Are you wondering, “Is my baby overtired? How can that be, all they do is sleep?!” It’s surprising how much sleep babies actually need and what a difference it makes when YOU have an overtired baby.
If you’ve ever missed a sleep window and experienced an overtired baby, I feel you. It’s not fun. A fussy, whiny, grumpy baby is very often an overtired baby.
You would think that if a baby is exhausted, they would have an easier time sleeping. Nope. As many tired parents can attest, it’s actually the opposite. Overtired babies are challenging to put down. They will often wake many times during the night, will have short naps and early wakings.
This can become a vicious cycle and wreak havoc on your days and nights. So much so that many babies diagnosed with “colic” are actually just overtired.
Overtired Baby - Why Is This Such A Problem?
Babies have a natural biological sleep window just like adults. However, their windows are shorter and come up more often to match all the sleep that they need to develop. If we miss this sleep window, the body will begin to produce hormones -such as cortisol and adrenaline, to wake it up. This is responsible for giving babies the “second wind.”
We as adults experience this too. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? As the night progresses, you get very sleepy, grumpy, uncoordinated, your brain becomes foggy, you would do anything to just rest your head. However, as the morning approaches, you start to feel more awake.
You make it past that threshold, and even if you lay down, your body is wired again. This is us becoming overtired and our circadian rhythm taking over.
Sleepy Cues
A newborn’s biological clock and circadian rhythm does not fully develop until around 4 months of age. This is why newborn sleep is so disorganized. However, as a baby grows, it develops a sleep-wake pattern that works with a child’s internal clock. Parents help this process by establishing predictable routines, creating great sleep environments, and exposing babies to light during wake hours.
Overtired Newborn? Newborns communicate with parents through their individual sleepy cues. Therefore, parents of newborns have to observe a baby’s sleepy cues and use them as a guide for sleep. You can usually avoid overtiredness and a fussy baby if you do this.
You want to watch for these sleepy cues and put the baby down right away when you see them. You usually have a short grace period before you hit the overtired zone.
While sleepy cues are key in newborns as your baby approaches 3-4 months, your guide to avoid overtiredness should change. Sleepy cues, while still important, should not solely guide when you put your baby to sleep.
Wake WindowsWake windows at this age become very important. Why? Well, because not all babies display tired signs or may display tired signs before they are actually tired enough to sleep.
So, for example, you have a happy 5-month-old, distracted by a toy, new people, and all the stimulation of their environment. They might be hitting their sleep window, but their tired signs are very subtle, or they don’t show them they are so distracted. Until it’s too late.
OR you have a 6-month old that, after an hour of being awake, gets a bit sleepy and rubs their eyes. You immediately put them down for a nap as per the sleepy cues, but they have not built up enough sleep pressure to get them through a consolidated nap. So what you encounter is a 20 min catnap, then an overtired baby because they have not slept long, and a catnapping cycle that can affect both days and nights.
This is why following wake windows after 3-4 months is SO important. If you see the baby getting sleepy, try to gently push them to their wake window without them getting overtired. It’s a dance. No, literally, you might have to dance to distract them. I’ve done it!
If you see them going over the overtired edge, put them down and try to lengthen that wake time the next time by just 10 minutes, then 15 minutes. Again, the goal is for them to stay up long enough to be tired enough for good sleep but not become overtired.
So under 12 weeks, sleepy cues are your salvation. Over 12 weeks, wake windows reign.
If you’re looking for more ways to help your little one sleep, book your free call today. We are more than happy to help you and your baby get the sleep that you need.
