Sleep pressure
Also called homeostatic sleep pressure, build sleep pressure, build up sleep pressure
Sleep pressure is the need to sleep that builds the longer someone stays awake and eases during sleep. Parents and sleep consultants use it to talk about whether a baby has been awake long enough to fall asleep and stay asleep.
How it's said
...everything throughout the day with naps needed to align perfectly to have the right amount of sleep pressure for bedtime.
35 minute naps can still be very restorative and enough to reduce the sleep pressure.
That schedule looks good to me; you have enough awake time to build up sleep pressure!
Who says it
Not to be confused with
- Overtired doesn't mean too little sleep pressure. Infant sleep researchers describe an overtired baby as one whose sleep pressure is high but who is too upset or wound up to let it tip them into sleep.
Where it came from
Sleep pressure comes from sleep science. In 1982 the Swiss sleep researcher Alexander Borbély proposed the two-process model of sleep, in which a homeostatic process builds pressure for sleep while we're awake and releases it while we sleep. Researchers link that build-up to a brain chemical called adenosine.
The phrase has since moved into baby sleep talk. Durham University's infant sleep researchers write that babies' sleep pressure builds up more quickly than adults', and baby brands use it to explain overtired and undertired babies.