Sleepless nights with your baby may feel endless, especially if your baby has been sleeping well and is suddenly struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep. It can be frustrating and upsetting – both for you and your baby.
But it’s common: Studies indicate that more than 25% of children 6 months and under experience problems with sleeping. But it’s important to know that as your baby grows and their sleep patterns change, the causes and solutions to sleep struggles may change, too.
In this article we are going to discuss overtiredness, a common cause of sleep struggles that is preventable – and with the knowledge you’ll learn here, treatable, too. We’ll also explain a little more about how apps like the Smart Sleep Coach by Pampers™ app can help prevent overtiredness. This easy-to-use app combines expert sleep coaching guidance with tools that help you keep your baby’s sleep on track, including when your baby becomes overtired! can help prevent overtiredness in babies.
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Why Do Babies Get Overtired?
Your baby’s sleep is guided by circadian rhythm (the internal clock), which is a natural cycle all humans have that is largely regulated by light, and sleep pressure, which is how long they’ve been awake. Newborns’ circadian rhythms aren’t yet developed, which is why a newborn’s sleeps are so disorganized. The rhythm begins to solidify around 3-4 months of age.
When it comes to circadian rhythm, in addition to blackout curtains and daylight exposure, it relies on a series of hormones, like adenosine, melatonin, cortisol, and serotonin, which we explain below. When your baby is overtired, these hormones are thrown out of sync and make settling for sleep harder.
- Adenosine: This hormone is slowly released as soon as your baby wakes up. When adenosine hits its upper limit, it triggers sleepy hormones, and your baby starts to get tired. This is the end of your baby’s wake window, and they’ll exhibit sleepy cues.
- Melatonin: Melatonin is a sleepy hormone that is released when adenosine hits its upper limit and helps lull your baby to sleep. As your baby sleeps, the adenosine begins to deplete. When adenosine reaches its lowest level, wake up hormones are released.
- Cortisol: A wakeup hormone, cortisol is released after your baby’s sleep.
- Serotonin: Another wakeup hormone released when your baby is meant to wake up.
If your baby stays up past their wake window, the “topped off” adenosine triggers the release of melatonin, even though your baby is still awake. Therefore, their body tries to compensate with cortisol and adenosine, which makes it harder for your baby to relax and settle. This can be both frustrating and uncomfortable: Their bodies are awake, but their minds want sleep; they are both wired and exhausted.
Even when your baby does fall asleep, overtiredness may cause them to wake frequently or early – all of which further throws their sleep cycles.
Overtiredness is more than just a little crankiness – it’s a vicious circle. As an overtired baby gets less quality sleep, they become more tired but can’t relax, exacerbating the problem. Your baby is developing quickly, both physically and mentally, and relies on restorative sleep and a proper balance of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) to help with their growth.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine , good sleep has been linked to improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health. This is why it is so important to address overtiredness and other sleeping issues quickly.
What are the Signs of an Overtired Baby?
Common signs and symptoms of an overtired baby include:
- Easily frustrated or seem uncomfortable
- Increased fussiness or crying at bedtime
- Shortened nap cycle – which means they wake earlier from a nap than usual
- Falling asleep when it’s not nap time – for example, in their stroller or highchair
- Trouble settling at night or for naps
- Frequent night wakings
- Wakes up crying or wakes earlier than usual.
- Tantrums or meltdowns (which is more common in older babies and toddlers)
Spotting the early signs a baby is becoming tired, such as yawning or rubbing their eyes, is key to preventing overtiredness.
What are the signs of an overstimulated newborn or baby?
The signs of an overstimulated newborn or baby can also be similar to an overtired infant. To soothe or settle your infant, remove them from the situation that is causing them to become overstimulated. You can then try to feed or swaddle them or offer a pacifier. For older toddlers, try a quiet activity such as reading a book or laying them down to calm their senses.
What are the signs of an overtired vs undertired baby?
Undertired babies don't have enough sleep pressure. They are often happier and more playful at sleep time. You may notice lots of babbling or taking a long time to fall asleep. An overtiredness baby will be extra fussy if they have that second wind and may be crying or less comfortable.
How to distinguish between overtiredness and sleep regressions
If your baby exhibits the signs of being overtired but is getting enough sleep for their age, they may be experiencing a sleep regression – a brief “backslide” that corresponds to developmental leaps. For example, there is sometimes an 8-month sleep regression that coincides with your baby learning to pull themselves up.
That’s another way sleep tracking using an app like Smart Sleep Coach by PampersTM helps: When you know how much sleep your baby is getting, and when, you can easily identify and solve any sleep problem you may face.
How Do You Get an Overtired Baby to Sleep Better?
Wondering how to break the cycle of an overtired baby? Knowing how to put an overtired baby to sleep is the key to getting them to reset their sleep cycles and start sleeping soundly again.
