This is a big, big, big, big, big word,
because naps are really important.
Everybody knows that babies and toddlers,
under the age of about three,
need to have daytime naps.
And I'm just really quickly gonna go over
why napping is super, super, super important
for your little one.
So, depending on your child's age,
they have to have a set amount of naps,
or kind of a ball park of ideal nap hours each day
to mean that they don't get overtired,
'cause overtiredness is gonna ruin bedtime
and their nighttime sleep.
Naps also mean that they get a chance for their brain
to catch up with all of the development
that they are experiencing in their awake hours.
So, when they're napping is when things like their memory,
short-term memory is transferred into the long-term memory,
their immune system is strengthened,
new brain connections are made,
their brains are firing with all of the new things
that they are learning and absorbing
during their awake windows.
So, getting napping right is actually quite important
to your child's growth and development,
particularly their neurological development.
But, it's all very well and good to say "get napping right",
but how do you do that?
And I guess, that's the million dollar question.
There are certainly different things you can do
to help your baby or your toddler nap better,
and there are some things you can easily implement
in their sleep environment,
like white noise, having a nice, dark room,
having a wind down routine before their naps,
making sure they're not hungry,
making sure they're the right temperature,
and there are also things that you can be doing
during the day to help aim for really good naps,
like ensuring the awake windows between their naps
are really age appropriate.
So, they're not too short
or not too long for your baby's age,
because both of those are going to lead to poor napping.
Making sure your baby is in some kind
of predictable nap pattern.
Babies and children love predictability,
and so having their naps happening
at around the same time each day is a really good, easy way
to give your child the best chance of napping well.
For more information on everything to do with naps,
we have a ton of articles and resources for you
on our website, so make sure you check them out,
and have a look at the other videos
on our YouTube channel, as well.
Got lots of information about napping
and every other aspect of baby and toddler sleep.
With baby's sleep, right from zero
through to four years old,
there are three main nap transitions,
and a nap transition happens
when your baby is dropping a nap from three down to two
or two down to one, or, eventually,
losing all of their naps.
The first one is around six months old,
when your baby will change from doing three good naps
to needing to drop that last nap and doing only two naps.
The transition happens between six to eight months,
where sometimes they might still need
that last little afternoon nap,
just as a little catch up nap.
Then, the next nap transition is between 12 to 15 months,
through to 18 months, and now that nap transition
does depend on a lot,
as to what your baby is doing overnight
and if they haven't consolidated their night properly
or if they're waking early morning,
then they won't be able to drop that nap until closer
to 15 to 18 months.
But if your baby
is sleeping 12, 13 hours solidly overnight,
then they might be able to drop it closer to 12 months old.
So, that's where the morning nap goes,
and you're left with a good, decent lunchtime sleep.
So, the lunchtime nap is the last one to go.
Now that happens between 2 1/2 years old to three years old,
and that, again, you may need still a little bit
of a catch up nap sometime after, obviously,
between three years old, anyway, if they're sick,
or if they haven't slept well at night.
That last nap to go is probably
the hardest transition of all,
and realistically, until a baby or a child
is four years old,
they might still need to have little naps here and there,
if you're out and about, or if you'd have a big day,
or if you've been traveling, or if they're sick.
If you want more information
about each specific nap transition and when they happen
and how to minimize the disruption
of your child's sleep,
then definitely have a look at our website,
or you can have a look on our YouTube channel
for more videos just like this one.
So, overtiredness is something
we've all heard about, but we probably don't realize
how much it actually does affect
our baby's ability to go to sleep and then stay asleep.
So, what can happen is if your baby has been awake
for too long between naps,
then they get a buildup of this thing called cortisol.
Cortisol is something inside your baby's body,
and it's very similar to adrenaline
in that it triggers the fight or flight response
in your baby.
So, it's actually almost like if we had a shot of coffee
right before bedtime, and then you can't switch off
and go to sleep, even though you might be physically tired
and your body might be feeling tired,
your brain is suddenly really wired,
and you just can't switch off, and you can't relax,
and you can't go to sleep,
and that is what it is like for an overtired baby.
So, logic absolutely does not hold true
when it comes to overtiredness in that we think
if our baby or our toddler is overtired,
surely they should more easily be able to fall asleep
and sleep better, because they're so tired.
But, it doesn't work like that.
Because of the chemicals zooming around your baby's body,
going fight or flight, fight or flight,
overtiredness, adrenaline, and cortisol,
and your baby can't switch off and go to sleep.
Now, they're going to react to that by crying.
If they're a toddler, they might react to that
by having tantrums, having meltdowns.
Older toddlers, I know my 2 1/2 year old
will start having meltdowns about the tiniest little thing.
They're gonna resist stuff,
they're gonna be lying on the floor, having a kicking,
screaming tantrum, and it seems so illogical,
and that is a classic example of overtiredness.
In a younger baby, they're probably just gonna be crying,
unable to be soothed, they might be wanting to feed,
and frantically feeding, especially if they're breastfed,
because they're trying to get themselves to sleep,
but then they're too tired to feed properly,
and they might seem fussy and be pulling on and off,
and this is very, very commonly associated with
the witching hour, especially in younger babies.
That's usually due to a buildup of overtiredness throughout
the day, so they have literally just had enough,
and that baby needs to get to sleep, pronto.
It is really hard to get an overtired baby to sleep, though,
and often, we get quite frustrated about it,
and we try lots of different things,
and it actually ends up overstimulating the baby,
and then they're getting frustrated,
and it exacerbates the entire situation.
