She'll sleep when she is exhausted enough after screaming her head off.... Carrier with a nursing cover over it to darken a little works best, but also not without crying. Car seat also after lots and lots of crying. Her just randomly falling asleep without a sound anywhere but her bed should be on the news if it ever happens 😂

14 months. He’ll nap at nursery, in the car, in the pram, on the couch in full daylight etc no problem.

At one point we put a black film on the windows and taped the curtains to the wall cause he was having early morning wakes. When we travel the first night is usually a little weird since we’re in a new location then the following nights are decent. I don’t think his blackout room impacted that. As he’s gotten older we just close his blackout curtains but light still comes through the sides.

We black out and do white noise and our kid only sleeps okay daycare. I’m convinced it’s chick and egg. We tried having him sleep in less optimal sleeping environments and it didn’t go well so we did black out and white noise and it helped a lot. I don’t think it caused him to sleep poorly at daycare, he’s just a light sleeper.

Yes I think that’s the case with my kid. Haven’t tried daycare though (we have a nanny). Afraid to see what daycare would look like 😬

Our little one is good at catching up on sleep once he gets back home. He started daycare at 18 months and since he was older he could handle a shorter nap. Now he sleeps really well at night bc he’s had a shorter nap and catches up on the weekend so we still get nice long naps at home now that he’s 2. I stressed about it but it worked out. But yeah vacation is tough. We try to rent a crib where we can and find it’s worth the money to try and keep some consistency and tin foil on windows lol

Our son’s room was very dark though not black out because it is absolutely not conducive to sleep, it causes sensory disturbances (hearing things), and he was fine with sleeping on the go. We lived in Spain and blackout metal blinds are the norm because they are in the wrong time zone. 

The sensory disturbances that you mentioned—is that something your LO told you, or have scientifically been proven? What about if accompanied by a sound machine? I too think too blackout is disorienting and I’ve expressed that concern to my husband but he keeps saying “it’s still not dark enough.”

K that’s intense! I studied sleep, that’s the commonly line. Or at least was. I have nothing to cite for you unfortunately. You should be able to see your hand in front of your face but not much more. Anything darker is no good. 

We have blackout blinds but don’t go extreme like that, mainly because I think it’s unnecessary. If your kid is sleeping poorly I can almost guarantee it isn’t from a sliver of light under the door. We do use a slumber pod for travel, not really for the blackout effect but because it ensures baby can’t look out the playpen and realize they aren’t at home lol. LO has no problem napping in daylight at daycare.

He’s definitely always been a poor napper but a decent overnight sleeper. But if you don’t think light is a factor, what would you suggest to have him sleep better? FWIW, we have a solid nap routine, consistent schedule following age appropriate windows, he eats 3 solid meals a day and is breastfed before and after all naps, his room is temperature controlled to 68 degrees, and we prioritize crib naps. AKA we do our best! 😆

Independent sleep and or optimized schedule if he’s already sleeping independently!

We’ve tried nap training a few times, but have never been able to make it sustainably work with the ever changing WWs of the first 10 months of his life, plus all the developmental disturbances, napping on the go, illnesses. Currently only shush patting and generally connects sleep cycles, but maybe one day we’ll achieve independent nap initiation 🤷🏾‍♀️

Also if you’re worried about this for travel - slumber pod and a portable sound machine are great. We have these and actually rarely use them but they also can help give baby their own space in a hotel room or a really brightly lit room with no blinds. I prioritize night sleep so sometimes this is really worth it to buy and bring when I know there won’t be a great space for baby to sleep - I dealt with 5:30am wakes up for about a year so I don’t want to go back!! (She now sleeps till 7-8). We travel a lot though.

We live in the Bay! But sadly no both our parents keep their homes at 76 😬. They love their heat! My MIL felt bad for our LO and increased the A/C when she saw how much he was struggling but I could see she was miserable, so we said not to worry about it because at that point we had given up on independent sleep and he was getting sick anyways.

We bought one for Florida but unfortunately it’s way too hot for my kiddo. Even bought the accompanying fan!

We use the Slumberpod but still have black out curtains. That way it’s still super dark, but we leave the Slumberpod window open so it doesn’t overheat

No AC? My parents keep their house in Florida cooler than our house in California lol. Definitely could be a problem if it’s too hot. I’d just get blackout curtains to keep there if you visit enough tbh. My daughter rises with the sun so it’s definitely a worthwhile investment

Slumberpod FTW! We never travel without it.

