When it comes to daycare, many parents have no shortage of questions, ranging from “What’s the staff to child ratio at this facility” to “How on earth am I going to beat traffic and manage a 5:30 p.m. pick-up time?!” But here’s one question you may not have thought to ask yourself: “How is daycare going to affect my child’s sleep?”
Some Babies Sleep Better at Daycare Than They Do At Home
Most daycares operate on a schedule for all children, including infants. If you haven’t adopted a schedule at home, you may find that your baby responds so well to this kind of consistent routine that he’s sleeping far better at daycare than he does at home! For instance, babies who struggle with naps at home may nap like a dream while at daycare. If this is true for you, and if you want your little one to sleep as well at home as he does at daycare, consider asking the daycare to write out their schedule and then try to duplicate it at home as much as you can.
Your baby may also sleep better at daycare because she knows it’s expected of her. Children are experts at knowing how to “read” adults. If your child has learned that her daycare caregiver won’t rock/sing/nurse her to sleep, then she’s much more likely to sleep without fuss when she’s at daycare. But at home, it’s a different story! If your child knows that you’ll spend hours rocking her to sleep, then she’ll likely require you to do it. If you suspect this is the case, consider weaning your child off her sleep associations at home (especially since you know she can sleep without them at daycare!)
Some Babies Sleep Worse at Daycare Than They Do At Home
Other babies fall into this category. This is especially true for babies who have highly-structured nap schedules and routines at home. It can be difficult for these little ones to adjust to a different schedule at daycare. For example, if your child is used to napping at a certain time each day, or if he’s used to napping in a certain way (with the shades drawn, with a certain CD playing, etc.), it can be very difficult for him to nap at daycare when that same environment isn’t provided. What’s more, daycare is usually a more stimulating place than home — there’s lots of noise, lots of toys, lots to see and do. This extra stimulation can make it hard for a baby to wind down enough to take a nap.
If this is the case, consider writing out your child’s daily routine and asking your daycare providers to follow it as best they can. You may also want to consider sending familiar items from home that will help reproduce your child’s napping environment. These might include sheets and bedding, a “lovey”, a lullaby CD, etc. A good daycare will be willing to work with you and will attempt to accommodate your child’s needs.
Your Baby’s Temperament Matters
If you’re struggling with daycare-related sleep challenges, it’s important to remember that your baby’s unique personality and temperament play a big part. Some babies are great at quickly adapting to new settings, new people, and new schedules. Highly adaptable babies will likely have no problem adjusting to different settings and sleep schedules, and for those babies, daycare may not present any real sleep challenges.
Other babies, however, are much slower to adapt. Slow-to-adapt babies have a much harder time dealing with change, and they tend to need lots of consistency. If your baby is slow to adapt, then it may be hard for him to transition easily between the setting and schedule at daycare and the setting and schedule at home. If this is the case for you, do the best you can to make the transition between home and daycare smooth and easy, and work to build in as much consistency as you can at home.
When Should You Make A Change?
If your child’s getting less sleep in daycare than you’d like, monitor her for a few weeks. If she seems to be coping well, then make the best of it. If you feel that your baby’s lack of sleep is affecting her health and well-being, however, consider making a change. For example, an in-home daycare with fewer children might be a good choice. Or hiring a private nanny might be an option, especially if you only need care a few days a week, or for a few hours each day. And there are ways to offset the cost of a private nanny. The practice of “nanny sharing” allows families to split the use of the same nanny and share the cost.
Daycare is a reality for children of working parents. For some, it may not affect sleep much (or it may even improve it!). For others, however, daycare will negatively impact sleep. If that’s the case for your child, educate yourself about healthy sleep habits, do everything you can to implement them at home, and then do what you can to make sure your daycare provider is implementing them, too.
Has daycare affected your baby’s sleeping habits and schedule? How do you handle the sleep challenges that daycare creates? Share your story with us!
