The Secret to Solving Sleep Regressions
Overview
In today’s article we will be pulling back the curtain on sleep regressions.
You will learn:
Five (5) of the most common sleep regressions
How to prepare for and even prevent sleep regressions
How to fix sleep regressions
The Skinny on Sleep Regressions
You’ve heard of them. You’ve dreaded them. You’ve lost precious sleep over them.
A hot topic in all mom groups – sleep regressions.
But there never seems to be any consensus on when exactly they happen? And what to do about them?
Your mom talks about how your brother cried for hours every evening for months when he was a couple months old.
Your best friend swears her baby forgot how to sleep as soon as she hit 3 months.
Your sister never had a problem until 8 months, but you’ve also saw on the Instagram page you follow that there’s a sleep regression at 9 months. So which is it?
And if you follow the Wonder Weeks app, sheesh. It’s like you have to expect a new sleep regression every other week.
Is it really this bad? Is there even anything you can do about it?
We’ll be answering all these questions and more today, so keep listening.
What is a Sleep Regression Anyway?
So let’s first talk about what constitutes a sleep regression.
A sleep regression, as it’s generally understood, is when your child’s sleep becomes disturbed for approximately 1-2 weeks. Any longer than that, and it’s likely no longer the regression causing the sleep disturbances. By that point, usually there’s a lingering sleep association or prop that was introduced – or reintroduced – when you were trying to survive the regression.
What Causes Sleep Regressions
By and large, sleep regressions are caused by major developments in your child’s physical and cognitive abilities.
The 4-month-sleep regression is unique in its cause, but we’ll talk about that in a minute.
Some people believe that teething can cause sleep regressions, but studies have shown that most often, when teething is the only issue, the sleep disturbances tend to peak right before and while the tooth is breaking through.
So if your child is having a rough few days of sleep and you can see that tooth is about to erupt, then it’s very likely teething is the culprit.
But if you – and your baby - have been suffering through poor sleep for 3 months – it’s not just teething. Something else is going on, too.
Most often, sleep regressions happen because our babies and toddlers are going through a major developmental leap. This can be a cognitive leap – like babbling, first words, object permanence, and much more.
Or this can be a physical leap like rolling over, pushing up on hands and knees, standing, etc.
For one, while they’re actively learning this new skill, their brains are working in overdrive, trying to puzzle it out.
And for another – practicing this new skill is a whole lot more fun than sleep.
Think about it – if you’ve spent all your life walking around on your own two feet, and all of a sudden, you learned you could hover a few inches off the ground, who in their right mind would rather go to sleep than practice that new, incredibly cool skill? How did I do that? Did I really do that? Can I do it again?
Most Common Sleep Regressions: 4-Month Sleep Regression
By far, the most commonly experienced sleep regression is the 4-month sleep regression.
Some people claim that this is “the only true sleep regression” due to its highly unique cause.
This is because the 4-month sleep regression – which can occur as early as 3-months –happens because your baby’s sleep structure goes through a major shift. Where they had 2 sleep stages before in their newborn months, they now transition to 4 sleep stages.
In the newborn phase, babies’ sleep consists of active sleep and quiet sleep. Active sleep is where they wriggle and squirm and grunt and look like they’re waking up. But they’re actually still asleep. At this stage of development, newborns don’t yet have the ability to repress movement during active sleep. If we didn’t have the ability to repress movement once REM sleep develops – the sleep stage when you dream – it would actually be very dangerous. But, luckily, at this age, they can’t do any harm when they squirm around during active sleep because they’re very minimally mobile in the first 2 months.
In the newborn phase, babies also experience quiet sleep, which is a restorative kind of sleep, and looks just like it sounds – your baby lies their quietly, sleeping peacefully.
Then, when the 4-month sleep regression hits, their sleep is shaken up, because now they have 4 stages of sleep: 2 light sleep stages, REM, and NREM.
Those 2 light sleep stages make it much easier for your baby to be awoken. So if your baby is suddenly waking more often at 3-4 months, ding ding ding, you may have found the culprit.
REM sleep – which is rapid eye movement sleep – is when you dream. But now, your baby is beginning to develop that skill of staying still – or more still – during this stage of sleep. This stage is essential for learning – transferring short term memory to long term memory.
And NREM – which is non-rapid eye movement sleep – is like the new quiet sleep stage, very restorative, good for healing, immunity and replenishing energy.
