Reading your baby’s sleepy cues

One of the biggest challenges many new parents face is figuring out when to put their baby down for naps.  It is very common that new parents don’t realize how quickly their baby becomes overtired.  One of the best ways to figure out when it is time for a nap is to watch for, what are referred to as, “sleepy cues.”  Those sleepy cues are signs that your child is becoming tired.  By catching your baby in that window of time before he is overtired, you will have the best opportunity for helping him learn how to fall asleep easily and not wake too early from the nap.  This will also help your baby fall asleep more easily at bedtime and sleep for longer stretches at night.

Some examples of tired signs are early yawns (just one or two versus constant yawns), going from actively playing to slowing of activity level, eyes looking wet or glazed, looking off in the distance or making less eye contact, and/or looking “zoned out.”  When you see your baby doing any of these things, you will know it is time to take him into his quiet, dark, non stimulating sleep environment and get ready for a nap.  Often what happens is that children become overtired and then have a much harder time falling asleep and staying asleep.  Signs that your child is overtired are crankiness, red eyes, frequent yawns, eye rubbing or ear pulling, and excessive energy.  When children become overtired, their bodies begin to produce the stress hormone cortisol.  When this happens, it give them a “rush” of energy and can inhibit sleep.  For your child, he feels the way you do when you drink 3 cappuccinos and then try to go to sleep.  It is very hard and makes falling asleep much more difficult.

Keeping an eye out for those sleepy cues is a great way to learn when your child needs to be put down for a nap and for bedtime.  However, some children are very alert.  Alert children are experts at hiding their sleepy cues.  Often, until you take a very alert child into his quiet, dark sleeping space, he won’t show you that he is actually tired.  For these children, their parents often need to keep an eye on the clock and make sure that their baby hasn’t been awake for too long.  Newborn babies often need to sleep after only being awake for an hour.  By the end of 6 weeks, most babies are able to stay awake for about an hour and a half in between naps.  By 4 months of age, most babies are able to stay awake for about 2 hours without becoming overtired.  By 6 months, that window of time is about 2 ½ hours.  By 8-9 months old, most babies are able to make it 3 hours awake during the day, usually between their 1st and 2nd naps and possibly before bedtime.