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You won’t find the 2-3-4 nap schedule in any parenting book. Rather, it?s one of those tools that has been passed from mom to mom, and from blog to blog. The idea is that you?ll have gradually increasing wake times between naps, with two hours before the first, three hours after that, and four hours just before bedtime. It?s designed for babies who can do with just two naps a day, a stage that usually occurs between six and 18 months old.
The structure helps families get on a schedule, making nap time less of a battle and helping parents predict when they?ll have windows in their day to run errands or see friends. And it might even help babies sleep longer at night.
Using a ?laddered? nap approach like this makes sense from a scientific perspective, says Meg Casano, the co-founder of the sleep consulting group Baby Sleep Science. ?Nap sleep is not driven in the same way as night sleep; it?s not controlled by the circadian rhythm,? she says. Rather, it?s about sleep pressure?the feeling of tiredness that increases the longer you?re awake. ?You want your baby to have their highest sleep pressure at the end of the day before bed,? she says, because it will combine with their circadian rhythm and help them sleep better at night. If you?re trying this, she adds, be sure to start by setting a consistent wake time every day to help set your baby?s circadian rhythm. ?If you have wild fluctuations in wake-up time, it gets to be a bit like jetlag,? she explai...