It says they slept 11 hours. They woke up three times.

Almost every sleep log counts the night as one block. But the time spent awake at three in the morning wasn't sleep — and it still adds to the total.

Sleep Babies and early childhood Updated 2026-09-05

Into the cot at 8 in the evening, out at 7 in the morning. Eleven hours. That's what the log says.

But if they woke at 1 and were up for forty minutes, and again at 4 for twenty more, that time wasn't sleep. Eleven hours on paper. Nine hours twenty in reality.

Overtiredness doesn't come from sleeping too little. It comes from believing they slept more than they did.

Why it matters more than it seems

If you think they slept eleven hours, you can't understand why they're impossible by mid-morning, or why the nap is a fight. You look for the explanation in teething, in the weather, anywhere except the number you're looking at.

And there's a second, worse effect: if the routine is calculated on that inflated number, everything downstream shifts. The first wake window of the day is estimated from rest that didn't happen, the first nap arrives late, and the whole day carries the error.

What to look at instead

Net sleep: time in the cot minus interruptions, not the whole block.
How many times they woke, not just the total. Two ten-minute wakings are not the same as one of an hour.
At what time. Wakings in the first third of the night and wakings at dawn don't mean the same thing.

A night waking is not a wake window. They're two different things, and mixing them is what makes the numbers stop adding up.

In NomiNest this isn't a table, it's your baby

The app works from the data you already log, and compares your baby against themselves rather than against an average.

Meet NomiNest

Sources. NomiNest records interruptions separately and subtracts that time from the total in every calculation, including the routine.
NomiNest is not a medical device and this guide does not replace your paediatrician's guidance. The information is general and orientative: every baby is different, and the professional who sees yours is the one who knows them.