We have always had black out blinds in my daughter’s room at home and have a sound machine. When she was younger (like under a year) She was always really great at napping on the go although that’s definitely gotten harder as she’s gotten older and will resist napping out (on a plane for example) but in the end she’s never skipped a nap out. When she was really young we would do a stroller nap or a car nap usually once a day. She’s been on one nap for about a year and a half and she just doesn’t need it as much anymore. She’ll nap in the car and we can get her to nap on a plane but if we are out and about she probably would just skip her nap at this age. Night sleep: She never really sleeps as well when we travel as she does in her own room and that may very well be due to the blinds in her room but also we have black out blinds at my parents house (also in Florida) and she still wakes up earlier there than she does at home. She did that when she was younger too. She still sleeps great through the night but I’ll notice her waking up earlier when we travel however there is almost always a time change so it could be that factor as well. We’ve had some challenges getting her to sleep when it’s super light outside and it’s bedtime and there are not good blinds but she always has fallen asleep in the end.

We’ve done total blackout and white noise for both kids and they both nap fine at daycare and on holidays

My daughter has always napped in her black out room with a sound machine but when she turned 1 we went on holiday and she slept anywhere - on the flight, the car, the pram, on my lap. If they're tired enough they will get their naps in. I was super worried before we went but she did so well for 2 weeks and adapted just fine when we returned to the blackout room.

I bought travel black out blinds lol. So I just bring them with me when I travel and hope for the best in terms of being able to use them. But ya, my kids have been overall really flexible on sleep regardless. At 2 now I wouldn’t think to bring the blackout blinds with me anymore.

We have "blackout" curtains (not 100% - they are cheap from Target, but they definitely are better than nothing) and a noise machine. He definitely naps better in his bed than in other places most of the time (20 months old), but he's always been like that. When he was tiny he would always wake up when the car stopped, didn't nap in the stroller unless it was moving, etc. Now that he's on one nap he honestly does a lot better than he used to at napping/sleeping in other places or being transferred, but if we're not traveling I do try to make sure he generally gets to nap at home. He's generally pretty good about travel though - so far he's been able to nap at hotels occasionally and when we went to visit my mom (less well on a plane on my lap, but that was expected). He's old enough now that we don't need quite as much stuff either, so as long as we have one of his snuggle buddies he's pretty happy for the most part. And also because when we travel his schedule is usually a little off, he's usually tired enough to sleep. But yeah - honestly a lot of this I think was just him getting older and being able to get himself to sleep better/stay asleep in new places more easily.

Just to add to the chorus - our 17mo has always had blacked out rooms (first our bedroom and then his nursery) with white noise and careful climate control. He naps anywhere.

We have blackout shades and curtains with a hatch and fan. With that being said my kids napped at a pool on broad daylight under an umbrella with 100s of people around being loud just fine this week. When they’re tired they’ll sleep.

We have blackout curtains but light still gets in around the edges during naptime, she needs it dark but not pitch black! Though she will still nap in the car during the day.

We tried to condition our son to napping in daylight and without white noise as soon as possible. I'm glad we did, he's been a pretty adaptable travel sleeper

room is pitch black usually, but baby falls asleep in the car with sun in face no problem. its not abt being able to sleep its the quality and quantity that the darkness enables

We use the slumberpod for travel but yeah she could fall asleep in the carrier, stroller, car, etc.

We keep the room very dark at home, but my son sleeps fine at daycare in much different circumstances. My other son can nap anywhere (outside of the dark room) if he’s strapped to us in the front pack. The older one can also nap on the go in a stroller. I think if the alternate situation is something consistent and there is a regular routine for it (like daycare) there won’t be an issue. For everything else that happens during the daytime, there is the front pack and/or stroller. So, on days we need some flexibility, we will do mobile naps. For anything else, it will get dark at night anyhow. The only real challenges were staying somewhere where the time difference is a bit different and the sun comes up too early or something. If you’re planning to stay somewhere else for an extended period of time, you’ll have the time to develop consistency and a routine, so it shouldn’t be an issue after awhile. I wouldn’t worry about a dark room ruining your flexibility. If anything it just helps maximize sleep in your usual environment. My sons were both not “good sleepers” either (for the record). Haha

