Preventing Over-tiredness

If there’s anything that can send your child’s sleep off the rails, if there’s an arch-enemy for sleep training, it is without a doubt, the dreaded condition of over-tiredness.

Kids, as with all people, have a natural rhythm when it comes to sleep. Our bodies produce hormones to keep us up and running during the day, and different ones kick in to help us rest at night. When it comes to our children’s sleep, timing is everything.

So what happens when your little one stays awake past the time when these natural cues to sleep are activated? Well, the body assumes there’s a reason that it hasn’t been allowed to get to sleep, assumes there’s a need to stay awake, and fires up those daytime hormones again.

And that's when the trouble starts.

Because once those signals to stay awake get fired up, they’re tough to shut down, and your baby’s already tired. So, less sleep leads to more daytime hormones, and there you are, trapped in a the house with an over tired baby who’s legitimately cannot get to sleep.

The best way to prevent this situation is to get baby to sleep before they get past that crucial window of opportunity. But babies, especially newborns, are hard to read when it comes to signaling that they’re ready for bed. However, if you know what to look for, it can make all the difference in figuring out exactly the right time to put your little one down.

Some good signs to watch for include tugging at their ears, or rubbing their eyes and nose, arching their back, and turning their face into your chest.

Now, those are all strong signs that your baby’s ready for bed, but they’re also easily mistaken for signs that your baby’s hungry, so it’s best to use your mommy spidey-senses while also keeping an eye on the clock.

Newborns can usually only handle about an hour of awake time in a stretch, so make a note of the time when they wake up and set a reminder or make a mental note that they need to be headed down for a nap around 60 short minutes after that.

They’ll be able to stay awake for longer stretches as they get older, but even toddlers should only be awake for around an hour and a half to two hours at a time, so stay aware of the schedule and error on the side of more sleep, not less.

On the subject of toddlers, they have their own quirky little habit when they get overtired. The sudden influx of those daytime hormones can actually make them feel quite manic, so they might seem to be super happy and giggly for a while; just the opposite of what you would expect from a child who needs to get to bed. But you’ll see before long that their mood will take a big dive into crankiness, and then you’ve probably got a bedtime battle on your hands.

I know that this schedule can sound a bit strict for parents who aren’t used to it. I mean, an hour is barely enough time to get a diaper changed, a feed in, and a little bit of playtime before baby’s got to get back into their crib to down for another nap. But I can assure you, no client I’ve ever worked with has ever come back to me and said, “Boy…I really feel like my baby’s getting too much sleep.”

So, give it a try for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. I can almost guarantee you’ll be seeing a happier baby!

Have questions about your child’s sleep challenges? Need help developing a plan that works for your child and your family? I can help!