Which is more important: sufficient sleep pressure or getting ahead of overtiredness?

[rocknroll15]

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I run into this problem so much, I figured I'd ask the above question.

An example, my kid had a crazy day and ended up having a late 2nd nap today (4pm-4:30pm). He's 10months old and normally has a 4hr ww before bed, but he only napped 1.5 hours for the whole day, which normally leads to split nights/EMW for us.

So which is more important: putting him to bed early to catch up on missed z's, or keeping him up for the full WW so there's enough sleep pressure? What's been your experience?

Thanks!

 

[texaspete]

@rocknroll15 I would probably do an early bedtime. But I usually tell myself to relax bc baby’s gonna do what baby’s gonna do…meaning the opposite of what I’m hoping for.

 

[worship4him]

@rocknroll15 Getting ahead of overtiredness! My 7 month olds schedule is soo hard for me to pin down when we are always out/busy doing things, but when he is in a situation like yours (late but short naps), I find that decreasing the last wake window to keep bedtime the same generally helps him sleep better through the night.

 

[lindiwe]

@rocknroll15 I would attempt to out down early. Baby wont sleep if they aren’t tired enough. I know my kid won’t go down more than 30 min early, so I am conscious of that.

 

[cavy]

@rocknroll15 both of them are important I think, but if you need to pick up which one is important, I'd like to say enough sleep.

 

[ojames]

@rocknroll15 This is such a great question. I struggle with this often and would love some insight too.

 

[the_laconic_dead]

@rocknroll15 From my experience I would stick with consistent bed time. I have pushed it either forward or back for up to 30 min depending on the type of sleep baby has had for the day. But baby still sleeps mostly through the night when put to sleep around bed time. My baby is tired regardless by the end of the day so and I think they know that bed time is coming soon.

 

[wheeler1552]

@rocknroll15 A consistent bedtime is more important than wake windows or sleep pressure or getting ahead of over tiredness.

 

[coveybed]

@rocknroll15 I think at this point a consistent bedtime is more important than wake windows? So maybe push bedtime 30 mins later than normal to account for late second nap but as day sleep was low maybe see if they are tired around normal bedtime too. My baby is 8 months and will some times skip the second nap all together (opposite problem!) so we end up with like 6 hour wake windows but i still put her down for the night around her bed time (6.30-7), maybe a little bit earlier and she does well with that. I find she wakes up around the same time everyday no matter what time she falls asleep now.

I'm a FTM so I'm still figuring it out too so this might just be how my baby does it!