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Sarah says
My 10 month old will be starting daycare next month. Currently she has a good routine at home. She falls asleep on her own and sleeps around 11 hours at night and two naps, each a bit more than an hour, once at 9am and once at around 1pm. The daycare said that their policy is that all babies at around her age take only one nap, from 1-3pm. I am wondering if this is a good age to transition to one nap, I think she is still a bit young? Would it be good if we tried to follow the same schedule at home, or should I continue with her current schedule at home and leave the daycare schedule for when she is there (4 days/week)?
Emily DeJeu says
@ Samantha — thanks for chiming in to encourage Melissa!
@ Tori — good insight; it must be all the stimulation she gets while at daycare. I think your approach to this is a good, healthy one: if she seems happy, and if she seems to be growing and developing well, then best to not worry too much. 🙂
Thanks for commenting!
@ Amanda — my goodness; I wouldn’t be able to nap in those conditions, either! I know daycares have strict safety protocols, and that’s a good thing, but your explanation here helps me see how some of those safety protocols may really interfere with a baby’s ability to sleep. We wrote an article last month on the swaddling ban in daycares, and we came to a similar conclusion there: https://www.babysleepsite.com/newborns/is-swaddling-baby-dangerous/
I’m so sorry you’re struggling with this, Amanda. 🙁 You sound like a wonderful mom, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything else you can do to help him nap well at daycare, since their rules are so strict. As for whether or not the lack of sleep is having long-term effects on him: how does he seem to be growing and developing? If he seems healthy, then I wouldn’t worry too much. Not like you need another problem to worry over, right? 😉
Thanks for commenting, Amanda!
@ Claire – I hope you’re right! Keep us posted on how she does. 🙂 And thanks for commenting!
Claire says
My 11mth old daughter sleeps well in her cot at night & for two naps in the day but it took 6mths of struggle to get there and now she doesn’t sleep anywhere else. Next month, shortly after her 1st birthday she will be starting nursery (in the UK) and one of my biggest concerns has been ‘will she get any sleep?!’ The staff & some friends have assured me that she will adjust to a new routine but I just cannot imagine her falling asleep on a mat in a room full of other kids and certainly not twice a day. However this article has given me some hope that she may actually surprise me, perhaps she will adapt better to the stricter routine a nursery offers? Here’s hoping anyway.
Amanda says
To be fair, he handles it pretty well most of the time. He is typically a pretty happy child! I don’t know if it is having any long term negative impact on him, but it does worry me.
Amanda says
My son has been in daycare since about 2.5 months old, due to both of us having to work. He is now 7 months old. He has the hardest time sleeping at daycare, always has. It just isn’t at all like the sleep he gets at home. At home (on weekends, etc.) he sleeps pretty well, and has naps following his own cues. They simply can’t replicate it at daycare. The rules prevent them from doing anything that would help him sleep better — nothing (at all!) is allowed in the cribs, the lights must always remain on (and are glaring directly above the cribs), the noise from the other infants in the room, and no allowances for him to sleep in a more comfortable place or position. It is very disheartening. On Mondays he goes in very happy and alert (from having plenty of rest over the weekend), and each day during the week when I pick him up I can see he is more and more tired and stressed from hardly sleeping during the day. By Friday the poor kid is so exhausted he gets cranky and irritable. He often falls asleep in the car on the way home (only 10 mins away!) and even when he doesn’t he is usually asleep soon after getting home (one he’s had a chance to settle down and eat). I feel so bad for him! What’s worse is when the daycare workers ask me if we’ve been “working on getting him to sleep in the crib better,” as though I’m doing something wrong. Sorry about the long venting! It’s just frustrating when it seems there’s nothing I can do to help him.
Tori says
My 13-month old is a wonderful sleeper at home – goes to bed awake (rarely with any fussing/crying), sleeps 12-14 hours at night and generally 3-5 hours in two naps. She does still get up to nurse at night, though, particularly when she’s teething or sick – and now that we’re weaning. Daycare usually manages only a single 25-minute nap, though they’ve tried all sorts of things like different locations, using our home CD, different times, different numbers of naps, etc. I think it’s just too stimulating – they have trouble getting several babies to sleep. They’re now putting her on mats with slightly older kids that all sleep at once (for 2.5 hours), but she maxes out at 45 min. She is tired but still happy so we let it go. Here’s hoping she learns to nap longer at daycare once her home schedule changes to a single nap.
