Why Over Tiredness is the Enemy!

- Laura Thompson | 27th January 2021 -

If you’ve been following me for any length of time at all you have probably heard me talk about over tiredness!

I talk about it a lot! It’s a phrase I use multiple times a day and for good reason because over tiredness can play havoc with our children’s sleep. There isn’t a single family I’ve supported who didn’t have some over tiredness at play contributing to their sleep challenges!

In this blog I’ll be talking about what happens in our brains when we become overtired and how that affects how we fall (and stay!) asleep.I’ll also be giving you strategies to avoid over tiredness (handy sleep needs charts included!) and how to handle the situation when overtiredness takes hold.

Have you ever pulled an ‘all nighter’?

When we have been awake longer than we can really handle our brain starts to produce cortisol, the fight or flight hormone, to keep us going! Think about a time you have had to stay awake … there are probably plenty!

After an exhausting day of looking after children you might feel as though you could very well go to bed once they have but once they are in bed you get your ‘second wind’ and if you tried to settle down to sleep your brain would likely be going a million miles an hour and you’d have difficulty!

Have you ever travelled or pulled an all nighter to hit a deadline? Trying to get to sleep when you finally can is hard … because you’re wired and your brain is flooded with cortisol from trying to keep you awake so much longer than you would ordinarily be.

The crash out!

When our children become over tired the same thing happens and so when it comes time to sleep one of two things will happen. They will either have a lot of trouble, crying or fussing out of frustration at being so tired but not being able to fall asleep or they will fall asleep very quickly, crashing out through sheer exhaustion!

Once your child does finallly fall asleep the problem is they will bounce out of sleep just as quickly as they dropped into it!

When we fall asleep we should step down through the various stages of sleep until we reach deep sleep but when a child is over tired they skip all those light phases and so they also bounce straight out of deep sleep into wakefulness. This is why over tiredness causes morefrequent night waking, your child will not be able to link their sleep cycles so easily together, drifting from light sleep back into deeper sleep. This is also why over tired children will often wake up crying, because they are not ready to be awake!

Ok … so now you know what over tiredness is! How do we prevent it?

I work by wakeful windows – this means the average length of time a child can manage to be awake before becoming over tired and this increases with age. Children’s sleep is ever changing and it can be hard to stay on top of how much sleep they need and how to space this out throughout the day.

I’ve outlined sleep needs by age in the charts below. The key here is ‘average’ so use this a guide to naviagate your little ones schedule ensuring they are well rested and don’t become … you guessed it OVER TIRED!

Sleep Deficit

Often I work with families who’s little one has not been getting adequate naps, this leads to disrupted nights and so the cycle continues. Sometimes this can go on for months or even years and so we have to work on replenishing that sleep tank. You can do this in a number of ways!

• ·Shorter wakeful windows – If you think your child has a sleep deficit you will almost certainly need to be working towards the shorter end of the wakeful window scale for your child’s age. 2-4 hours? Go with 2 … or maybe even less!

• An extra nap – If your child is 18 months this chart shows you they only need one nap a day but if you are working on a sleep deficit you may need to bring back a morning power nap temporarily.

• Early bedtime – Early bedtime can work like absolute magic! A few days of bringing bedtime 30 minutes earlier can be enough to top up that sleep tank and get you back on track!

If you would like some help figuring out the best schedule for your child to get their sleep back on track, book a free call and let’s talk about how I can best support you!