How much sleep does your low sleep needs 2.5 year old have?

[Jazzandh]

Hi,

I think my DS is dropping sleep needs. We are swinging between 9 3/4 and 10 hours overnight and varied naps. Classic OT/UT loop I think.

I have real life friends whose Dc seem to be doing 12.5 hrs total in 24, and mine is averaging 11.5 hrs (DS1 was always an hour under average) - just trying to get a feel as to whether this age is about right for a drop.......

waffling - sorry been up since 5.30am  (again!!)

[barbaraz78]

Hi, I think that if your DS is low sleep needs, 11.5 h can be just right. Mine has about this amount of sleep in 24 h now, and he's 3 yo. I think he was about 12 h at 2.5 yo.
Is he dropping the nap? With this amount of sleep he could be ready to put all his sleep in the night.

[Jazzandh]

The trouble is he's an early waker, generally aboput 6am - never been know to sleep to 7am! (Been here before- at 8 my elder son does not generally sleep beyond 6am)!

I think I will also struggle to get much beyond 10 /10.5 hours overnight - so I need the nap for the time being to keep him going, it's really just trying to get the balance right between nap length, time to bed etc and it really is frustrating me at the moment.

I suspect he has dropped his sleep needs, hence my requests for comparison. Previously a 9 3/4 hr night would have been overtired, whereas now, I think on top of a catch up 2 hour nap yesterday it is probably just because he had caught up.

I need to feel in control and have a plan, but he's throwing me off. I had dropped his nap to 1.5 hours and left just under 5.5 hours to bedtime - but he ended up spiralling into OT and we had NWs (which are very rare for him thankfully)! We have just caught up on that......

Think it's back to the drawing board

[barbaraz78]

What time does he wake usually and what time are nap time and bt?

[Jazzandh]

Easy was

A 5.45 / 6am
N 12.30 - 2.20pm (I wake, he's happy)
S 7.50 (PD 7.30pm)  now I don't really want to push this too much later. He goes into his room quick BF then bed asleep within 5-10 mins

He is ok on the looong morning, but I don't have much room to push it out further. When I have tried he throws a 1 hour OT nap.....

I think I need to chop the nap and am happy to do so, but everything sort of shrinks back earlier and earlier. He will tack on a bit if I time it just right......

[cath~]

L is 2.5 yr now and we get 11-12 hours per night (no nap).  I guess the average is probably around 11.5 hours.

We found that when nights were getting shorter, we capped the nap and that lengthened nights by more that the amount lost from the nap, so total sleep increased and we avoided (mostly!) UT/OT loops.  Now she has dropped the nap altogether.

[clairebear79]

When O was an early waker I was always convinced he was LSN as we used to get 10hr nights & 2hr nap, but since we cracked the EW it turns out he's actually pretty average.  I would say if your ds is happy to take the nap he prob still needs it, but I really would advocate trying to push it a bit later.  12.30 is pretty early for his age & in my experience its the early nap that keeps you in the early waking cycle.  I found that a later nap really helped us, and it didnt have any impact on bedtime.  I know you aren't keen on later nap for fear of OT, but you might just have to push him through it a bit (if you dare) to break the cycle.

To contrast, my ds (2yrs 7 months) does up 7am, nap 1.30/2-4 (typical nap = 2hrs) bed 8pm (straight to sleep).  Though I will add he doesn't nap every single day anymore, usually 2-3 no nap days followed by 2-3 nap days. hth.

[dijjibob]

My LO is low sleep needs also and at 2y 4 m she has 11 hour nights and 30- 45 nap daily at 1pm.
We did nap capping to keep consitancy of a nap each day. I miss long naps but I would rather hold on to a short nap every day and know bedtime and wake up times, just suits our family. Better