Additionally, this sleep regression can happen because this is when your baby begins to become much more aware of his surroundings – including his surroundings as he’s becoming drowsy and falling asleep.
So you know the recommendation for putting your baby to bed when he’s drowsy but awake? Unfortunately, for many parents that stops working around this age.
This is because your baby begins to develop sleep associations – meaning, his brain will begin associating his environment – where he is, what’s going on, and what he’s doing – when he becomes drowsy and falls asleep. And whatever his environment is when he becomes drowsy, his brain begins to think it can only fall asleep if that exact environment is replicated.
Whether that’s feeding to sleep, sleeping on Mom, bouncing while being shushed, etc.
And finally, another wrench that’s thrown in around now is rolling – many 3- and 4-month old babies begin to learn how to roll, which is like, so much more exciting than sleep. This can be especially frustrating if your baby learns how to roll onto his belly, but then gets stuck and can’t roll back.
Not only are some of the underlying causes for this sleep regression unique, but the solution for this sleep regression is unique to the others, too.
For this sleep regression, you kind of just have to let nature take its course when it comes to sleep structure development. Typically, this sleep structure transition can take around a week or two before sleep disturbances should begin to settle down.
Many babies don’t resolve their sleep issues after those 2 weeks, though. And usually it’s not because their sleep structure is still going through the transition. Rather, often babies still continue to suffer sleep disturbances because they have sleep associations preventing them from falling asleep or back to sleep without those exact parameters being present.
How to Prepare for the 4-Month Sleep Regression
What can you do to prepare for the 4-month sleep regression? Can you prepare for the 4-month sleep regression?
You can, in a sense.
You can do the following things:
Establish a solid, conducive sleep environment for your baby.
Make sure you’re following your baby’s wake windows and getting her to bed before her wake window is up, so she’s in her prime sleep environment when her body is ready to sleep, and you prevent her from becoming overtired.
Begin to help your baby learn independent sleep skills. Now this is a tricky one. In the newborn phase, most babies need significant help getting to sleep. But! They can begin to shape those building blocks for independent sleep. This has to do with their cognitive structure, including – and especially – their circadian rhythm. Which tells their body when and how long to sleep, using things like body temperature and hormones like cortisol and melatonin to establish this structure. Your baby’s circadian rhythm is immature still at birth, and takes time to develop. But you can begin to practice the routine of falling asleep independently in a very specific way. Check out the podcast episode linked above for how exactly to do this.
4-Month Sleep Regression Tips
Now what do you do once the 4-month sleep regression hits?
These are my tips for surviving and winning the 4-month sleep regression:
Be mentally prepared. There is a very good chance this sleep regression is going to happen. That doesn’t mean you need to panic or freak out about it. It’s natural. It’s a part of baby life. And it’s 1000% survivable. Just know that there’s a good chance that it will happen sometime in the 3rd or 4th month. That way it doesn't hit out of nowhere.
Accept help. Often times, babies will wake more often and be harder to get back to sleep during this transition. Let your spouse or parenting partner help. Let them know that you need them – our partners often love to hear that they’re needed. Too often we try to muscle through all of this on your own, and it’s not necessary. Ask for support.
Don’t plan any major trips or outings or events for the next 2 weeks once you notice this sleep regression starting. If you already have a wedding or big event planned, then, hey, more hands to help. But otherwise, be kind to yourself and allow for some easier weeks at home in an environment that will be more supportive to your baby’s – and your own – sleep.
And once those 2 weeks are up, if baby is still fighting sleep tooth and nail, this is an excellent time to start researching sleep methods. There are a ton of different methods out there – different kinds of methods for different kinds of families.
If your baby has also learned to roll during this time, you need to stop swaddling ASAP. It’s unsafe for baby to be swaddled if he can roll, because if he ends up on his tummy while swaddled, he won’t be able to use his arms to pick up his head and breathe. Additionally, if rolling is disturbing his sleep, help your baby practice that new skill during wake times as much as possible. Make it a rolling palooza. This helps to remove the novelty of the new skill and it helps your baby to master the new skill so he’s safer if he does roll in bed.
This is often the trickiest sleep regression. But you can absolutely make it through. I have 100% confidence in you and your baby.
Most Common Sleep Regressions: 6-Month Sleep Regression.
The next most common sleep regression is the 6-month sleep regression. This one can occur anywhere from 5-7 months. These sleep regressions really aren’t exact in their timings. So just expect that they will happen during an average time frame, and they should last about 1-2 weeks.
