Resisting naptime and exhibiting crying or giddiness.Some of the issues which can arise from overtiredness are: This means they are in a state where they are sleepy and feeling fatigued, but are unable to sleep. If your baby or young child is being kept up too late, or is frequently missing nap periods, they may become overtired. Periods of quiet rest followed by vocal fussiness as they become overtired.Turning away from you or another caregiver.Staring into space and seeming disconnected from the surrounding environment.To help you determine what your child’s wake time may be, look for subtle sleepy cues: The trick to having a well-rested child is not only to time their nap with the sleep pressure building up *just enough*, AKA their wake time, (not so much that they are overtired which results in a super short nap and a lot of crankiness) but to also match the timing of the circadian rhythm. For babies, this is common in the first 3-4 months, but after that point, a child’s sleep matures and other factors come into play. Otherwise we would likely be taking short naps all day long. However the sleep drive is not the only component that comes into play. Another way to think of it is as wake time how long your child can stay awake before needing a nap or bedtime.
The homeostatic sleep drive is basically how long the body can stay up before it starts to feel sleepy. This pressure is known as the homeostastic sleep drive. This need to sleep, or sleep “pressure” builds up quickly, requiring the need for frequent naps. Homeo-What?Īs a result of all the learning your child’s brain is going though, the feeling of needing to sleep builds up throughout the day. This is why babies need to nap often: their bodies are growing and processing a high level of external inputs. When your baby or toddler is napping their brains are processing and making sense of all of the physical and mental inputs they received while awake, and since our tissue regeneration and growth happens while we sleep it’s important to help babies settle into a healthy cycle where these processes can occur. Poor quality or non-existent naps will result in a child that is overtired, cranky, prone to more crying and night wakings. However it is a myth that skipping naps results in a better night’s sleep. It’s not uncommon for a well-meaning relative or friend to advise the parents I talk with to skip a nap in the hopes that it will make the child sleep better. But part of the success comes from understanding your child’s biological processes. Your child wants to sleep and they want to sleep well. They hear about it, but they don’t think it really exists. Having a child that goes down for their nap or bedtime quickly, easily and sleeps long stretches without having to rock, bounce, feed, drive around or lay down with, seems like a mythical creature.īut I’m here to tell you that this isn’t the case. 😉 It gives you some much needed down time.īut let’s be honest here for some parents, having a child that sleeps well, without a lot of fussing, is akin to having a unicorn. We know kids need their sleep, and a lot of it.įor small children two years and younger, sleep is a critical part of their development process and it’s important to develop healthy sleeping and napping patterns in order to help them grow and develop at a safe and healthy rate.įor parents? Well, it maintains your sanity. Getting the timing of sleep right can mean the difference between struggling for an hour or having your child quickly drift off. I hear these types of questions all the time from concerned parents, and for good reason. “Once my child transitions to one nap, how long should they be awake for before bedtime” “How long should my child be staying up between naps?” “What is a good wake time for my 5 month old?” Wake Time Are You Keeping Your Child Up Too Long?
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