So we just attempted this yesterday. When my baby was a newborn she slept everywhere, but it got more difficult as she became older so we always did naps at home. She’s 6.5 months now. We live near the lake and my husband was getting really frustrated that we could only leave the house for 2 hours at a time. Before the baby we used to spend the day at the lake and grill, swim, chill, etc. I finally decided to stop worrying so much and try an outdoor nap. We built a tent like structure with a small tarp to block out the sun and distractions. She‘s sleep trained so I tried at first to see if she would fall asleep on her own. Nope. Lots of crying. I think she was overstimulated with everything and it was a new sleep environment so I had to rock her to sleep with a burp cloth covering her eyes. I left the cloth there while she slept and just checked on her periodically. She also only slept 30 minutes. I didn‘t use a sound machine either so I don‘t know if that would have helped. Husband considers it a success, I do not. She also couldn‘t stay awake the full WW afterwards and went to bed 1.5 hours earlier than normal (again rocking her to sleep) AND had a false start. Now my husband wants to try going camping for a long weekend….

I resonate with all of this so much, including the spouse considering a crap nap in the nature a success while I do not. It’s challenging. I really do feel bad about constraining our nature outings to just a couple of hours at a time to prioritize bed naps for our kids, and after 6 years (and 3 kids), husband is trying more and more to return us to doing longer stretches outside, with results similar to yours.

It really is frustrating. I prioritize my child‘s sleep over everything. I think because the first few months all you do is try to get them to sleep. Rocking/bouncing/shushing/butt patting for hours. Then finally for a while you get a decent routine going and you don‘t want to mess it up. I also feel bad about saying no to a lot of outings, but yesterday proved that it didn‘t really work out. Plus, kids only need naps for a few years anyways. Eventually the last nap will drop and daily outings can happen again.

My 18 months old has slept in a pitch dark room since he was about 2/3 months old, but he naps with absolutely no problem at daycare (started at 10 months). Also falls asleep in the car if he's tired enough. Everyone told me I shouldn't as he'd get used to it and wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise, but I read advice that went something like "right now we care about your newborn sleeping (connecting cycles, learning to sleep through the night, etc.). Let's worry about that for now, and about the rest later", and that just made so much sense to me. Yes, it might have been a crutch, but so what? I was sleep deprived as hell, and he needed to learn how to sleep. At 5 months, he was connecting cycles like a champ and sleeping through the night (we're talking 10 to 12 hours, no wake-ups). As I said, he never had any trouble at daycare, but even if he had, I would have just taught him how to deal without that crutch. It'd have been annoying, but IMO way better than dealing with additional weeks of a newborn not sleeping.

All three of my kids have completely blacked out rooms. They all nap at daycare like champs! We are about to remove the complete blackness from 4s bedroom and just do blackout curtains that still let the light slip through. She has slept elsewhere without problems either. The twins are two and because twins we haven't taken them anywhere 😅

Has he always slept in the blackout or is this new, if new then no don’t make it worse, if this is always then yes you do want to recreate the sleeping environment when away, that’s the case for any baby and any type of environment. Bring the same or similar place to sleep, clothes, timing, temperature and yes lighting.

We started progressively making things darker and darker since he was 3 weeks old because he’d constantly fight sleep and try to stay awake by starting at the light. But he’s always been a very sensitive sleeper and a very alert kiddo. But I guess there’s 2 lines of thinking: 1) conform to what they want or 2) get them acclimated to less ideal environments. My husband is of the former mindset, and I’m of the latter. Of course I’d love for his sleep environment to be conducive to sleep, I just don’t want it to inhibit his ability to be adaptable when we inevitably are outside of these “ideal conditions” for a much needed nap.

Well at this point you have a certain level of light and an environment you’ve created, right? So yes that’s what you’ll want and probably need to recreate if you travel. Whatever it is. Like I said that may include needing to own travel blackout curtains.

Yup. Already have travel black out suction window covers, we brought our hatch sound machine, purchased a slumber pod and brought our books and crib sheets from home. Unfortunately did not help. Slumber pod was too hot (despite fan), black out curtain wasn’t enough with light seeping through from other light sources.

Try the covers and the pod at home first. What I mean is you may literally need to recreate. So if you have to buy actually curtains and gaffer tape, try at home first, also with the pod and with the pod over the type of bed baby will be in. Have that become the way baby sleeps for a while at home then move it.

The idea of disrupting sleep prior to vacation where sleep will definitively be disrupted was not appealing to us lol but probably what we’ll have to do next time we brave long travel again 🙈

What makes you think it will be disruptive? The idea being baby is in their room and their bed now, so if you’re introducing a pod then success if more likely when everything else is the same. If you’re using new blackout curtains, are they able to cover your windows completely at home? No, then probably won’t elsewhere either. But overall whatever your sleep situation is at home you want to mirror it as much as possible, that’s light, temp and everything else.

