression, and things start to slowly creep back to constant contact napping… You start out with just one contact nap, then two, and then suddenly, you find yourself constantly napping because your child refuses their crib.
Contact sleep can become troublesome if it’s the only way your baby knows how to sleep. The need to sleep is biological, but the way we sleep is learned.
Transition away from contact naps
Wondering if your child will ever outgrow contact naps? The answer can be very individual and depends on your child's sleep association, the strength of the association, and their personality. Some children outgrow contact naps over a long period of time, while others still want to be exclusively held for napping around 2-3 years of age.
Helpful steps to move away from contact naps
Prepare their sleep environment (blackout curtains, white noise etc)
Have a short but set-in-place nap routine of 5-10 minutes to signalize that it is time to get ready for a nap
Work on eat-play-sleep routines as early as possible
Eliminate the sleep crutch and replace it with a gentle sleep training approach
Offer full alert feedings 30 minutes prior to their nap
Don;t put your baby down drowsy-but-awake after the age of 4 months
Reality
It will take time and practive and LOTS of consistency from your side to help teach your baby independent nap skills. Don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t work overnight. All babys and toddlers lack sleep pressure during the day which makes napping very hard. Give your child time to adjust to their new routines and stay consistent. Nap training can take 2-3 weeks to fully be set into place.
TOP TIP
Work on nighttime sleep first before you want to concur contact naps. Start at bedtime when your baby’s sleep drive is highest and take advantage of their high sleep pressure. Strengthen nighttime sleep habits to aid in a smoother nap transition!
Ready to move away from contact naps?
Looking for a balance between contact naps and independent naps? Practice makes progress with independent sleep. Independent sleep is a learned skill! It takes lots of time, practice, and patience. The golden period to work on independent sleep is around 4-6 months of age, but IT IS NEVER TOO LATE!
I always recommend starting working on nighttime sleep first and continuing the next day with nap training, or ease into it 50/50, which means trying independent sleep for naps the following day but don’t force it!
Do you need extra support and guidance during this hard transition? We offer customized sleep plans, SOS-Calls and a self-pace sleep training course.
We also offer 1:1 personalized sleep coaching to families including newborn support and sleep training plans starting at 4 months of age up to 4 years!
