Potty Training a tired child is like teaching them to read in the middle of a windstorm.
It’s an up-hill battle my friend.
Lack of sleep is one the biggest offenders in hampering the potty training process.
And as if sleep is not hard enough…Potty Training WILL likely affect sleep.
So my biggest piece of advice for parents thinking of Potty Training is to make sure you’re sleep is sorted, you’re established on one good nap a day or if older, quiet time at the very least. Your little one can sleep independently and sleeps 12 hrs at night. They or YOU are not tired.
There are a few reasons why this is necessary:
A tired child cannot learn properly (and potty training is learning a new skill). If they are not sleeping well they are not processing that skill into their memory and so it becomes harder and longer for them to “catch on”.
A tired child will have more meltdowns. Scientific research and parents everywhere can tell you that meltdowns are a common reaction to a child being overtired. Lack of sleep messes with our emotions, stress levels as well as cognitive function. So the more meltdowns the harder it will be to calmly teach, learn and cooperate. This will often cause parents to give up as it makes potty training exponentially harder.
A tired child will lose even MORE sleep! Potty Training can affect sleep and so if your child does not have the skills and structure set up for good sleep, then this will cause an even worse sleep situation in your home. A rested child can bounce back faster and easier from the bumps in sleep that potty training can cause, a sleep deprived child will not and will likely face longer and harder regressions.
And the truth is a tired PARENT is less likely to withstand this type of push back, you’re exhausted! I get it.
So now that we’ve addressed how lack of sleep affects potty training, let’s talk about how potty training will affect sleep…
Just like any big skill your baby has learned so far, like crawling, walking and talking. Potty Training- connecting their body’s urge to pee or poop to a social action is a BIG one.
As they become more attuned to this urge, it may cause your little one to wake from nap, cause early morning or even night time wake ups. They will also begin to notice the feeling of being in a wet/dirty diaper and will not feel as comfortable sleeping through it as before.
If potty training causes a hiccup in sleep, that is OKAY! If you have a well rested child that can put themselves to sleep then it’s not a big deal at all and will be easier to navigate.
Potty Training during the day and night are two separate processes that are not necessarily accomplished at the same time. I often tackle day potty training first and hold off on night training until their bladder is developed enough to hold pee/poo for 10-12 hrs straight.
This has nothing to do with behaviour and everything to do with physical development and growth of the bladder (usually large enough by 4 years old).
This also avoids unnecessary disruptions in night sleep as day sleep might be temporarily disrupted. An early bedtime and a full night of sleep is recommended for toddlers facing short naps and little day sleep during the potty training process.
If you are night “training”- essentially removing the pull up at night then here are a few tips to limit the bathroom visits:
Do not offer food or drinks at least 1 hr before bed.
Make sitting on the potty a part of your bedtime routine.
If they wake up to make a potty trip - right back to bed with little interaction (a potty beside the bed is helpful for less of a trip).
As you can tell sleep and potty training are very related. We need sleep to take in all that learning/practicing and to process that into long term memories, that is done primarily in deep NREM sleep at the beginning of the night and one of the biggest interruptors of deep sleep is: You guessed it- overtired.
So early bedtime is ESSENTIAL so we don’t rob our bodies of that deep sleep that does so much for our Child’s development.
If your toddler is not sleeping well and YOU are not sleeping well then let’s take care of that first. Lucky for you I’m a sleep expert as well as a potty training expert so I can help you get both under control!
Book a free call with me to chat about getting a plan together to conquer both skills with EASE
Stay Rested my friend,
Lil xx
“Usually the triumph of my day is, you know, everybody making it to the potty.” -Julia Roberts
