Every parent knows babies do not approach sleep in quite the same way as adults.
While we close our eyes at night and are out until morning, babies sleep in short bursts.
This can be quite tricky to get used to, especially as the short bursts occur around the clock! I definitely didn’t find it easy in those early weeks.
It’s important to note that there’s no such thing as what your baby “should” be doing.
Yes they need good sleep, and they will definitely let you know when they’re not getting enough, but it’s important to remember that every baby is different.
Is a 30-minute nap a problem?
It is very normal for a newborn to have short cat naps at times. And even a baby over six months may still need a 30-minute quick nap towards the end of the afternoon to tide them over until bedtime.
However 30-minute naps become a problem when all your baby is able to do is nap briefly, waking frequently, and appearing tired almost immediately after
If your baby is having naps of just 30 minutes to just under an hour then appearing very unsettled and overtired during their wake window this is where you may want to try to lengthen their nap.
As with anything related to babies remember that a lot changes in a short space of time and a newborn baby’s sleeping patterns will evolve.
They begin to sleep for longer stretches at night after around three months and they consolidate their daytime naps into fewer, longer bursts.
But my youngest daughter would have short 30 minute cat naps well beyond the age of three months, and I remember being frustrated as she was grumpy and unsettled during her awake time after that.
So we’re going to talk about short naps, why they happen and what you can do about it.
Baby only sleeps for 30 minutes
A short nap is normal, but if it’s happening at every single nap time you may want to use some strategies to change that.
If your baby is only napping for 30 minutes at a time then you may be worried that:
- They aren’t getting enough restful sleep
- It means you can’t get enough time to have a proper nap yourself. I don’t know about you but I need about 10 minutes to actually drop off and don’t feel rested with just a quick cat nap.
In the early weeks with a baby you grab whatever amount of sleep you can, however a 30 minute break is not quite enough to allow you to have a restful nap of your own.
Newborn babies will sleep for roughly 16 to 20 hours total in a 24 hour period. However this is not taken all at once, and it’s not even taken in even chunks.
Although you can check out my newborn baby sleep schedules for a rough guide as to what a normal day may look like with a baby, you need to remember that every baby is different and most babies won’t follow a rigid routine in the early weeks.
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Age guide to baby sleep patterns
Here’s a rough guide to the total amount of sleep your baby will have by age and how that is divided between day and nighttime sleep.
This does not mean that your baby will take that sleep in one chunk. In the first year it is common for babies to wake multiple times at night, especially in the first three months.
In the daytime a newborn may have 5-6 naps, which are consolidated to 3-4 naps by the time they are 3 months old.
| Age | Total sleep | Total nighttime sleep | Total daytime sleep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newborn | 16-20 hours | 8-10 hours | 8-10 hours |
| 1-3 months | 16 hours | 8-9 hours | 7 hours |
| 3-6 months | 15 hours | 9-10 hours | 4-5 hours |
| 6-9 months | 14 hours | 10 hours | 4 hours |
| 9-12 months | 14 hours | 11 hours | 3-4 hours |
Why does my baby wake up after 30 minutes?
There are a number of reasons why your baby’s naps might be short:
They need to eat frequently
Babies have small tummies and can only take a small amount of milk at each feed. This means they need to feed little and often.
Your baby may wake after 30 minutes because they are ready for their next feed. For newborns the advice from the NHS is to always feed on demand.
As your baby becomes older you can use a routine to ensure your baby is getting a decent feed before they nap, so that they aren’t woken up by hunger.
Babies have short sleep cycles
Babies have much shorter sleep cycles than adults and so are prone to waking after shorter periods of time as they move from deep to light sleep.
Newborn babies have two sleep stages – REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM. REM is also known as “active sleep”, while non-REM is “quiet sleep.
During REM your baby’s arms and legs may twitch and jerk plus their face may twitch and change expressions too. In non-REM the baby will be very still.
Unlike adults, babies shift between these two types of sleep very quickly, and spend more time than adults in REM sleep. In this type of sleep they are more likely to startle awake.
Sleep cycles for babies last for roughly 50 minutes, whereas they are around 90 minutes for adults.
As your baby grows they spend more time in non-REM sleep, meaning they remain in a deeper sleep for longer spells.
While adults may move to light sleep, briefly wake and then get back to sleep, a baby may begin to cry as they need help getting back to sleep.
This is totally normal in the newborn days.
Fussy evenings
If your baby is sleeping for short 30-minute bursts, or even less, in the evenings then this is a totally normal behaviour.
It’s sometimes known as the witching hour (even though it lasts longer than an hour) and begins when baby is a few weeks old. It can last for several weeks.
During these fussy evenings your baby may cry consistently, nod off for a short break, and then wake again crying.
In this situation you really need to ride it out. If your baby is feeding well, producing plenty of dirty nappies, you don’t think they’re in any pain and generally OK the rest of the day then it’s just a case of waiting for the phase to pass.
Ensure you are taking turns with a partner or friend so that you get a break during this phase.
Does 30 minutes count as a nap for a baby?
Yes 30 minutes does count as a short nap for a baby. Although babies will sleep for most of a 24 hour day, they do not take that sleep in regular chunks of time.
There’s no set time that a baby should be asleep for – they manage a long stretch of sleep on one day and then be very unsettled the next day.
