How To Slay the 4-Month Sleep Regression
I just got through the 4-month sleep regression with my son.
As a Pediatric Sleep Expert, I frequently help clients get through this rough patch with their children. It was interesting going through it again myself though with my third baby. I took careful notes throughout the phase and I'm here to share them with you! You too can slay the 4-month sleep regression.
The 4-month sleep regression is not an actual regression - it is actually a huge development explosion that causes sleep to get disrupted.
Somewhere between 3-5 months of age your child begins processing new skills, processing new information, becoming more aware of his/her surroundings, recognizing faces, and becomes more distracted during feedings. In addition to all of that, your child’s sleep is also changing. Around this same time, your child’s sleep cycles are shifting newborn style sleep to more adult style sleep. Just like your child, even your child’s sleep cycles are growing up!
That is a lot of things happening at one time! This is why sleep often begins to suffer around this age - enter: the infamous 4-month sleep regression.
Your child’s brain is moving a mile a minute to process all of these changes and the result is often trouble falling asleep at bedtime, trouble staying asleep throughout the night, and early morning waking. Naps are impacted too! Often resisted naps, short naps, or skipped nap happen around this time as well.
All of this is normal. But what can you do about it? Let me help.
We just went through this with my 5-month old son, Ryder. Right around 4.5 months of age he started showing some of the signs - new noises, spit bubbles, blowing raspberries with his lips, voice screeching, rolling from back to front, waking up more at night, resisting naps, etc. … all of these things were happening at the same time and you could just SEE his mind moving at a rapid pace to try to process all of this new information.
There isn't a way to avoid this phase, you just have to get through it. I compiled a list of tips that helped me get through the rough patch - I used these tips myself, and I also recommend these tips to my clients when they are going through the 4-month sleep regression as well.
How To Slay the 4-Month Sleep Regression:
Pay attention to your child’s demeanor and put them down for naps when they are tired. What I mean by that is naps may happen earlier or later than usual. I normally recommend you follow wake windows to target nap start times but wake windows will be skewed during this time. You may need to stretch the wake windows out so that your child is more tired going down for periods of sleep since their brain is working in overdrive. Don’t overdo it though or you will get into an overtired zone, which makes it harder for your child to fall asleep.
If you haven’t begun working on self-soothing, now is the time. Your child is going to wake up more frequently throughout the night during this phase, which means if you are involved in the “falling to sleep” process, you will be involved in the "falling BACK to sleep" process all night long. Begin creating sustainable sleep associations and putting your child down when they are tired but awake. This helps break the unsustainable sleep associations.
Recognize that just because your child is waking more at night, it doesn’t’ mean they are necessarily hungry. Keep feedings regulated at night just as you do during the day.
Make sure your child is getting enough calories during the day. Children are often very distracted during daytime feedings at this age. Try taking them to a quiet room in the house, away from television, siblings, loud noises, etc. to avoid short/disrupted feedings. If daytime feedings are not full, your child could begin waking up at night due to legitimately being hungry.
Practice, practice, practice! Give your child lots of time to practice their new skills during the day. Practice rolling over, practice their new language skills with them, play peek-a-boo to help further encourage face recognition. The more they practice during the day, the faster their brain will incorporate these new skills and return to more normal processing speed.
Don’t over intervene when your child is sleeping. If your baby wakes slightly and is grunting, babbling, whining, etc. they may just be transitioning into the next sleep cycle. Don’t run into the room and prevent them from making that transition independently. They may be half asleep still and just making noises in their sleep. If you go in and try to “help” at that time you may create more of a waking than needed.
Keep your child swaddled. It is tempting to want to unswaddle your child around this time, thinking they are uncomfortable and therefore waking up more frequently throughout the night. The opposite is true. You need to provide more support during this time to help them fall asleep and stay asleep with more ease. Keep those reflexes at bay! Note - my son was too big for his swaddle so I recently shifted him to Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit. Check out the details here.
Create a soothing nursery. Don’t forget to use your blackout curtains and white noise. Incorporate sustainable sleeping cues and create a calming, soothing, sustainable sleep environment.
All children process this developmental leap differently. Some children are barely affected. Some children are completely thrown off for several weeks. Don’t fear this leap, but be aware of it so that you can adjust accordingly.
