An overtired place is a dark place. Overtired babies are more fussy and irritable. When your baby is overtired, they will have more trouble falling asleep in the first place. Because their adrenaline increases when they have difficulty falling asleep, they will likely sleep for less time as well.
If your baby is under 4 months old, you may want to start tracking your newborn's wake windows. If your baby is 4+ months old, we may want to take a look at their schedule. If you begin to have trouble with your baby getting into the overtired space, you can start tracking your baby's sleep with Lovebug. The Lovebug schedule will start to let you know when your baby's wake window is closing based on their age and past experiences. When you get the notification that your wake window is closing, start looking for your newborn's first sleepy signs.
When your baby's wake window is high, it means that we are not offering them sleep when their body is ready to sleep. Lovebug calculates an average of your wake windows, so you might have had a good wake window for part of it and was out of bounds for others. If you have waited too long past the ideal wake window, you may have noticed some changes in your baby's mood. You might have seen them get wired. This is a signal of getting a second wind of energy because of a surge of adrenaline. When this happens, it's harder for your baby to fall asleep at their time because the adrenaline fights against their urge to sleep.
You also might have seen them cry uncontrollably. A lot of times, this happens when they are exhausted AND have an adrenaline rush. When this happens, you can do little to help soothe them to sleep. You also might see them have really bad coordination or have trouble grasping new skills.
For your baby's first years of life, their sleep is really helping them establish their first neural connections. Sleep is important for both mood and brain development. The best way to avoid these consequences is to offer your baby sleep at the end of the wake windows for their age.
You can watch the full video lessons for wake windows/getting to a schedule in your Lovebug app:
0-4 month wake windows: Foundational Lessons -> Infant Sleep: The Beginning
4+ months getting to a schedule: Foundational Lessons -> Baby Sleep 102: Baby Sleep Schedules
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