My 7 mo DS has done 40 min day naps for months! I have been on this website and read BW books PLENTY times as my first son also did short naps.
Through so much reading, I have come to understand it that its due to overstimulation to start off with and once they do the 40 min naps a couple fo timess, it becomes ingrained in their bodyclock. Even if you reduce stimulation or Awake time, they will continue to do 40 min naps. That is what I was told by a "sleep trainer". Although i am opposed to sleep trainers who do the CIO method, I was interested in seeing her approach to "curing" this unhealthy short napping.
She said 1) he must learn to fall asleep on his own for day and night naps and 2) I must reset his body clock and get the adrenalin out of his system which causes the short naps. Her method to reset his body clock is that if he wakes at 40 mins after having gone to sleep on his own for the nap, leave him in the cot for the next hour so that he is in his cot for 1hr30 which is the amount of sleep he MUST have per nap for the neurogical benefits of sleep to be obtained. I can not carry this sleep training out as to leave DS in the cot for 1 hour after his 30 mins which has refreshed him to a point, would mean great distress for him. That is a long time to leave him in cot and it would involve the CIO method.
I have started gentle sleep training the BW or Elizabeth Pantley way to get him to go to sleep on this own in the day (he does it beautifully at night every night!) which is to calm him with a nap routine 15 mins before due sleep time then put him down with his dummy and doo-doo bear and walk out.
Some days he's played with his doo-doo and gone to sleep within 5 - 10 mins without play or protest, other times/days he goes into excitement mode, throws his doo-doo around in the cot, kicks and shrieks with mirth. This carries on for 30 mins at least. In that time, even though he is not crying for me, I go in to replug his dummy as I know that helps him to sleep and give him his doo-doo which could be at the bottom of cot. I know one is not supposed to go in if they are not distressed or crying but he goes into major overwind and stimulation from exciting himself. Only 40 mins after, will he get agitated and starting protesting but never full-on crying.
They say that one shouldnt keep going in as the baby will then know that if they keep making a noise, mum will come in.
So, I am working on getting him to sleep without rocking during the day and he has made it 50% of the time thus far. But when he doesnt, he gets to sleep a whole hour later than he should and then he's way overtired. This leads to a 30 min jerky wake up which I then have to deal with.
Dealing with the 30 - 40 min wake-up: if I creep into his room and watch for his stir then quickly plug the dummy and turn him onto his side, it works mostly BUT its then undoing the independent falling asleep training I am doing for when he initially goes to sleep. Yet, if I leave him when he wakes and hopes that he will fall back to sleep, he doesnt. He just gets excited all over again.
This sleep trainer says she has 100% success of changing babies' short naps to be 1h30 each time by leaving baby in the cot/crib when they wake early until the full expected sleep time which is 1hr30 is up.
I would like to hear other's views on this and also if there is any advice. I don't believe I can tweak his A times to make a difference as I've done that for months - tweaked A times up and down and he just keeps napping 40 mins.
I can often get him to go back to sleep after a 40 min wake but only 50% of the time.