So, if you, the best way forward
is to try and avoid overtiredness, if you can,
in the first place,
and to do that, you need to work towards
really age appropriate awake windows.
And by that, I mean your eight week old baby
shouldn't be awake for three hours between naps,
because that's way too long,
and they're gonna get really overtired
and be difficult to settle to sleep for that nap.
So, making sure their awake windows are really spot on
for their age is the best way to try
and avoid overtiredness.
Also, making sure they're getting enough naps
during the day.
So, if your baby is a chronic cat napper,
and only napping in short chunks throughout the day,
then they're not getting the chance to have a longer,
more restorative sleep to take those cortisol levels,
to knock those cortisol levels right back down.
So, they're gonna be reaching the end of the day
with this buildup of overtiredness,
and so they're gonna be cranky
and hard to settle to sleep.
So, getting the awake windows right
and getting them napping for the right amount of time
is really gonna help overtiredness.
If your baby is overtired, certainly for a younger baby,
the best thing you can do is get them to sleep,
however you can.
We would recommend going into a very dark room,
because babies, humans, are mammals,
and mammals instinctively find the dark comforting and safe.
Take them into a dark room,
crank up the white noise.
If your baby is crying,
we suggest having the white noise louder
than your baby's cries, so they focus on it,
and babies can only focus on one thing at a time
when they're very young.
So, hearing white noise triggers a calming response
in their brain, and they will stop crying.
Crank up the white noise,
tightly swaddle your baby, if they're still swaddled,
so that they're not overtired
and their arms are waving around,
rock them, feed them,
do whatever you can to get your baby to sleep.
The other problem with overtiredness is that,
because your baby's had all of these adrenaline,
caffeiney hormones running through their body,
it can mean that the quality
of their sleep is affected, as well.
So, an overtired baby will probably only cat nap,
because the cortisol is so high in their body
that it's waking them up after one sleep cycle,
and they're not able to go back
into another sleep cycle.
They're probably going to wake 45 minutes
after bedtime in the evening.
That is a classic sign of overtiredness.
They may wake more overnight,
because, again, the elevated cortisol levels
are preventing them from going into a really deep,
restful sleep, because cortisol actually counteracts
the effects of melatonin, which is the good sleep hormone.
So, we want that sleep hormone to take over
during the night, and it can't if cortisol levels
are too high.
It can also mean your baby is waking really early
in the morning for the same reason,
because of the elevated levels of the stress response
in their bodies.
So, getting their awake times right and nap lengths right,
trying to avoid overtiredness is your best bet,
and we can help you with all of that
through our Sleep Programs.
I hope that's helped you understand overtiredness.
Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel
for more baby sleep tips and information.
If your baby's sleep has suddenly got a lot worse,
the first thing I would do would be wait a couple of days,
and, also, look at their 24, 48 hour period
of before it suddenly got worse.
Is there anything that is just slightly amiss,
or is there anything that indicates that there is a reason
why your baby's sleep has gotten a lot worse?
Often, I know it's certainly often in my children,
I can look at the 24 hour periods before
they started sleeping a lot worse,
and go, "Oh, yeah, so maybe she was a bit off here,
or she was a bit grizzly", and things like that,
and then often, for me, it is that they are sick.
That takes a little while for that to present itself
as the actual sickness, and the first thing
that can be affected is their sleep.
Wait a couple of days to a week to see if there's anything
actually going on.
Secondly, people will often think that it's teething.
Now, teething, people can fall into the trap
of thinking that it's teething if their baby's sleep
is a lot worse around three to four months old,
because that's at the same age where babies developmentally
start getting ready for solids,
and they'll put things in their mouth.
They'll start mouthing things.
They'll start tasting things with their tongue
and their mouth, because
that is them getting ready for solids.
Around this age, as well, is the infamous four month
sleep regression, where the baby's ability
to fall asleep and how they fall asleep
will directly affect how long they will
be able to sleep, because the baby will start waking
in between sleep cycles, and they need to be able to
fall back asleep once they've fully woken
to aid in sleeping for longer periods.
Now, that's sleeping longer than 45 minutes
during the day and two hourly chunks at nighttime.
So, if your baby has started suddenly cat napping
through the day and waking two hourly at night,
it might be time to start looking at the way
that the baby is going to sleep,
and if you are actually actively doing something
that needs to be replicated every two hours at night,
then it's time to start looking at your baby's ability
to go to sleep and, maybe, tweak that.
Another reason why your baby might be suddenly not sleeping
as well as they previously had is their need
for a nap transition.
This will happen between six and eight months
for the late afternoon nap,
and if your baby has started waking in the early morning
or started waking at night during this period,
and they're able to self settle,
then I would certainly look at that late afternoon nap,
and the reason that can directly affect the nighttime sleep
and the early morning.
Around 12 to 15 months, or 12 to 15, 18 months,
drop consolidating the daytime sleep into one nap,
rather than spreading it over two.
And then the same around 2 1/2 to three years old,
cutting the naps altogether.
So, naps in general, if they're in a transition period
when they need to change the number of naps during the day,
that can have a direct effect
on nighttime sleep, as well,
and that could be why your baby
is suddenly sleeping a lot worse at nighttime.
So, I hope that answers your question.
Definitely head to our website for much more information
in our Sleep Programs to help you
through the nap transitions and sleep regressions,
and definitely subscribe to our YouTube channel
for more videos just like this one.