Overtired? What does it mean please explain!!

[reren]

We have just encountered a new terrible sleep phase!! My one year old is always tired for his morning nap (usually 9:30-10:30 but in the last week has refused to sleep at all in the afternoon. He is exhausted by bedtime and falls asleep really quickly but the last few nights has woken a few hours after going down and been absolutely wide awake - i ended up bringin him downstairs to try and give him some formula milk ( he is still generally having breastmilk) in the vain hope that would zonk him out - all it did was make him think it was playtime. last night i spent 2 hours in a dark room with him crying or toddling around trying to play. Is this overtiredness? How does it manefest itself - i thought it was to do w being too wired to sleep - but can children sleep for a bit and then wake up wired?? Tonight was slightly better as he did sleep in the afternoon for an hour or so - but he threw a right wobbly before finally falling asleep (i am praying he isnt about to wake up and give me a couple of hours of hell now). He is also suffering w teething at the moment - so i dont know whether its sleep or teeth or both??

[cuppa tea]

I am sure it's different for every kid, but in our case over tired happens when we miss the 'sleep window' and then the boy gets another boost of adrenaline to keep him awake. It's then nearly impossible to get him to sleep. When he was 1 he dropped his afternoon nap and we moved the morning nap to around 11am. He used to sleep for a couple of hours. You could try this?

Of course it could be something else entirely, like teeth. This is the trouble when they can't tell you what they want!

Occasionally, during the day, my son would sleep for say 20 mins and then wake up with enough energy to carry on and basically miss a sleep. Not a good situation. Not sure this is called 'over-tiredness' though.

[Belle]

My son did the nap thing you describe just before we moved to one nap, a bit older - poss 15/16 mths I think. Basically I struggled to get him through to 1pm for one nap, but if he slept in the morning, an afternoon nap was out, but that then meant he was overtired by late afternoon. It was frustrating and was resolved when we managed to move to just one afternoon nap (starting at 12.30 or 1, sometimes earlier). I think cuppa tea's idea of one nap around 11 is a good one (you cd then move it later if you wanted gradually).

With the nighttime thing - yes I think overtiredness can mean the kids just zonk out then wake up a bit later or sleep fitfully.

[Jacks50]

poor you!! sleep problems seem never ending.

Just incase cuppa teas suggestion doesn't work, you could try making the morning nap much shorter. my daughter is 14 months and she still needs a morning nap, but I wake her after 15 - 20 mins. then she'll still nap at lunchtime (more like from 1 or 2 for a couple of hours) if I let her sleep too long in the morning, she won't nap in the afternoon, and is beside herself with tiredness at the end of the day. and then she'll wake at night - not for long but she has disturbed sleep.

hope you get it sorted soon.

[jules b]

that's so tough, -especially when teething too. Have you tried a dose of calpol just before bedtime? I know it's not a 'sedative' but it does seem to calm our little one down and let him relax into sleep.

Personally, i wouldn't bring him downstairs during the night as it will make him think it's time to wake up and play. Our little one has never been a good sleeper at night (after terrible colic as a baby), so i don't know that i'm the best person to give advice! but what you describe is exactly what we had at about 14 months. We decided to go to a single nap, and someone suggested 11 am as a start time (lasting for about 2.5hrs max), then slowly move it a bit later as it suits. It took a few days to settle into a routine but then his body clock kicked in and so long as i got him down at the right moment it all clicked. If i missed that sleep window tho' everything went a bit pear shaped as he got fractious: soooo tired, but hyper and unable to calm down.

Good luck, -this too will pass!

ps the best help we got was from a group called 'Millpond'. They weren't the cheapest, but have a book that you can get second hand on Amazon for peanuts and it has lots of really good advice and explanations of how/why/what/when a baby sleeps. It's also really easy to read when you are exhausted.