Does sleep beget sleep?

[beckington]

I've always heard that if a baby is well rested, with good naps during the day (but not *too* well rested!), then they are more likely to sleep longer stretches at night. Sleeps begets sleep and all that. Anyhow, I was just reading Dr Sears Baby Book and in it he says in his experience babies who catnap often save their long stretch of sleep for night. Now that I think of it, this was true of my first son, for the first year of his life anyhow - after that it was a definite sleep begets sleep situation. My second (he's barely 4 months) is just an unpredictable sleeper!

So now I'm curious, for your babies, does sleep beget sleep or not? Does your catnapper sleep long stretches (say 5+ hours) at night? How old is your baby?

[Amanda_Reyasmom]

My cat-napper took great naps as a newborn.  And she'd sleep 6ish hours a night.  Around 3mo she decided she was done with naps. She baps in arms once or twice a day for 20ish min o so and sleeps 10ish hours a night.  If I lay down with her I can generally get a 90 min nap, but it is hard for me.  I need to do that more.  DD is 6mo now.

[SeattleRain]

I totally think it does. When Daniel has an "organized" day of sleep (nap 2 hours after he wakes up, and another 3 hours after he wakes up from the first nap and bedtime between 6-8) he sleeps much better at night. When he doesn't get good naps, sometimes he crashes out at around 5pm and then wakes up for the day at 4:30am, causing us to have a lot of problems the NEXT day as well or he'll crash at 3pm and nap too late and go to bed too late. When that happens he tends to sleep less restfully.

You should know that 4 months is a really difficult sleep time. I had (and still have for the most part) and great sleeper and things went a little haywire at 4 months. What really helped us is some gentle "sleep training." We started to try to get him used to sleeping without movement and we started to try to put him in his crib once he was asleep. When he was a newborn we used to let him sleep whenver and wherever, particularly a swing, but we tried to not do that so much as he got older. We NEVER let him CIO, or anything like that, so I don't mean that kind of "sleep trainging" but I think a good attitude to have is to "start as you wish to finish" so if your ultimate goal is to get baby to sleep in the crib, that's a good place to start. Once Daniel started the habit of going down in his crib for naps in his quiet room, he started to sleep better at night in there also.

[Ginger Bean]

I think "sleep begets sleep" is a good reminder for busy parents who are always on the go or inexperienced parents who have the mistaken notion that keeping a baby up all day will produce good night sleep, but other than that, I don't find it all that helpful.

I guess because it hasn't always been true for my son, who just seems to need less sleep than most babies. I've always tried to be aware of his cues and put him down before he's overtired, but the fact is, it doesn't always work.

He's 7 months old and has good phases and bad phases, but mostly he catnaps. I think when he's napped well, he's also slept well at night, because he was in a good phase all around. When he's in a bad phase (growth spurts, 4-month sleep regression, separation anxiety, etc.), I can't make him nap so "sleep begets sleep" doesn't help me any.

And putting him down to bed early (6-7pm) hasn't always worked either.

[Calliope84]

If DD doesn't get her daily 4-5 hour nap she will sometimes stay up really late acting very tired, or she will catnap and then stay up and be grumpy... She really needs not to miss her nap. She missed it today (Usually somewhere between 1:30 - 4:30) and she is taking it now. If she sleeps til 7, she will catnap and won't go to bed tonight.

[newmamalizzy]

Originally Posted by Ginger Bean 

I guess because it hasn't always been true for my son, who just seems to need less sleep than most babies. I've always tried to be aware of his cues and put him down before he's overtired, but the fact is, it doesn't always work.

This has been my experience, too.  In our case, DD really sleeps better if she's good and exhausted.  BUT - she sleeps horrendously if we've had a particularly busy, unusual, or exciting day.  We do best with a regular routine that includes multiple periods of non-nap downtime - snuggling with a bottle, hanging out on the bed with her books, etc.