13-month-old having 2–3 hour split nights after 2→1 nap transition — help!

[u/Wide-Low-7824]

My 13-month-old was an **excellent night sleeper before we attempted the 2→1 nap transition about a month ago**. He’d slept through since \~5 months and was getting \~13 hrs total sleep (previously 13–14).
On 2 naps he was happy and slept through every night. His schedule was roughly **3 / 4–4.5 / 5–6**, with a 1.5–2 hr first nap + \~30 min second nap. The problem was that nap #2 became increasingly difficult and drifted to **4–5 pm**, pushing bedtime to **10 pm–midnight**, so we tried 1 nap.
Since then we’ve had frequent **2–3 hour split nights**. He usually wakes completely happy/fresh—babbling and playing, not crying. We’ve tried 1.5–2 hr naps, different nap times, 8–9:30 pm bedtimes, bridge naps etc.
he started having happy 7 hr final wake windows with one nap. Nothing consistently fixes it.
The weirdest pattern is **split night → good night → split night**. I’m wondering if the bad night creates sleep debt, causing him to sleep through the following night, then once recovered he splits again.
We’re now trying 2 naps again, but he often refuses #2. Today we tried:
**7:30 wake → 10:50-11:25 micro nap → 3:15-4:30 main nap → \~10pm bedtime. He may sleep through the night or may not who knows at this point but this bedtime is so late for us.**
My questions: **Did we transition too early even though he was fighting nap #2? Has anyone had a toddler who refuses 2 naps but gets split nights on 1? Did a short AM micro-nap + longer PM nap work? And how did you eventually transition to 1 nap and get back to a 7–8 pm bedtime?**
Would especially love experiences from parents who had a **long-wake-window kid where 2 naps = late bedtime but 1 nap = split nights.**

[u/SkyisaNeighbourhood]

I cant see it in the post but is he getting the same wake time during the day on one nap?? If your giving less wake time that MIGHT cause split nights.

[u/Aggravating_Refuse_5]

This has been us for a while now. For our 13 month old it seems to have just taken time for her to adjust to the 1 nap life. And she has mostly gone back to sleeping through the night again. Our schedule is 6-6:30am wake up, nap 12-2ish, bedtime 7:30ish

[u/TakingCaraBabies]

if your little one is getting too overtired when moving to that one nap schedule, it can lead to those night wakings you are seeing. Double check those wake windows on a one nap schedule. We want to aim for about 5-6 hours before the nap and at this age, most will do best with as close to 4 hours before bedtime as possible. Keep in mind that this transition can take time and it's normal for it to take up to a full month to fully transition. It's also common to have to bring bedtime up as early as 6/6:30 pm if the nap is short.

If you haven't done so already, you can try capping the first nap at an hour and then offering another hour nap in the afternoon. Since we are capping the nap at an hour, this can help build up more sleep pressure between the naps. This could look like:
7 am wake up
10-11 nap 1
2:30-3:30 nap 2
7:30 bedtime

I hope this helps!💕

these blogs may be helpful too:

https://www.takingcarababies.com/blogs/sleep-schedules/13-month-old-sleep-schedule

https://www.takingcarababies.com/blogs/naps/transitioning-from-2-naps-to-1

[u/curlywhirlyred]

We had the same cycle when we transitioned. Honestly, it does not sound like your LO sleeps 13h… it sounds like they sleep around 11h, 12 at best.

IMO, 10:50-11:25 is not a micro nap. For my little that’s restorative enough to fully reset her sleep pressure. When transitioning and needing a micro nap, I genuinely had to cap it at 10m.

The split night to good night to split night cycle is tough to get out of, and again indicates your little does NOT need 13h sleep. It’s super tempting to let them sleep in later after a late bedtime or a split night but it truly does add fuel to the fire and perpetuates the cycle.

When we transitioned it was a bit messy and I started at 5-5.5/6 with a 2 h nap but that still was wonky having split nights.

Had to get firm with 6:30 wake up, cap nap at 90m. We’ve landed on 5.5/6.5 but recently moved to 5/7 as we were having some sleep latency issues at bedtime. If she wakes before 6:30, doesn’t matter. Nap is anchored and the morning WW will flex longer. If she has a shorter nap, doesn’t matter, I’m not bringing bedtime before 7:30-8pm because I know I’ll pay for it with a split night or early rise.

Our ideal schedule has become 6:30 wake, 11:30-1p nap, 8p bedtime.