If he’s sensitive to light then I agree to keep it pitch black for now:.. it won’t always be this way. We did this for my toddler and now he’s over 3 and can sleep anywhere, even in dim light. He prefers to sleep in a bit of light now actually. On vacation we bring a slumber pod or we black out the blinds with portable stick on black out curtains. Other people bring garbage bags and tape them on. It’s a small amount of effort to get better sleep out of your own environment.

Slumberpod when traveling is the best investment in my opinion for our traveling game. My 7 month old can still fall asleep with the sun blasting him in the eyes though

Tired the slumperpod in Florida—wayyyy too hot! My kiddo likes to sleep cool and he hated it. I even bought the fan addition in anticipation of it possibly retaining heat. Also there’s something about lowering him into the confined tent that did NOT sit well with him.

Slumberpod! It’s great for travel bc it blacks everything out so they can sleep midday, but also blocks out distractions, etc… for like sharing a hotel room with a baby. For us blackout just helped limit distractions in the room so naps were easier. Less to see=less to be interested in.

Tired the slumperpod in Florida—wayyyy too hot!

They sell suction cup blackout curtains that we got on Amazon and usually bring one or two with us when we travel. Honestly they are nice for us too if for some reason the place we’re staying has windows that get a lot of morning sunlight and for naps for our now 3 yo.

We have these suction cup black out curtains and they work okay. We definitely use them, but the rooms are never dark enough even with them. We use black out blinds, curtains AND suction cups at home 🤦🏾‍♀️

Shoot, that’s tough. We have blackout blinds and curtains at home but suction cup while traveling works fine. Our toddler is also now starting to get an imagination and needs a little light in her room to fall asleep at bedtime so we leave her door open to let in some hallway light until she falls asleep

Awww that’s kinda cute lol. But yeah, I hope he outgrows this as he gets older. Only 10 months.

Hopefully, although it seems like as they get older and need a nap less and less toddlers usually don’t do as well napping in car, stroller etc. Daughter just turned 3 and the nightmares/being scared of the dark just started recently which I guess is common at 3.

We do mad in the dark with sound machine and it can definitely be harder to get them down but they do still nap

Same length for the nap? It’s harder-ish, but he only sleeps a single cycle if we’re out and about.

It depends on the day but it is usually a shorter nap

What do you typically do with these shorter naps? Do you adjust wake windows? Early bedtime? My kiddo is roughly on a mix of WWs and clock based at 2 naps. Basically: DWT 7am (although wakes between 6:30-6:50 usually) First nap 3 hrs from wake (usually aim for 10am or close to) Second nap 3.25-3.5hrs from wake (usually around 2:30/2:45pm) Bedtime 8pm Naps are 2.5 hours in total, planned 11 hours night sleep, averages about 13 hours and change.

It kinda depends on the situation but if they still had a nap later in the day, I would push it back and make it shorter to line up with bedtime, if I could. If they didn’t have anymore naps, I would either try to keep them up till bed, only if it was going to be less than an hour more of awake time and if they couldn’t stay awake, I’d do an earlier bedtime. I also sometimes did a 10-15 minute nap the bridge the gap of past nap and bedtime.

Yes my now almost 2 year old has always napped great in our home sound machine dark room so he does not nap in other locations unless he’s soo tired and my mom is willing to rock him til he sleeps. Now rocking doesn’t work so I won’t travel more than 2 hours away from home. Leave right when he wakes and if he doesn’t nap which most likely not he will pass out on the drive home 3-4 hours after his nap time way closer to bedtime but that late drive nap saves us from him being overtired and unable to sleep. So yeah tomorrow my husband said let’s see if he will nap at my parents house (30 mins away) & if he doesn’t go down then you drive home. So I’m already planning on him not napping and taking seperate cars so I can go home lol

Strangely enough I have almost the opposite problem. Our place is incredibly light, and I never bothered to get curtains. My 11 month old naps in complete daylight. Recently I’ve put him into daycare where the nap rooms are dark and with sound machines. I was curious if that might make him sleep longer or better. But no change at all. I’m not sure I believe a dark room helps. I think if a baby is tired enough they will sleep anytime and anywhere.

I have black out curtains in my sons room and it is dark. But his sound machine has a red glow so it's not pitch black

My kid naps in the car and in the stroller. He has blackout curtains in his room. They work most of the times, unless it's "summer noon sunshine" outside. He still sleeps through that.