The 6-month sleep regression typically happens for a myriad of reasons. Around this time, baby is learning to support themselves while sitting up, bring objects to their mouth – which is how babies like to explore shape and texture, and babble using consonant sounds.
How to Prepare for the 6-Month Regression
As with the 4-month sleep regression, you can prepare for this sleep regression by
Providing your baby with a sleep environment that’s conducive to her sleep
Watch her wake windows and get her to bed just before that wake window is up
Give her an early bedtime between 7-8 PM
And what’s unique to preparing for the 4-month sleep regression is that this time, you can sleep train before this sleep regression if you so choose. Many sleep trained babies that have the skills to fall asleep and stay asleep independently don’t even go through this 6-month sleep regression because their independent sleep skills have them on such a predictable, strong sleep-wake schedule that they their body is primed for sleep at sleep time, and ready to play and practice during wake times.
And for those babies who are sleep trained and do experience the 6-month sleep regression, it typically resolves itself more quickly and easily than it does for babies who are not sleep trained at that stage.
6-Month Sleep Regression Tips
Now what about once the 6-month sleep regression hits? What do you do then?
Just as when baby learned to roll over, you’re going to solve this sleep disturbance by helping baby practice his new skills during the day. Imitate and respond to his babbles. Let him practice sitting up. Give him ample opportunity to grab safe, clean objects and explore them.
PS – that oral exploration is majorly important for feeding development and acceptance of different food textures down the line.
Most Common Sleep Regressions: 8-Month Sleep Regression
Let’s shift now to the 8-month sleep regression. This one can occur anywhere from 7- to 9-months. Again, it’s based on when your child achieves the milestones that babies often learn around this time – milestones like object permanence, pushing up to hands and knees and rocking or even beginning to crawl. Some babies even pull up to standing around now, though that might not happen for a couple months yet. Babies in this age range may also start variegated babbling, meaning instead of using the same consonant sounds over and over – “dah-dah-dah,” they begin to switch up the sounds “bah-guh-dah.”
How to Prepare for the 8-Month Sleep Regression
To prepare for this sleep regression, you can:
Providing your baby with a sleep environment that’s conducive to his sleep
Watch his wake windows and get him to bed just before that wake window is up
Give him an early bedtime between 7-8 PM
Sleep train
8-Month Sleep Regression Tips
Surviving this sleep regression is just like the 6-month sleep regression. Expect for it to last 1-2 weeks, and practice those new skills during wake periods as much as possible.
To practice object permanence, play peek a boo, read lift-the-flap books with your baby, and hide a favorite toy under a receiving blanket – letting baby watch you hide it, and then letting her pull the blanket off over and over.
To practice babbling skills, imitate the sounds your baby makes, and respond to them as if she’s speaking real words. Help her learn functional baby signs, and say the words as you sign them.
Give your baby lots of opportunities to practice pushing up on her hands and knees and entice her to crawl forward. Teasing with crinkle toys were always a favorite at our house.
Most Common Sleep Regressions: 12-Month Sleep Regression
The fourth common sleep regression is the 12-month sleep regression. If you’ve been following along, this can happen at 12-months, or anywhere around then.
Why does the 12-month sleep regression happen? The 12-month sleep regression might happen around the time your baby begins to speak his first words. Or maybe when he pulls up to standing or cruise along furniture. Why sleep when you can walk back and forth along the railing of your crib?
Babies around this age can also start to use a pincer grasp – that means picking small objects – like cheerios - up with their thumb and pointer finger. And they can start dropping items voluntarily into your hand or a container.
Babies this age can also begin to point using just their pointer finger.
That’s a lot of milestones, and it’s not even all of them. (And, just PS – in the previous months I didn’t list all the expected milestones for those month ranges, either.) Your child’s pediatrician will often have a list of milestones they look for for each age range. In our pediatrician’s office they use an assessment called an ASQ, and if you ever want a list of milestones by age, the American Academy of Pediatrics has them on their Healthy Children website.
How to Prepare for the 12-Month Sleep Regression
Just as with the 6- and 8-month regressions, you can prepare for the 12-month regression by:
Providing your baby with a sleep environment that’s conducive to his sleep
Watching his wake windows and getting him to bed just before that wake window is up
Giving him an early bedtime between 7-8 PM
Sleep training
12-Month Sleep Regression Tips
In order to survive the 12-month regression, expect for it to last about 1-2 weeks, and during the wake periods, help your baby practice those new skills you see emerging as much as possible.
