Parents Guide to Babies Naps From 6 Months

5th October 2022 0 Comments

What are the benefits of naps?

How do naps help with memory and learning?

There is now more evidence than ever to support the essential role naps play in babies’ and children’s learning and memory. Everything your baby sees, hears and experiences while they’re wake is stored in their hippocampus, a bullet-shaped structure located deep within the brain. During naps (and nighttime sleep) these memories are moved out of the hippocampus and are stored in different cortexes within the brain; this creates space for more memories to be stored. It enables babies to recall memories when needed and for them to make sense of their world by connecting old and new experiences

Naps improve nighttime sleep

We know from research that naps can help reduce cortisol levels, helping your little one fall asleep more easily and assisting with early-rising issues.

Naps improve appetite and mood

Naps also help to regulate your child’s mood, and appetite and give you some well-needed time to rest.

How do I know when my baby is tired?

Naps are not always easy to achieve and you may find yourself struggling to get your little ones off for a few hours of precious sleep time in the day.

naps

Having an understanding of when your baby is ready for a nap will mean they won’t be over-tired when you put them down and will settle to sleep more easily.

It is usually a combination of sleep cues and timings that get the best napping results.

Some babies and children can be very subtle with their cues.

Here are some cues you might see in your baby to indicate they are ready for sleep.

Your baby or child may show just one of these or it could be a combination:

Whining or fussing.
Staring blankly into space
Frowning
Arching of back
Clenched fists
Yawning
Rubs eyes
Pulling at ears
Sucking on fingers or fist
Ignoring interaction and losing interest in toys

How do I settle my baby for a nap?

Your baby or child will be more relaxed and settle faster if you factor in 15 minutes of quiet time before you start; then settle them as you would at bedtime.

Tidy away the toys and sit looking at a book together or just having a cuddle.
Give your little one a feed in the living room.
Then to settle your child for their nap go into the room where they usually sleep, close the curtains and use blackout blinds. From about 5 months babies can become distracted by their surroundings; darkening the room will help to prevent this.
Put on a clean nappy, pop your baby into their sleeping bag, and have a little story or lullaby and a cuddle.
Then settle them to sleep as at bedtime.
If after 20 minutes your baby or child has shown no signs of settling go out for a walk instead and try again later when they show tired signs again.
We suggest having one nap a day in the cot, but some naps can be out and about.

0 Comments

See what parents' say about us

When feeling overwhelmed by tiredness and in need of real sleep help, Millpond’s ‘Teach Your Child to Sleep’ is a much welcomed, well researched resource. This is an easy read with a practical nurturing approach that walks you and your child through to a good night sleep.
Rozanne Hay, UK Representative and Director for Continuing Education IACSC International Association Of Child Sleep consultants
The Millpond approach is non-prescriptive and [their] book offers lots of choices for parents to match their own goals and parenting styles. I would heartily recommend it for anyone already experiencing problems with sleep or to set up good sleep habits proactively.
Melissa Hood, founder of The Parent Practice
This baby and child sleep guide is the perfect combination of accessible science, Mandy’s years of experience and a mother’s warmth. I love the way things fall into place with Mandy’s clear and thorough explanations!
Diana Hill, co founder of Essential Parent
Millpond’s brilliant blend of commonsense, encouragement and understanding – plus a highly logical strategy that is easy to implement – changed hell into heaven literally overnight. My entire family is thus indebted to Mandy and her team.
Freya North, Author
I am a GP and would recommend Millpond to any sleep deprived parents; you cannot put a price on sleep. Thank you so much. I only wish I hadn’t waited 19 months.
Vanessa, GP
We are so happy that we put our trust in you to help us with what has been a huge problem for our family for almost 2 years. We are finding time to relax and time for each other and I did not realise how much we missed this time.
Ben
As a family, we were sleep deprived. The tailored plan for our son made it personal. I am really pleased with what we’ve achieved during the programme and I am thankful to Juliet and Millpond.
Evrim.
We were at rock bottom. Our son has a neurological condition, so I was nervous and and wanted a sleep clinic who had experience of this and would adapt to the needs of our son. Our lives literally changed overnight!
Shurron
Within weeks our son was waking only once a night. The investment we made into Millpond was one of the best we’ve ever made. It gave my son a solid night sleep and consistency. It gave me and my husband our sanity back.
Shurron
I am delighted. I was aiming to go from 6+ wakes at night and feeding to sleep 100% of the time to 1-2 wake ups and some ability to self-settle. After doing the plan for less than 6 weeks my daughter started sleeping through the night.
Katie
My daughter is now having quite a bit more than the average sleep for her age and it’s lovely to see her waking up naturally. I’m also waking up naturally and feeling much more refreshed for having a regular sleep routine myself!
Louise
We are so happy we could jump for joy, we wish we had spoken to you ages ago. Using Millpond has built our confidence and made us feel on top of it at last. You really gave us some life back!
Sarah
I live in Switzerland so it is really quite remarkable that Millpond was able to help me over the phone and by email. When you have slept you can deal with anything!!
Melanie
We still can’t believe that such small changes have made such a difference to us and Alice. She has even slept through while on holiday in a travel cot.
Louise
We are just so sorry we did not get in touch sooner as we went through 18 months of no sleep.
Ann Marie
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! We never thought life could be improved so greatly. You showed us the light. Luka is much happier and loving his sleep now.!
Diane
Alex is sleeping beautifully again and is now quite happy to lay in his cot singing until 7.30/745 am ( Godsend!) and sleeps very happily through the night again. Thank you so much!
Sandy
Very happy to say that Joshua, who you helped us with, is now sleeping a regular 11 hours a night uninterrupted. In fact, getting him up some mornings is a real challenge!
John
Mandy has been an absolute saviour at a time which was starting to feel quite bleak in terms of our little one’s sleep. The personalised advice and guidance has been invaluable.
Mary
“My husband and I reached out to the Millpond Sleep Clinic when our son was 10 months old. We had spent months in vain trying a variety of sleep training tips that we had picked up online, in a desperate attempt to get our son to sleep for more than 2 hour stretches! Nothing seemed to work. I remember crying whilst breastfeeding for the 5th time one evening, desperately begging my little one to sleep. We felt like we had been failing for a long time, as my circle of mum friends had all got their babies sleeping through so much earlier. I needed to get more sleep, with the return to work looming ever closer.

When we called Millpond, we were quickly introduced to Juliet who immediately took the pressure off us by providing a detailed “plan of action” based on what she had heard about our son’s sleep routine. After just a few nights, we already started to see big sleep improvements, and we worked confidently towards reducing our son’s night wakings and the duration of his night feeds. After a couple of weeks we had gone from 4-5 night wakings to just 1… and a few weeks later, our son started to sleep through! The biggest relief ever.

Throughout the whole process Juliet had been knowledgeable, kind, reassuring and made herself available to answer our questions over email between our sessions. Her experience as a mother herself, and highly trained sleep professional shone through. We can’t thank you enough for helping us through a rough time – and seeing us through to better days (and importantly, nights!!)
Cheryl