- Put them to bed early – as early as 5.30pm. An early bedtime is always better than an extra nap. Early bedtimes for overtired babies helps them catch up on their deepest and most restorative sleep, which happens before midnight and is the best way to recover any sleep debt, or sleep loss, from overtiredness.
- Wake them in the morning between 6 and 7am – this is when the circadian rhythm resets. Babies are also naturally early risers, so putting them to bed earlier gets them the extra hours they need. Setting an early bedtime for your baby will also help establish or reset your baby’s internal clock.
- Follow sleepy cues versus the clock, if you see your baby is tired then let them nap – once you recover the sleep debt you can start to work on a schedule (the Smart Sleep Coach app can help here, too!)
- Put your baby down sleepy, but still awake, to build healthy sleep habits to prevent overtiredness in the future.
- Make sure their room is dark and quiet, and set to the ideal room temperature – the fundamentals for a good night’s sleep.
- Don’t forget a consistent, calming bedtime routine, which may include a bath, fresh comfy diaper, a story, and a cuddle, to signal to your baby it’s time for sleep.
- Try different ways to soothe them (see below)
How To Soothe an Overtired Baby?
One way to immediately settle your overtired infant to get them to fall asleep is to cuddle or gently rock your baby. This is about more than creating a calming environment that is conducive to sleep – these gentle actions can help lower the cortisol in an overtired baby.
- Light baby massage
- Playing soft music or try one of our favorite lullabies to help babies sleep
- Using a white noise machine or app on your phone
For how to settle an overtired newborn, you can also try a contact nap or skin to skin.
While an overtired baby may seem like a lot to handle, once they are back on schedule, you likely will not need to offer support such as rocking them to sleep. In fact, continuing these supports for too long can get in the way of developing good sleep habits and independent sleep skills. Putting your child down for a nap or bedtime while they are sleepy but still awake helps them get comfortable with falling asleep on their own.
How to Prevent Overtired Babies?
If you haven’t experienced overtiredness in your baby, there are ways to get ahead of it and prevent it all together.
Prevent overtired babies with wake windows
A “wake window” is simply your baby’s awake time between naps and at night that is based on age. When your baby’s wake window is ending, they exhibit sleepy cues. This applies to both daytime naps and bedtime sleeps.
Since wake windows change as your baby ages, here’s a chart of typical wake windows by age. Remember, though, every baby is unique – it’s best to watch your baby, rather than the timer, when gauging their nap or bedtimes.
Wake windows by age
- Birth to 3 months: 30 to 90 minutes
- 3 to 6 months: 75 to 120 minutes
- 6 to 8 months: 2 to 2.5 hours
- 8 to 10 months: 2 to 3 hours
- 10 to 16 months: 2/3/4 hour schedule
Follow sleepy cues
Sleepy cues include yawning, eye-rubbing, ear-pulling, or glazed eyes. Other signs your baby needs a rest are they become suddenly quiet or look bored.
When you see these sleepy cues, it’s time to put your baby down for their nap or bedtime rest.
Consider sleep training
For babies older than 3 or 4 months old, consider one of the many methods of sleep training as a way to prevent overtiredness. Sleep training works with wake windows to shape and reinforce your baby’s circadian rhythm and prevent overtiredness. By watching wake windows, while also helping your baby develop independent sleep skills, their body will be able to fall asleep when they’re tired.
The Smart Sleep Coach by Pampers app can help you choose a sleep training method that's best for you and walk you step-by-step through how to implement it. The app
s Smart Sleep Schedule automatically updates your baby’s schedule with each sleep you track so you always know when it’s the right time to put your baby down, helping to prevent overtiredness.
Why skipping naps doesn’t stop overtiredness
Unlike what many think, poor or no naps when overtired will further negatively impact your baby’s sleep. It’s the same principle as with all overtiredness: your baby’s naps are important for their circadian rhythm and developmental growth.
If they miss a nap, their “sleep” and “wake” hormones become confused, which then skews their wake windows and can throw nighttime sleep off track. Your baby may not be able to sleep then; or, if they do fall asleep, they’ll sleep lightly and wake often, starting that vicious cycle that leads to tantrums and night wakings and overtiredness.
If they do skip a nap, opt for an earlier bedtime to help them catch up. Same goes when you’re dropping a nap, earlier bedtimes help prevent overtiredness during the transition.
Final Thoughts
Being overtired in babies leads to more than just crankiness or irritability. Their little bodies are thrown out of whack and they need some support to get back on track.
With that said, having an overtired infant at some point is incredibly common and all part of developing, growing, and getting on the right sleep schedule. Sleep patterns change constantly in the early days of life – that’s what Smart Sleep Coach is here for! To help you navigate these changes and keep your baby happy, healthy, and sleeping like a dream.