To practice first words, choose a functional first word that you’d like your baby to learn. Try not to choose too many target words at once – especially at this point verbal words are first emerging.
Model the word like crazy. Pick a word that baby can use all the time, and especially a word to get what he wants or needs. Like more or milk. You can of course practice words like mama and dada, too.
Remember your baby has a very limited collection of sounds he can say right now, so we’re not going for perfection here. “Milk” won’t be “milk.” Maybe “mih” or “mah”. And sometimes first words come out repeated. So instead of “more” or even “mo”, your baby might say “mo-mo-mo”.
And better yet, pair a simple baby sign language sign with the verbal word when you model it, to give your baby two ways to say what he wants to say.
As a speech-language pathologist, I can 100% promise you that baby sign does not stop your child from learning to speak aloud. But it can help. A lot.
To practice pincer grasp, baby puffs, cheerios, and soft foods diced extremely small – especially foods that are easily dissolvable and mashable – are great ways to help your baby practice their pincer grasp. Whatever you choose, just make sure it’s not something baby can choke on.
Model picking up with your thumb and pointer finger – pick up a baby puff from your baby’s tray while he watches – then pop it in your mouth, chew and swallow. Look at him and smile, as if saying, “that was fun!” Play is how babies and kids learn.
To practice pointing, model pointing to pictures in books and talk about them. No need to ask baby “what’s that, what’s that.” Model, model, model. Then, occasionally, look at your baby and wait expectantly. Raise your eyebrows, make a face like you’re waiting for him to something. Model a target word again. Wait. If baby doesn’t say it, no big deal! You say it again and move on.
Pointing is crucial for a skill called joint attention. That’s when your child can draw your attention to something they’re looking at. Whether they want something or just want to show you. Joint attention begins to develop around this time, as your baby begins to try to show you what she’s looking at or thinking about.
You can also point at something a couple feet away, and once baby is looking at you – with your arm still outstretched and your finger still pointed – you can move over to the object you’re pointing to until your finger touches it, as if to say “there! This is what I’m looking at!” Name what you just touched, what you were pointing to.
Sometimes your baby will maintain attention the whole time, sometimes they won’t. No big deal. Just keep trying.
And to practice standing and cruising, give baby a safe place to practice pulling up to standing and cruising. Cruising along the glass coffee table might not be the safest option. Cruising along the floor holding onto a couch is always a favorite. A bit wobbly, a bit stable. And super squishy in case of a fall.
Most Common Sleep Regressions: 18-Month Sleep Regression
And finally, let’s talk about the 18-month sleep regression. Just as with the other sleep regressions, this one can hit at 18-months on the nose, or in the months around it.
What causes the 18-month sleep regression?
Around this age, babies are learning to walk, their vocabularies are growing, and they’re wanting to practice a bit more independence – maybe moving away from you, but still looking back to make sure you’re still close by.
How to Prepare for the 18-Month Sleep Regression
You can prepare for the 18-month sleep regression just like you did for the previous sleep regression:
Provide your baby with a sleep environment that’s conducive to her sleep
Watch her wake windows and getting her to bed just before that wake window is up
Give her an early bedtime between 7-8 PM
Sleep train
18-Month Sleep Regression Tips
And once the 18-month sleep regression hits, you can expect it to last about 1-2 weeks, and you can practice baby’s new skills during wake periods as much as possible.
Give lots of opportunity and a safe practice space for baby to practice walking.
To build vocabulary: model, model, model. You don’t need to always be asking, “what’s this? What’s that?” You can ask occasionally, but mostly model.
Continue to practice functional words for her to imitate – up, down, eat, bed. Words that are most relevant to her and help her get what she needs and wants.
Give baby a safe range to explore – not too far that you can’t get to him quickly if he falls and gets hurt, and obviously not near anything dangerous, but give him some space to explore. This was actually a lesson I had to learn and I didn’t learn it until we had our 3rd. I was always right next to my babies, following them closely, even in environment they were safe to explore. I needed to learn to take a step back once they reached a stage where they wanted to move away and explore on their own.
I remember being at my friend’s house once, watching her baby army crawl around the room, picking up random toys, mouthing them, and moving on. He was so independent and curious, I was amazed! In that moment I knew, I needed to give my own babies more space. Direction can be good and necessary, but there’s a time and a place for free and safe exploration, too.
It helps our babies and kiddos learn that they’re going to be okay. Even if Mommy or Daddy isn’t right next to them 100% of the time. They’re going to be okay.