Samantha says
Dear Melissa
I quit work when my daughter was born to be at home with her. But the offices where I worked had a lovely daycare – apparently one of the best in Johannesburg. At your son’s age, until the child was mobile, they let the children determine their own sleep schedule. Once mobile, they moved up a class and then were put on a flexible schedule.
In the last class (age 2-3), they were on one 2-hour nap a day my daughter is just 3 and takes a 1.5 hour nap a day at home after play school. They only take them until the year the they turn three, as they are based in the city and have no outdoor play area, which is mandated for that age by legislation in South Africa.
I have heard of some daycare centers that force kids to nap by shouting at them, threatening them etc. so my advice to anyone out there who has no alternative, is to choose daycare very wisely. This is why my husband and I made sacrifices for me to stay at home with our precious daughter – you never know what goes on at those places, by people who aren’t paid much to look after other people’s kids.
All the best,
Samantha
M
Emily DeJeu says
@ Lainie Rusco — I don’t think it’s necessarily late for every family; some families trend towards “late” schedules due to outside factors (like when parents are getting home from work, etc.) However, it sounds like it’s definitely a late nap for your family’s schedule! And to be honest, it would be for mine, too.
I’d suggest waiting to see how this plays out for your toddler. It’s certainly possible that your little one will only sleep for part of that time, in which case it may not be a huge issue.
Let us know how this works out, Lainie! And thanks for commenting. 🙂
@ Melissa — At first glance, I’d suggest using your weekend schedule to guide any nap schedule you might create for the new daycare center. Shorter naps are actually very normal for this age; it isn’t until kids are entering their toddler years that you get the really long naps. You can check out our recommended 6 month schedule (https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/6-month-old-baby-schedule/) for some guidance. That may help you craft a schedule that will work for both you and your baby.
Let us know how the transition goes, Melissa! And thanks for commenting! 🙂
Melissa says
My son is 6 months old and has been in an in-home daycare for 3 months. The caregiver keeps all of the kids on the same nap schedule – from my son (who is the youngest) to the oldest who is 2 1/2. A short nap between 9:30-10:30am and a long nap between 12:30-3:30pm. This has been problematic for my son from the start because he wakes up at 6:30am, and waiting 3+ hours for a nap is way too long at his age. Sometimes he now won’t sleep more than 15 minutes in the morning at daycare. But he usually does sleep 2.5-3 hours for the afternoon nap in daycare. And then he’s so exhausted by bedtime that he often falls asleep while eating his bottle, which he shouldn’t be doing.
However, his sleep on the weekends is totally different. I try to follow his sleep cues and get him down for a nap earlier in the morning, which ends up shifting his whole nap schedule for the day. And ultimately at home he takes 3-4 short (30 min to 1 hour naps) on the weekends, rather than one short one and one super long one. He has NEVER taken a 2+ hour nap at home for me, no matter how much I’d love him to!
To complicate matters, in 2 weeks we’re switching to the daycare center at my office, where he will be in a smaller group of exclusively infants, and their policy is to let the babies his age drive when they sleep, though I can give them instructions on a schedule if needed. My problem is that I don’t know what instructions to give them because I don’t know what the best schedule is for him since his current daycare and weekend schedules are so different, and he sleeps longer in daycare, but overall seems to get more rest at home on the weekends. And since he’s only 6 months old, I’m not sure I should even be trying to force him into a rigid schedule, or just keep following sleep cues along a loose schedule. Either way, I’d love to be able to get him to take a nap at home longer than 45 minutes consistently!
Lainie Rusco says
My daughter isn’t a baby anymore – she’s 3. But she’ll start daycare this fall, and I’m really concerned that their 1:30-3:30 nap is going to completely ruin her bedtime.
She already struggles to fall asleep before 9 p.m. because of the 1-hour nap she gets from 12-1 p.m.
Is it just me, or is a late, 2-hour nap a bit much for a 3-year-old?