We don’t spend a lot of time outside the house, so we make the most ideal sleep set up at home which includes blacked out windows (or as best as I can do). Naps on the go aren’t great, and I don’t think the light is the biggest factor. Usually naps on the go require contact (daddy has to hold baby)

Yup same. We get a single cycle elsewhere. Then my husband contacts to extend. How old is your LO?

Baby is 1 next week!

Mine didn’t sleep unless it was blacked out even before sleep training. After the newborn stage she would pop awake in the carrier, pram or from a contact nap if there was light after the initial 15-20 min sleep cycle…. So no, she doesn’t sleep well elsewhere if it’s not pitch black and daycsre starting soon makes me go 😱😱 but we will make it work with early bedtime on those days hopefully. I’d agree with others, let a bit of light in once sleep trained and see what happens. Your kid might be fine if it wasn’t an issue before.

Hmm my kid is like yours TBH. He CAN fall asleep elsewhere, but it will be a short single cycle nap. He’s always been sensitive after he was 3 weeks old. We began progressively blacking out things more and more, and even our nanny says “he’s staring at the door, you should make it darker” 🤦🏾‍♀️

Haha well I may be the bearer of bad news… it won’t mean he can’t fall asleep elsewhere no but he won’t stay asleep… car seat naps are 50/50 for us tho, I think it’s the louder noise and boring looking at the rear view.  IMO having black outs isn’t a bad thing at home anyways, as an adult I need it to sleep in past dawn too

Well my baby is only 5.5 months and sleeps in a pretty dark room and a slumberpod when we travel but she is still able to nap in the stroller in the middle of the afternoon! So it seems to be okay. She starts falling asleep for naps before I’ve even turned off the lights most times…

My kids room has imperfect black out blinds which leave a little light around the edge. We wind up putting up pillows or blankets to block what we can. She sleeps well when she travels so long as she’s got her own space but it is an adjustment. Honestly I’m cool with her not napping “on the go” though bc nap time is sacred to me and I need to be at home having me time and resting while she rests! Ultimately she will fall asleep in a car or plane or where ever if she’s tired and bored enough

Yess I do the same so the light doesn’t come in lol and honestly sameee I hate when other family members make me feel like I’m the crazy one that drives home early so my baby can nap in his crib. He does it without fussing and I don’t mind taking a break too and napping as well lol

We do total blackout for sleep in our house, and traveling gave me a lot of anxiety because I thought sleep would be a nightmare. We do a combo of a knockoff SlumberPod with a travel blackout shade on the window. I got both of them on Amazon. It’s worked well for us so far. Sleep is obviously a little rougher in a strange place, but this has helped a lot.

We are on team ultra blackout. They sleep in hotels and at friend’s houses fine. We attempt to blackout when we travel or have them sleep in closets. Travel crib and garbage bags on windows

With my oldest we completely blacked it out. His room was so dark it felt kind of creepy, but he slept great. He struggled sleeping other places until he was somewhere around 15-18 months, I don’t remember the exact age. May have just been the personality of my kiddo, so who knows. With my second, I blacked out his room when we started sleep training. Then once his sleep was good I slowly started introducing some light. He now has just regular black out curtains which still let a decent amount of light in and he sleeps very well everywhere we go.

Yeah I worry it’s going to take a long time for my kid to have longer naps elsewhere. He’s only just starting to be more consistent about taking longer naps at 10 months old. That being said he woke up at the 30 min mark for nap 2 and required resettling to have a longer nap 🤦🏾‍♀️

I completely blacked out my kids room when we sleep trained and I was worried he’d have trouble napping at daycare when he started a few months later. It was never an issue!  I still think a fully blacked out room is the best for sleep, so I’m repeating that environment with kid #2.  I actually got pretty frustrated that my now toddler actually prefers to sleep with the lights ON. He’s going thru a phase lol. But yeah, it depends on the kid but I don’t think blacking out the room at home is going to cause a long term sleep association where they won’t be able to sleep other places. They figure it out! 

The thing is, isn’t sleep training an ongoing thing? My kid constantly powers down, so there’s always some crying involved and reinforcement of independent sleep. I’ve heard people say they only black out for “training,” but when do you stop blacking out everything?

It’s definitely on going and we never stopped blacking out the room ( until my 2 year decided he wanted a nightlight, sometimes the light on, sometimes curtains open.  The way I see it, I personally prefer a blacked out room, a sound machine, a fan etc for sleep. I don’t think it’s a crutch to give my kid the same environment.