How Much Sleep Is Too Much Sleep?

The truth of the matter is that 9 times out of 10, there is no such thing as too much daytime sleep. All  babies have different sleep requirements. Some babies will have a longer nap of two-hours, some might even sleep three, while others will only require an hour. So, I want you to relax a little bit around the fact that there is no magical number of hours of sleep that each baby needs.

Should I Wake My Baby?

Yes, but only if you think that the daytime sleep is starting to affect settling at bedtime or their night sleep.  Sometimes too much daytime sleep can start to affect the night.

Last Nap of the Day

An area to keep a close eye on is the last nap of the day. If the last nap of the day is getting too long and pushing into your bedtime. This would be the only time I would say go ahead and gently wake your baby.

Waking your baby up mid sleep cycle

Be cautious of waking a sleeping baby……

If you wake a baby mid sleep cycle they are going to be fairly grouchy and grizzly for the next 10-30 minutes.

Try this……

Open the door, make a little noise out in the hallway and let in some light. Allow your baby to wake up on his own with a only a gentle push from you. This way you are not waking up your baby mid sleep cycle.

Rule of thumb

For the majority of babies out there, there is no such thing as too much sleep. The truth of the matter is, the better your baby sleeps throughout the day the better your baby will sleep at night.

Missing Sleep Leads to being Overtired

Over tiredness is a baby’s worst enemy. You want to make sure that your baby is fatigued enough for the sleep to come but not overtired. Overtiredness makes it very difficult for a baby to calm down enough to get themselves to sleep. If you’ve ever had a night where you feel overtired, you know what I’m talking about. You definitely want to avoid that with your baby.

When to seek medical advice

I had a concerned mum come to me as she thought her baby seemed to be sleeping too much. Jonas is 10 months old, he was sleeping a 11-12 hours a night and took two naps during the day of two to three-hours. Jonas’s sleep was not the problem.

The problem was mum expressed concerns around Jonas’s level of fatigue. In mum’s opinion, Jonas seemed tired all the time.

In this case I suggested mum to take Jonas to see their paediatrician for an assessment to discuss his behaviour, mood and energy levels throughout the day despite how much good sleep Jonas was having

Perhaps, Jonas was not getting enough iron in his diet. There could be lots of simple fixes to a problem like this but it’s worth discussing with your doctor to see if that’s the case.