If you have not already done so, please read Blog Posts 1 through 5 that describe how sleep is important and beneficial. I will post specific information for parents and children based on my book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” Please do not be put off by my book’s length. This is a reference book. Read only the topic of interest to you.
When the time of falling asleep is too late, a baby becomes overtired. To maintain wakefulness when overtired, the brain produces stimulating chemicals to enhance arousal. But this higher state of arousal makes it harder for baby to subsequently fall asleep and stay asleep at night. This heightened state of arousal in the evening before falling asleep is called ‘pre-sleep arousal’. Pre-sleep arousal causes some fatigue signs, the ‘witching hour’, and a ‘second wind’. In this state of hyperarousal, during the soothing bedtime routine, your baby might fight sleep to maintain wakefulness for the pleasure of parents’ soothing.
On page one of the 1987 first edition of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: “Of course, children will spontaneously “fall asleep” when totally exhausted-“crashing” is a biological necessity! But this is unhealthy because, the extreme fatigue, often identified as “wired” behavior immediately preceding the crash, interferes normal social interactions and even learning.”
On page four: “Consider what Dr. Charles E. Sundell, the physician in charge of the Children’s Department in the Prince of Wales General Hospital in England, wrote in 1922: “Success in the treatment of sleeplessness in infants is a good standard by which to estimate the patience and skill of the practitioner.” He also wrote: “A sleepless baby is a reproach to his guardians, and convicts them of some failure in their guardianship.” Is this outmoded advice? Absolutely not. Sometimes scientific progress forces us to reevaluate the wisdom of the past. Other times, it reinforces it. The truth is, modern research regarding sleep/wake states only confirms what careful practitioners such as Dr. Sundell observed about one hundred years ago. He wrote: “The temptation to postpone the time for a baby’s sleep, so that he may be admired by some relative or friend who is late in arriving, or so that his nurse may finish some work on which she may be engaged, must be strongly resisted. A sleepy child who is kept awake exhausts his nervous energy very quickly in peevish restlessness, and when preparations are at last made for his sleep he may be too weary to settle down. . . .Regularity of habits is one of the sheet- anchors by which the barque of an infant’s health is secured. The reestablishment of a regular routine, after even a short break, frequently calls for patient perseverance on the part of the nurse, but though the child may protest vigorously for several nights, absolute firmness seldom fails to procure the desired result. . . . Our aim should be merely to re- establish the normal habit of sleep in the child.
On Page 47: “Fatigue produces an increase in adrenaline concentrations. That is, when we are tired, our bodies chemically respond with a burst of adrenaline to give us more drive or energy. We become more aroused, alert, and excitable. Cortisol concentrations also increase with increasing alertness…When our overtired child appears wired, wild, “on the edge“, excitable, or unable to fall asleep easily or stay asleep, he is this way precisely because of his body’s response to being overtired. It’s a vicious cycle. Sleep begets sleep, but sleeplessness also begets sleeplessness. When our babies miss the sleep that they need, the fatigue causes a physical or chemical change in their bodies. These chemical changes directly affect their behavior and interfere with maintaining the calm-alert wakeful state or blissful sleep. They are fractious because they are overtired.”
On page 49:”Infants over 4 months of age and children can push themselves hard fighting sleep to enjoy the pleasure of their parent’s company and play. The resulting sleep disturbance might produce fatigue, and the body would naturally respond by turning up those chemicals, such as cortisol, responsible for maintaining alertness and arousal…I think the following clinical terms can be used to described “wired” or “turned-on” children with disturbed sleep:
Physiologic activation
Neurological arousal
Excessive wakefulness
Emotional reactivity
Heightened sensitivity
In the 1999 and 2003 second and third editions of my book, this material was included and in the Introductions: “Overtired children are fatigued, and the body’s natural response is to fight the fatigue by producing stimulating chemicals. This response was important for the survival of primitive man to flee, fight, or continue hunting even when overtired. This “second wind” of stimulating energy causes a hyperalert or hypervigilant state. which prevents easy entry into sleep or sleeping for long periods. That’s why our overtired children appear “wired,” unable to fall asleep easily or stay asleep.”
