16 month old sleeps less

[becky_la]

Hi everyone,

My 16.5 month old son sleeps about 11 - 11.5 hours total in a day. On really good days (which are rare), he sleeps 12 hours. He sleep maybe 10 - 10.5 hours at night and a little over an hour during the day. I just looked though the topic, "What does your toddler's day look like?" and it seems my son gets a lot less sleep than most kids here. He seems just fine though. He doesn't fuss during bedtime, and doesn't seem tired during the day. We did go through some issues when he was transitioning to 1 nap, but now he seems just fine on even 11 hours of sleep total in a day. It seems quite off from the 13.5 - 14 hours average... but maybe that's OK?  Some of my friends' toddlers get even less sleep (10 hours total in a day), and they seem just fine -- not tired.

Do you think these kids (including my son) just need less sleep? Or are we overlooking something?

Thanks!!
Becky

[Catharine]

Please look to the "official hours of sleep" as only a guide, because all children are different.

My dd has always been an early bird and would wake up around 6-6.30am no matter what happened the day before. She naps 1hr 30mins in the afternoon, sleeps from 8pmish to 6amish so that's a total of 11 and half hours a day when "officially" it should be 13 hours.

She is a pleasant natured girl, not tired during the day and goes down for her naps & bedtime without too much of a fight.

Trust your gut instincts.

[Florencia]

Hi!

I totally agree with the previous poster, "if ain't broken, don't fix it". If your lo seems fine and happy throughout the day and wakes happy from both, the day and naps, then he's probably getting the amount of sleep he needs, no matter what the "guide lines" say.

If you're hesistant about it, you might want to try an earlier nap time. You don't mention what time of the day his nap is, but probably he's having too much awake time before it and that might be the reason why the nap is short. With toddlers every reason is the opposite of what we think and overtiredness generally comes in the form of short or broken sleep. If an earlier nap is not happening you still have two options, which could be an earlier bedtime or trying to extend wake up time at least for 30 more mins. You'd be surprised to find out the advantages of an earlier bedtime, and as funny as it sounds, it sometimes helps lo sleep for longer nights.

Maybe the key here is provide more sleep chances for your lo and see if this can buy extra ZZZ's time. HTH and keep us posted!