The problem
Infant sleep runs on "wake windows" — how long a baby can comfortably stay awake between naps. Parents are told to track them, but the arithmetic lands on people who are themselves sleep-deprived: she woke at 6:40, the window is two and a quarter hours, the nap ran short, so bedtime moves… Every nap that runs long or short invalidates the rest of the day's plan, and the recalculation happens in an exhausted parent's head. I built NapMap while living exactly this — it's dedicated to my daughter.
The insight: log reality, recalculate the plan
Most schedule apps make the parent serve the schedule. NapMap inverts it — the same design DNA as my training coach, FitScript: capture what actually happened with near-zero effort, and let the plan adapt around reality.
- One-thumb logging. A single big Start Nap / End Nap button, designed for a parent holding a baby. Fix the times later with a tap if needed.
- Age-aware wake windows that lengthen as the baby grows, with a heads-up when they shift — and a one-tap way to drop a nap when it's clearly time.
- Anchored on what your family cares about: build the day from the morning wake-up or from bedtime, and get nudged when the two stop lining up.
- It learns the actual baby. Age-based windows are averages; after about two weeks of logs, NapMap tunes to the baby's real rhythm — always within age-appropriate bounds. The schedule fits the baby instead of forcing the baby onto a chart.
- Night mode for night people. Walk the night with Awake / Back to Sleep, and the interface automatically shifts to a dark, dim theme during quiet hours so 3am doesn't start with a white flash.
- Share the load. Invite the other caregiver; a nap logged by one shows up for the other.
Principled choices
Free, forever — on purpose
"Every nap app and sleep consultant seemed to want a credit card before offering any real help — comfort tucked behind a paywall, sold to parents on their hardest nights. NapMap is free. Good sleep, for your baby and for you, shouldn't cost anything."
That's from the App Store listing. It's a product position, not an oversight: the category monetizes anxiety, and refusing to is both the right call and the clearest differentiator available.
Honest numbers, no black box
Sleep-duration guidance comes from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the National Sleep Foundation. Wake windows are a practical convention, not a clinical rule — and the app says so plainly, alongside a clear "not medical advice; you know your baby best." Trust in a parenting product is earned by what you refuse to overclaim.
Shipping velocity
NapMap went from App Store launch to version 1.6 in its first two weeks — tightening the loop from real family feedback (including my own household's). It currently holds a 5.0 rating.
What I'd measure
- Time-to-first-logged-nap (activation for an exhausted user must be minutes).
- Naps logged per day per family — the habit metric.
- Schedule stability over weeks: naps and bedtime converging to consistent times, the outcome parents are buying.
- Second-caregiver invite rate — the household, not the individual, is the unit of retention.