{"id":6426,"date":"2022-09-06T00:20:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T00:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mommyinstinct.com\/?p=6426"},"modified":"2022-09-07T00:48:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T00:48:50","slug":"the-unexpected-reason-why-overtired-babies-keep-waking-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mommyinstinct.com\/the-unexpected-reason-why-overtired-babies-keep-waking-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unexpected Reason Why Overtired Babies Keep Waking Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
You don\u2019t know what else to do to stop your baby\u2019s waking up and crying.<\/p>\n
I mean, you\u2019ve done your homework. You\u2019ve read all the books you bought about taking care of a baby. You printed out baby sleep schedules<\/a> and hung it on the wall so you can track your baby\u2019s naps. <\/p>\n But that ideal schedule is like sand that keeps slipping through your fingers.<\/p>\n No matter what you do, your baby is a terrible napper. <\/p>\n He keeps waking up every 30 to 45 minutes crying. He refuses the bottle. He gets cranky and arches his back trying to get away from you while crying his lungs out.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t know what else to do to console him. He doesn\u2019t want you to pick him up, he doesn\u2019t want you to feed him. And it\u2019s impossible to just stand there watching him and do nothing.<\/p>\n If this pattern applies to you at some point during your motherhood journey, maybe you\u2019ve found yourself a new experience.<\/p>\n Dealing with overtired babies.<\/p>\n Yes, you read that right.<\/p>\n It is highly possible that your baby is overtired.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if my baby is overtired, shouldn\u2019t he sleep longer than usual?\u201d – You wondered.<\/p>\n Indeed, it is the opposite way around.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n When you have an exhausting day at work, all you want to do when you get home is to go straight to your bedroom and collapse on your bed straight to the next morning.<\/p>\n But sometimes when your day is beyond exhausting, and you stretch yourself over your exhaustion and collapse point, you drag your overtired body home and find it impossible to relax and fall asleep.<\/p>\n Same thing applies to babies.<\/p>\n In fact, little babies even take it up a notch.<\/p>\n As they are more sensitive to overtiredness than adults, their bodies automatically assume there must be some sort of danger, and they enter a fight-or-die state.<\/p>\n There is nothing we can do about it when it happens. This is the way we are wired to be back in the \u201ccaveman days\u201d.<\/p>\n When babies are overtired, their bodies start releasing stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) into their bloodstream. Those hormones keep their little bodies alert and awake.<\/p>\n And the more overtired your baby is, the more cortisol and adrenaline being bottled up in his system, the longer it takes to fall asleep and stay asleep.<\/p>\n According to The Sleep Doctor<\/a>, \u201ccortisol has a daily, 24-hour rhythm. For most bio types, cortisol levels are at their highest in the morning, usually around 9 a.m. Cortisol begins to rise gradually in the second half of a night\u2019s sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n After that peak time, it gradually declines throughout the day and reaches its lowest level around midnight.<\/p>\n This helps stimulate wake-up time in the morning, and call for sleepiness at night.<\/p>\n So when overtiredness messes up with the cortisol level in your babies\u2019 little bodies, it messes up with their sleep as well.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n We all have sleep cycles. Babies and adults. Period.<\/p>\n However, you always feel like you sleep straight through the night because you don\u2019t remember waking up at night. Because you have learned through the years how to string your sleep cycles together. So you finish 1 sleep cycle and jump straight to the next one! <\/p>\n But things are different with our little babies.<\/p>\n They finish 1 sleep cycle and then wonder, \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d. They don\u2019t know how to string those sleep cycles together. <\/p>\n And things are even worse for overtired babies.<\/p>\n Their bloodstream is full with cortisol and adrenaline, they finish 1 sleep cycle and tell themselves, \u201cBeware! Something dangerous is coming!\u201d. They are alert, completely awake, anxious and start to cry.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n When everyone is happy and no one is tired, we sleep through the night and wake up in the morning because cortisol is built up in our bloodstream in the morning to wake us up.<\/p>\n For overtired babies, they have not worn off their extra cortisol and more cortisol is being built. When cortisol reaches a certain level, they also reach their wake-up time.<\/p>\n If your baby often wakes up at 6:00 AM, when he is overtired, you will notice he starts his morning at 4:00 AM to 4:30 AM.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n You will notice sometimes your baby wakes up and clearly wants to go back to sleep, that\u2019s when you need to do some instant fixes to help him get back to his sleep.<\/p>\n That includes holding and rocking him, singing lullabies, feeding him, giving him light massages, etc.<\/p>\n When you are trying to put your overtired baby back to sleep, it is not the time to apply \u201cbest practices\u201d or \u201cgood habits\u201d. The most important thing is to put him down for sleep, and clear his sleep debt.<\/p>\nWhy do overtired babies keep waking up?<\/h2>\n
The cortisol rhythm and sleep<\/h2>\n
Overtired babies keep waking up because cortisol affects sleep cycles.<\/h2>\n
Overtired babies keep waking up early because cortisol is being built up in the morning<\/h2>\n
What to do to break the overtiredness cycle<\/h2>\n
Quick fixes to put him back to sleep<\/h3>\n