I guess I needed to learn that, too.
Are There Other Sleep Regressions?
Now, you may be wondering, “are there other sleep regressions, too?”
Just because I didn’t mention a 24-month or 36-month sleep regression doesn’t mean your child won’t ever have sleep disturbances again.
They will. But do you get the pattern?
When your kiddo goes through a major developmental shift, their sleep might be disturbed. The way to prepare for it is to provide them with a solid, conducive sleep space, a regular sleep structure based on their circadian rhythm and sleep needs, and help them learn to fall asleep and stay asleep independently before the new development hits.
And then once the new development does hit, help them work on their new skills during the day, so they can achieve this new milestone more quickly and to help remove the novelty of this new skill so it impacts their sleep as little as possible.
What Else Causes Sleep Disturbances
Now, what about when your mom talked about your brother crying for months. What was that about? Are there any other common causes of sleep disturbance?
Absolutely.
Colic
Your mom may very well have been talking about colic. Colic is a confusing and frustrating disturbance to your baby and you. It’s defined as your baby crying and inconsolable for at least 3 hours per day, at least 3 days per week, for at least 3 weeks. By and large, colic hangs around until 3-4 months, when it usually peaks. And then all of a sudden, it disappears.
The underlying cause of colic is a big mystery. Some researchers hypothesize that it’s caused by an immature gut and the baby cries from pain in his or her GI tract. Others suggest it has to do with dairy intolerance. And still others have different ideas. But the jury’s still out.
The most important piece of advice I have for colic is – ask for and accept help. This is not the time to muscle through. This is not the time to pretend like you can do it yourself. Colic is horrible. And you need a break. Ask someone you trust to take the baby. They very well may cry. You need to get out of the house – or even just go outside. Let someone else take care of the baby for an hour or so.
You can take better care of your baby if you get a break. Trust me. I haven’t had a baby with colic, and even I know I’m a better mom when I get a regular break.
Growth Spurts
Another common cause of sleep disturbances are growth spurts. If this is the case, and baby is older than 6-months and otherwise healthy and growing well, offer more feeds during waking hours. If the pediatrician tells you to add in night feeds, then obviously listen. But if you can add in daytime feeds instead, do that.
Illness and Travel
Illnesses and travel can also cause sleep disturbances. When you travel, there are tricks to keep baby’s sleep on track – and then for both illnesses and travel, once baby is healthy again and home, it’s time to get back on track.
For both illnesses and travel, sometimes sleep schedules and independent sleep can get a bit messy. For illnesses – especially with fevers, vomiting, and the like – you do what you have to do to help your nugget get healthy again. And with travel, sometimes you have to bend some rules to get everyone some sleep.
But once the illness and travel are over, it’s back to the regularly scheduled program. There can be a bit of a sleep regression here, but the more consistent you are with your sleep routine and structure, the more quickly and easily your baby will get back on track.
Changing Sleep Needs
And finally, your baby can also suffer sleep disturbances as their sleep needs change. This isn’t technically a sleep regression in my opinion, because all you really need to do is reassess when they should be sleeping and for how long. For example, your 13-month old may be having a harder time falling asleep, but he could also be ready to drop to 1 nap.
Zone of Genius
Are you starting to see why some people choose to hire a sleep consultant?
It can be absolutely overwhelming trying to figure out what’s causing your baby’s sleep disturbances.
And that’s why certified sleep consultants such as myself have spent all this time and energy and investment trying to learn how to differentiate between the different causes of sleep disturbances. Because It makes sense to us, and we love to help.
Everyone has a different zone of genius. Mine are pediatric speech, language and sleep. My zone of genius absolutely does not include potty training, taxes, and health insurance. Those are three areas where I need to – and do – ask for help.
If your zone of genius doesn’t include baby and toddler sleep? That’s fine. And understandable. Your zone of genius lies elsewhere. And that is admirable, too. Be proud of that.
Sleep Regressions: Summary
And we finally made it. The granddaddy of sleep regression articles.
Today you learned 5 of the most common sleep regressions, how to prepare for and even prevent sleep regressions, and how to fix sleep regressions when they do happen.
Remember, if you are struggling with your baby’s sleep and you can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong or you simply don’t want to do it alone – that’s what I’m here for.
I’m a mom of 3 and certified pediatric sleep consultant. If you need help, schedule your free 15-minute sleep evaluation with me at www.calendly.com/playsleepgrow.
