# overtired child-too hyper to sleep



## jessaroo (Oct 14, 2003)

My nine month old daughter has changed her sleep schedule over the past week. She is staying awake for 8 hour stretches which used to be 4 hour ones. We prepare for bed when she first shows tired signs and cannot calm her body down fro 2-4 hours for sleep. When she cries i try to put her to sleep like in the past-she nurses and closes her eyes and we lay together and then a few minutes later she darts up into sitting position and crawls off the bed faster than any other time of day. This routine goes on and on. SHe gets so tired that her balance is off and she bangs her head a bunch etc. I do not know how to calm her body down. I used to drink chamomile tea before bed, but that is not working anymore.

Does anyone have any ideas or a similar situation?


----------



## lilyka (Nov 20, 2001)

I had a dd who was like this from birth. If you want your child to sleep better you are goping to have to make it a more parent directed force than a child directed one. it seems a very sad irony that overtiredness causes sleeplessness but whatever. First and formost you have to get them to bed before they are tired. Not exactly the path of least resistance. I started by reading the no cry sleep solution. First step is to get an accurate picture of how much sleep the average child needs. I went on for a long time thinking my child was just grumpy and didn't need much sleep. After all she was like this from birth so I didn't know her any differently. Then I started (somewhat randomly) instituting a nap time and bed time. I would do an elaborate bed time routien (I wrote it down and watched a clock so I wouldn't miss anything or go too long or too short on somehting) and then we would turn off the lights and get in bed. We also implimented more routien to our day which helped. At first it was awful. I didn't get much dones those weeks. The house was a wreck, we didn't go anywhere, and my older dd was fending for herself and forging for food most days but she was good sport. He rsisters sleep habits were effecting her negativly and she was just as excited to fix this problem as the rest of us. eventually she was conditioned to sleep when nap and bed time rolled around. It was slow at first but gradually as that sleep deficit began to dissapear she was able to sleep longer, go to sleep more quickly and within 6 weeks she was taking a nap (for the first time in her life!!!! ) and she was in bed by 8:00PM (instead of 1:00AM) she also started sleeping later in ghte morning (9:00 instead of 7:00 ) And holy cow! what a nice dd I have. She is a totally different person. Still fiesty but happy and loving. two traits she had rarely shown before while aways so tired. I think especially in AP circles it is taboo to talk about helping our children learn to sleep. they will sleep when they are tires is what I was always led to believe. granted Lily is a challenge to any rule but i think we really do our children a disservice when we leave them to thier own devices as a matter of rule rather than looking and doing what is right for the individual child. So that is why I feel so strongly about this sorry to prattle on so. Good luck.


----------

