How long does it take your toddler to fall asleep?

[jessmum46]

Just wondering how long it takes most LOs to settle down to sleep once they are in bed?  Not talking about situations where routine is off where it can take forever and a day  but more an average 'on a good day' kind of thing.  Is there a difference with nap and bedtime?  How long would make you think 'that's too long' and something needs to change?

I think I'm a bit off with my expectations now DD is a bit older, she always used to go straight to sleep but hasn't really done that at all recently.  Routine is a bit of a mess but I can't believe (or don't want to!) that I'm getting it wrong every single time!

[Emami]

Mine's gone through phases of everything from straight to sleep to taking up to 1.5hrs at BT.  Naps have generally been within 10min.  I go with leaving her to it as long as she's happy in there and don't try to change anything if I don't think it's a routine issue.  You might be right now that your DD's a bit older that she just needs that time to switch off and unwind.  For a while I thought mine might be UT but once she's asleep she STTN and she doesn't protest BT so I think now she's older, talking and generally more interactive she likes to tell her cat and bunny about her day and process things a bit yk?

[lilamom]

Right now, at 21 months, it is usually about 10 minutes of babbling with a schedule of:

6:40am: awake
1-3:30ish: nap
8:30pm: bed

[ENMS]

Interested in finding out too because we've been having the same problem!

Naps are usually less than 5 minutes.

BT is, on average, 30 minutes for the past 3 months. Some days 1h30, some days 10 min, but mostly around 20-30 minutes. He's'happy, chatting, singing, rocking the crib so I let him be. I feel that adjusting his BT routine has helped shorten it a bit (it used to be at least 1h). I know sing a song in the rocking chair while cuddling him, I used to sing while slow dancing but sitting on me being rocked seems to have a soothing effect on him.

Emma you have a good point about it being how they unwind. Never really thought of it that way before but it makes total sense.

[Aishi]

I always thought she went straight to sleep but since getting a video monitor its 10 mins sucking on lovey then asleep. However she babbles if ut or ot

hth xx

[cath~]

usually takes L around 10-30 mins

How long would make you think 'that's too long' and something needs to change?

If she is happy whilst settling then I wouldn't be worried about it.  I wouldn't change anything based solely on taking a 'long' time to settle at BT.  However, I would think about changing things (not necessarily routine timing though) if I was getting lots of callbacks during that time (e.g. if I thought she was UT) and/or she was upset/protesting during that time, or if we got NWs/EWs.

[Papaya]

On a good day, 15-20 mins, rarely less. It can be up to an hour, but that's usually when I've let her sleep a little too long during the day (she's soooo hard to wake, she sometimes ends up getting an extra 15 mins on her nap before I can persuade her to get up). She really does need time to process and wind down though, she will chat away to her friends about her day, then arrange them nicely in bed, sometimes shh pat them a bit... and finally lie down beside them herself. I did at one stage think she was taking too long and must be a bit UT, but I tried a later bedtime and she took just as long to settle and was tired the next day. So now, as others have said, I tend not to worry so long as I'm not getting call-backs (or not more than one reasonable one), and it's not getting tooo late.

Tonight she was out in 5 mins. That really doesn't happen very often!

[anna*]

Usually 15-20 at bedtime, less at nap time. Sometimes more than 30 mins though. As long as she's happy lying there, I don't worry about it.

[Mama2Athena]

When she was younger and having the dreaded 40 minute naps in the daycare infant room, it was less than 5 minutes to fall asleep at BT.  In fact, she would literally be excited about BT.

Now that daycare is able to extend her naps, it's usually 15-20 minutes to fall asleep.  She's very quiet though, just sucking on her fingers while dropping off.  I also have an older DS running around in the background and starting his bathtime/bedtime routine while she's trying to fall asleep, so that could be contributing to her taking longer.

[*Becky*]

The norm here for naps is about 15 mins chatting and BT is usually straight to sleep but we do have days where it is 15-30 mins or so to settle. On Sunday she went to a party (friend of H's) and it took an hour for her to settle at BT!

[pgibb]

Hi my lo is 26 months + she takes 5-10mins to fall asleep at nap occasionally have the odd day she takes longer + 20-40 mins at bedtime. As she's got older she's taken longer to fall asleep at night she never calls us back tho so just leave her to it. She does need a good wind down time for nap + bedtime.x

[*happy*]

For naps,she will be asleep within 5mins usually.
BT can be anything from 10-25mins,but never calls us
back or is upset,so im happy enough to leave things
as they are for now.x