Contact Naps – should we be having them?

Contact napping is the act of a baby sleeping on your body either in a carrier or held in your arms during the day. Here our resident Sleep Expert Imogen discusses whether they matter – and how to stop them if you need to.

A contact nap is often a great way to get little ones to have an extra little nap or drift off quickly - and not to mention the lovely sleepy cuddles!

There are two camps of people when it comes to contact napping: those who adore it for the chance to rest and cuddle, and those who get itchy feet and just want to tackle the long list of tasks.

Whichever camp you fall into, contact naps undeniably support sleep!

Take a look at this:

Contact naps foster strong attachment, and physical closeness during sleep helps babies feel safe and secure, supporting a strong bond and leading to better emotional regulation as they grow.
They help regulate a baby’s physiological functions, including heart rate, breathing, and body temperature. When a baby sleeps on a parent’s chest, the rhythmic sound of the heartbeat and the warmth of their body can help stabilise baby’s heart rate and temperature.
Studies have found that babies who slept in close contact with their parents had fewer instances of waking, often falling asleep more quickly and having longer naps due to the calming effects of the parent’s presence.
Physical contact during sleep stimulates the release of neurochemicals like oxytocin, which supports cognitive and emotional development. It also lowers stress (cortisol) levels, leading to better emotional regulation!

Embracing contact naps is a brilliant way to provide your child the security and comfort to get some sleep. Whether for one nap a day or each time they fall asleep, I think contact napping teaches us an important lesson in slowing down and embracing these moments because they certainly won’t last forever.

A desire for proximity from babies is totally normal and important, triggering the release of oxytocin in both parents and infants!

But what do you do if contact naps become problematic?

How to Stop Contact Napping

There are various reasons why you may need to move away from contact naps, such as, returning to work, them starting nursery, it becomes problematic for your mental health, or you just feel its genuinely in the best interest of your family.

I want to stress that despite the pressure from lots of mainstream media, contact naps are typical and a normal part of an infants sleep and shouldn’t be abandoned in the hope that they will sleep better or need us less.

Often, at times of transition, we need each other's love and support more, so don't be worried about simply phasing away from contact naps at certain times; keep them for others. Like many things with parenting, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing!

If you decide contact napping needs to be limited or stopped, here's how you might approach that transition.

For a week or so, introduce a blanket or comforter to their naps and sleep with you (if old enough for this to be safe), as well as layering in other sleep triggers like sounds, scents, movement and a small wind-down period before the nap. This is called layering in sleep triggers, which can mean that they become less dependent on just one trigger to fall asleep.

Once they become more accustomed to this variety of sleep triggers, place some gentle boundaries on the problematic sleep trigger.

So, for example, you may feed your baby to sleep, lying beside them in your bed, using your hands to comfort them with firm pressure or patting instead of holding them in your arms on the sofa downstairs; this gets them accustomed to sleeping on a flat surface and not your body.

Over several weeks, you gradually reduce the input of your interventions until it feels manageable. For example, you may want to get to a stage where you can feed them before their nap and then place them down in their cot and sit with them until they fall asleep.

This process may involve;

Contact napping but with lots of other sleep triggers
Feeding & cuddling to sleep in a parental bed and staying for the nap
Giving a feed before the nap and then touch them (patting, stroking, firm pressure) until they fall asleep and staying for the nap.
Giving a feed before the sleep, using touch, cuddles & rocking to settle them and then placing them in their cot once asleep
Giving a feed before sleep, placing them in their cot and using contact and your presence until asleep
Giving a feed, placing them in their cot and supporting them to fall asleep until this feels manageable for both of you!

You could add or remove as many small incremental steps into this process as you wish! But take it slow; rushing is often counterproductive.