Some babies get into a routine that works for them early on and their naps are like clockwork – with only the odd day where things go a little out of sync. My first baby had solid two to three hour naps during the day, whereas my second was all over the place in the first six months.
How to extend your baby’s short naps
First of all consider whether this is something that you actually can change. If your baby is a newborn then a 30-minute nap is really quite normal.
If they are more than three months old then they will likely have consolidated all those short naps to roughly three longer daytime naps. However waking after just 30 minutes can still be normal at the odd nap.
Sometimes with babies it’s a matter of acceptance and going with the flow, rather than trying to fight the situation. You can check out my strategies for coping from newborn baby fatigue right here.
But you can try the following tips to help encourage your baby to nap for longer than 30 minutes.
Ensure they aren’t waking for another reason
Your baby may be waking because of hunger, illness or discomfort. In which case it’s important to address or rule those out before you do anything else.
If you think the issue is hunger then try reviewing their routine, as suggested later on below.
Figure out their wake window
This is the amount of time your baby can cope with being awake before they become overtired.
You can watch them for tired signals such as:
- Disengaging from play
- Staring off into space
- Rubbing eyes
- Fussing and becoming agitated
- Crying
Time how long your baby can cope with staying awake. For newborn babies this can be as little as 30 to 45 minutes.
Once they hit this time take them to where they normally sleep, lower the lights and get them down for a nap.
An overtired baby can be more restless during sleep, which makes them more like to wake up early.
You can read more about baby wake windows here.
Take a look at your overall routine
Newborn babies do not fit into a solid routine right away. But a pattern may develop over the course of those early weeks.
A routine, even an extremely loose one, can ensure when your baby does go down for a nap they have had a proper feed and so won’t wake from hunger. It can also help make sure they are not over tired.
Try taking note of the times and durations for:
- When they feed
- When they sleep
- When they are awake
Are they getting enough feeds in a 24 hour period for the age? Are they going down to sleep too frequently, could they do with being kept awake a little longer to encourage a longer burst of sleep?
If you don’t like the idea of setting rigid timings on your day – and with a newborn that’s pretty much impossible anyway – then the simple EASY routine can really help.
The EASY stands for: Eat Activity Sleep You time (while baby sleeps)
This rhythm is good because it separates eating from sleeping and means your baby is well rested when they start to feed, as you offer the feed after they wake, so that they are more likely to take a proper feed rather than snack.
For newborns this cycle will be much shorter than for older babies. You can read more about the EASY routine on this post.
Set their internal clock
If your baby is waking every 30 minutes at night then helping them learn the difference between day and night can make a difference. This is something you can do from day one, but it’s never too late to start.
Babies are born with zero awareness of time and your desire to sleep eight hours at night.
While as adults we exist on a 24-hour clock with a simple sleep-wake cycle – known as the circadian pacemaker – babies aren’t aware of the difference between day and night.
So helping your baby learn the difference right from when they are born is a good idea, as studies suggest this can promote better sleep in babies after the first 6 to 12 weeks.
In this study published on Nature scientists found that when babies were exposed to environmental time cues – such as dim lights during the night and lights on during the day – from birth they slept for longer after a few weeks.
This study found that babies who slept well at night were exposed to significantly more light in the early afternoon.
To do this you can make daytime feeds and playtime engaging and carried out in a bright room. When it’s time for their nap then put them to sleep in a darker, quiet room.
When it comes to nighttime keep lights down low at all times, including night feeds and if you do need to change their nappy.
Don’t rush in when they seem to wake up
If your baby is transitioning to a new sleep cycle they may do so restlessly and noisily. So if you think they are waking up try giving them an extra five minutes if you can to see if they are able to resettle themselves.
This is not advocating for a cry it out method of sleep training, merely pausing for a few minutes to see if they really are fully awake.
Try sleep props
This is a totally personal choice and it’s really up to you whether you want to introduce a sleep prop, but if you’re exhausted they can be a lifesaver.
A sleep prop could be a dummy or rocking or nursing your baby to sleep. My eldest daughter used a dummy at nap and bedtime and it worked wonders for helping her soothe herself to sleep. We then stopped using the dummy at six months.
It could also involve taking them out in their pushchair when it’s nap time and getting them to have a solid nap there, although this doesn’t necessarily give you a full break. Many babies sleep much easier in their pushchair thanks to the motion.
Try “wake to sleep”
The wake to sleep method sounds bonkers but many parents report it helps if their baby is habitually waking.
It involves deliberately waking your baby to help them reset their sleep cycle.
The wake to sleep method is done by:
- Going into your baby’s room roughly 5 minutes before you expect them to wake (if they are cat napping for just 30 minutes)
- Gently wake them by lightly patting your baby and talking gently. When they move you then leave the room and let them fall back to sleep.
The theory is this resets their sleep cycle.
This method was written about by the author Tracy Hogg in her Baby Whisperer book.
Final thoughts
This article will have given you some ideas for how you can try to lengthen your baby’s short naps, but hopefully also reassured you that those short naps can be very normal.
Whatever you decide to try give it at least a week or two as habitual waking can take a few days to change and remind yourself regularly that your baby’s sleep habits will change rapidly in the first year.
