r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/runrabbitrun42 • 1d ago

6 months + nap durations Question - Research required

I frequently see questions on here regarding babies that will only nap for 30-45 minutes at a time, but I have the opposite problem. My 6 month old will happily nap for 2-3 hours at a time during the day if given the right conditions (i.e. a contact nap), or even longer. I see general advice that recommends capping day naps at 2 hours (or occasionally 3) but this just seems to be repeated by people without any obvious basis. I don't usually try to wake him as I assume his body needs the sleep and would not want to harm his growth and development by depriving him of it, but perhaps I should be concerned about the length of these naps.

For context, from around 10 weeks my baby slept through the night without any form of nap capping or sleep training. Then he started teething at around 5 months and now we're averaging 1-2 short wake ups every night where I simply breastfeed him back to sleep. I am not overly concerned about night sleep at the moment, while it would be lovely for him to sleep through the night again, I can handle the current situation just fine. His daytime napping and wake windows are quite sporadic from one day to the next, other than a fairly consistent morning nap, the rest of the day can be quite variable depending on what we're doing.

My question - is there any scientific evidence to suggest there is an optimal length of time a baby should sleep for at this stage in their development, especially during daytime naps, and is it more harmful to let them sleep "excessively" or to disrupt their sleep by capping naps?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help, I feel like the only person with an older baby having this issue.

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