Is my baby overtired?

Is overtiredness really something you need to worry about?

Or are you being scaremongered?

Every possible sleep issue is blamed on overtiredness…

Is your baby is waking at 5am?

They must be overtired…..

Is your baby is waking shortly after bedtime?

They must be overtired….

Is your baby taking short naps?

They must be overtired….

Is your baby waking overnight?

They must be overtired….

There is no evidence to support overtiredness causes these issues…

Let’s look at the science

What drives good night sleep? Long naps?

What helps avoid false starts? Early rising?

Homeostatic sleep pressure!

Homestatic sleep pressure builds in your baby’s body through periods of wake time.

If you want your baby to sleep long stretches, avoid false starts, early rising, short naps. Sleep pressure needs to be high!

I work with more under tired babies, than overtired babies.

SO why are sleep training account making this claim?

The sleep training industry is not evidence based.

They have this strange notion, that all babies need high amounts of day and night sleep, that sleep begets sleep.

The data they work off for sleep averages are inflated, and much higher than the sleep foundations average show us babies sleep.

So the assumption they come to is coritsol and adrenaline causes early rising, false starts, short naps, frequent wakes, when in fact this is rarely the case.

The truth is……

All babies are different!

Some are high sleep needs, some meet the average, and some sleep a lot less!

But every baby only needs a certain amount of sleep in 24 hours.

The average being (broken sleep) 12-15 hours in babies 3-7 months, and 11-14 hours in babies 8-12 months.

So if your 8 month old baby is taking 3 naps equating to 3 hours, and going to bed at 7pm, and starting the day at 5am. This is 13 hours, they are waking because they have met their sleep needs.

If your baby is within the normal range of sleep for their age, they are not displaying genuine signs of fatigue, you really do not need to spend your day worrying about overtiredness.

For further guidance, check out my baby sleep guide, I have a full chapter on routine and sleep needs, with in-depth explanations of signs your baby is under tired and overtired.