Is Your Child Overtired? How to Break the Cycle…

I often find that one of the most common sleep fears parents have is their child being overtired. Simply put, overtiredness occurs when your baby has been awake for too long. 

If a child is overtired their cortisol levels will rise, making it hard to calm and/or settle them to sleep—which in turn creates a cycle that can be difficult to break. Additionally, if it becomes a chronic issue, their sleep architecture can change creating a reduction in the restorative slow wave NREM sleep. Overtiredness can happen during each awake time, and as an accumulation throughout the day. 

So, prioritising your baby’s sleep is important and should be a priority in your daily routine.

However, we can be so scared of our baby becoming overtired that we obsess about their sleep and it can consume our days. Instead of worrying about your little one being overtired, try to put this energy toward tuning into your baby and learning their cues as well as the impact that overtiredness has on them.

For example, my daughter is extremely sensitive to being overtired and honestly our days are very hard when her sleep needs are unmet. So, I always prioritise her sleep. On the other hand, my son is much less impacted by it—an odd missed/short nap or late bedtime barely has an impact at all—so I am much more relaxed about his schedule. 

How to Break the Cycle:

The most common response to overtiredness is having shorter wake windows than needed. However, this can actually result in longer settling periods and/or can create catnap cycles because your baby may have enough sleep pressure to fall asleep but not stay asleep. So, although it might seem counterintuitive, if your little one is overtired, experiment with the wake window to make it slightly longer, therefore increasing sleep pressure, resulting in better quality sleep. 

Note for Infants: during the infant stage, wake windows generally need to be increased every 3-4 weeks.