Sleep Routine - Albany,CA

If you cut out the nap and now he's wide awake till 11 put the nap back on! He's probably over-tired and then becomes wired and has a hard time winding down. My son took naps till he was over 4.

Hi, I'm going through a similar situation right now with my son 3 year old son. He just decided he didn't want to nap anymore (because it's fun staying up) even though he used to love to nap. He's starting Pre-K soon so I was very flexible with him for almost 2 weeks and if he didn't want to nap after 15 minutes he could leave his room. Well when he didn't nap it was like someone switched my happy go-lucky child to a cranky, whiny, miserable child showing tantrums for the first time. Today was the first day I insisted he stay in his room for at least an hour. Yes, he was crying, yelling "no nap!" and beating on the door, but I stayed strong and made him stay in his room. After about 45 minutes he fell asleep and slept for 2 hours. When he awoke I had my pleasant and lovely son back. Our routine is 7:30 bath, 8:00 bedtime story and sleep. He wakes up between 6:00 and 7:00 every morning. So today I made sure he has a morning spot in his school.

According to a great book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Weissbluth, here are the stats: Mos. 13 to 15 - 1% have 3 naps, 43% have 2 naps, 56% have one nap. Mos. 16 to 21 - 23% have 2 naps, 77% have 1 nap at 18 mos.; 12% have 2 naps, 88% have 1 nap at 21 months. Mos. 21 to 36 - 5% have 2 naps and 95% have 1 nap at 24 mos.; 0% have 2 naps, 91% have one nap and 9% have no naps at 36 mos. On their third birthday, most children (91%) are still napping every day. At age 4, about 50% nap 5 days each week, and by age 5, about 25% are napping about 4 days each week. Naps are usually gone by age 6.

Hope this helps.
B. :-)

At three he may still need that one hour nap during the day. Sometimes getting overly tired will be a cause to keep a person from being able to fall asleep at night. I know it sounds strange, but it's true. I'm not sure why anyone would want to encourage a child to give up the afternoon nap. I'm sure you have your reasons, but you may need to go back to the nap routine. One hour of nap for him should equal an hour of extra rest time for you or time to do a task that you find difficult to do when he is awake.

I don't understand, he isn't having a nap now and is awake at 11:00pm?, why did you cut out the nap? those hours 8:30-7:00 am are good, I feel at 3 they still need to nap...

I agree. Keep the nap

I know it sounds weird, but I would lengthen the daytime sleep a bit. Lack of sleep breeds lack of sleep. Odd I know, but if he is over tired he will have a harder time getting to sleep. Both of mine took almost 2 hour naps until well after their 4th birthdays.

Extra rest during the day will help with night time sleep even thought it doesn't seem to make any sense!

My guess is he's still awake at 11:00 because he's over tired. Try putting him to bed a little earlier and bring back the daytime naps.

is that new schedule before or after you started the no nap?