Signs That Your Baby Is Sleep Deprived

Dana Obleman: Hi, I’m Dana, welcome to our video chat. Today, I want to talk about sleep deprivation and some signs that you can watch for that your baby might actually be sleep deprived. I put this up on a Facebook post a few months ago and people got a little bit annoyed with me but I’m just stating the facts here. Tip number one is that if your child is falling asleep in under five minutes. Basically their heads hits the crib or pillow and they’re out in a minute or two.

That is sign number one that your child may be sleep deprived or running a sleep debt. It takes an average person, a well rested person who has appropriate amounts of fatigue, takes that person anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to fall asleep at night. Anything less than five, you can look it up, so this is what the experts say that that means that there’s some level of sleep deprivation going on there. That’s the first sign.

That can just be a scheduling problem. Maybe you’re waiting too long between naps. Perhaps bedtime is a bit too late. Really, all you need to do is clean up the schedule, move bedtime earlier, and you will prevent all of that from occurring. Another thing to look for is falling asleep with motion. If every time you buckle her into the car seat, she is asleep within 30 seconds of a drive or asleep within 5 or 10 minutes of a drive, then you may need to look at your schedule again.

Babies who are on a schedule and well rested if it’s not actually nap time they shouldn’t fall asleep in the car. I hear from people all the time who’d say, “Oh gosh, the minute the car starts, I’m fast asleep.” As long you’re the passenger, hopefully not the driver. You need to look at your own schedule. That’s a sign that you are running on some sort of a sleep debt if every time you’re riding in a car, you fall asleep. Same with airplanes. That’s just a side tip for you all.

Same with the stroller, if every time you put her in the stroller, she’s asleep, you’ve got to have a good hard look at what’s going on in her schedule. Now, if it is nap time, a tip I always give people when they travel is that if you have to drive any length of time or distance just to plan your trip around the nap. Hopefully, baby will sleep a chunk of the drive and it will just make life a little bit easier. Otherwise, she shouldn’t be falling asleep unless it’s actually a nap time.

Those are a couple of things I want you to watch for and see if there are some things you need to tweak in your child’s schedule so that you can prevent this. Operating on a sleep debt is not good for anybody, but it certainly isn’t going to be good for your children. They do need some time when they’re in the crib to start relaxing and let sleep come more naturally instead of conking out out of pure exhaustion every time they hit the crib. Thanks so much for watching today. Sleep well.
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Transcription by CastingWords