When your baby's too tired to sleep

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Tired excuses

The more exhausted a child's brain, the less likely she'll be to recognise when to put the brakes on. And with nervous energy gathering momentum, you'll have one increasingly excitable tot and it'll probably end in tears.

'Tiredness affects all of us by reducing our ability to think as clearly or accurately as before,' says Claire Halsey, consultant clinical psychologist and parenting expert. 'It makes us less physically co-ordinated, and we tend to be more irritable and less able to cope.'

Bed-ache

Overtiredness doesn't just clash with your watching of Holby, it also interrupts your children's internal programming. Reports suggest that it can even affect brain development in very young children.

'In addition, sleep deprivation can mimic the symptoms of ADD (attention deficit disorder), ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and depression,' says Dr William Wilkoff, sleep expert and author of Is My Child Overtired? (Simon & Schuster Ltd, £3.99).

'Also, children who don't get enough sleep are far more accident prone and more likely to end up in A&E,' he adds. 'And it's associated with nocturnal leg pains (what used to be called growing pains) and contributes to child headaches.'

It's much better, then, to ignore those pleas for 'just one more story' and get them to bed before the kickback kicks in. But, as every parent of a sleep-resistant child knows, applying discipline at the bedtime hour never goes down well.

By Rachel Delahaye