Do you wake your kids up from nap to preserve bedtime?

[Anonymous]

DD1 is 3.5 and still loves her nap. During the week day she is at daycare and naps 2 hours a day (1-3) but still goes to bed at a reasonable time 8:30ish (in bed at 8ish and asleep by 8:30). I am betting she doesn’t get as sound of sleep during nap time at daycare as home. On the weekends though she sometimes will sleep from 1-3:30 or more. I usually wake her by 3:30 at the latest but she is still sound asleep. Lately on the weekends she won’t fall asleep until 9:30! I am debating if I should only let her sleep for 1.5 hours instead of 2 to try and preserve bedtime. She wakes up around 7:30 every day. Well I wake her up but we need to leave by 8 during the weekdays so I try and keep wake up time consistent.

What would you do? I do think she needs a nap still but it is messing with bedtime!

[Anonymous]

We give our DD an extra 30-45 min during nap on weekends. It hasn't messed up her sleep schedule.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I will open DD’s door, turn off the sound machine and open her curtains at 3PM to wake her up from her nap.

[Anonymous]

Yes I wake up! My almost 4 year old is only allowed an hour nap on the weekends or she'll be up until 10 o clock.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I do but I also let my kids stay up a little later on Saturday nights, so if they want to nap a little longer on Saturdays it's fine. And they've actually recently started sleeping in a little (Hallelujah!) on Sunday mornings so sometimes the Sunday nap is non-existent or super short so that they are ready to get back into the swing of things on Sunday evenings.

[Anonymous]

In your case yes.

But this is VERY kid dependent. My son is a mess if we wake him up. He’s stuck in that groggy sleep state and it’s just not worth it. We either don’t let him nap at all, or let him nap and deal with a late bedtime.

[Anonymous]

Yes but I do it very gently so they feel like it happened naturally. I open the door and curtains, turn off sound machine, then return a couple of minutes later and do something with a little noise, such as putting away some laundry in their rooms. A couple times of that and they will start talking and get up.

[Anonymous]

Yes, like others. Same naptime. If he’s genuinely still asleep at 3:00 on weekends, I’ll open his door / curtains and wake him up gently. If he’s not easy to rouse, I’ll sit by his bed or put away laundry, etc. until 3:30 at the absolute latest.

[Anonymous]

Nope. My kid won't make it up at night and then is very moody/grumpy the next day.

[Anonymous]

Past infancy yes. Only exception is illness

[Anonymous]

Yes. If he sleeps longer than 2 hours, we get middle of the night wakeups. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

No I don't. But I haven't seen the huge slip in bed time. My DD just turned 4. Occasionally she skips a nap, but then she's a mess all afternoon. She rarely naps longer than 90 minutes though, so perhaps that's why we don't see the bedtime push back. Very occasionally she'll sleep 2 hours and then we maybe push bedtime back a little, but that's more like 8/8:15 vice 7:30.

[erinbeck]

We adjust based on when she goes to bed. Sometimes late/long naps keep her up, sometimes they don't, it's like she goes in and out of phases. So if we seem to be in a going-to-bed-late phase, I wake her up, else I just let it go. Wow, how I wish these sleep schedules were more predictable haha! Lately she's been all about waking in the middle of the night to play for, no joke, 3-6 hours ... (she's 2.5)

[Anonymous]

My kid’s daycare nap time is 1-3. But he usually only sleeps 1-1.5 hours. But his normal rhythm is to be asleep around 11:30-12. So 1 is late for him and he’s a little wired. (He’s bedtime is 7:30 and wakes up 6:30-7)

So by the weekend, he needs some extra sleep. So his nap is from 12-4. His bedtime might get pushed back to 8:00, but most of the time not.

[Anonymous]

My 2 year old used to be up until midnight if he had a long nap, so yes, we woke him and moved nap earlier. It ruined o the night otherwise. Kid has never needed much sleep.