What Is the Four Month Sleep Regression?
Nope, it’s not a bad dream: your 3-4 month old baby, who’s always been a great sleeper, is suddenly waking more overnight, is refusing naps, and is next-level fussy. What gives? Your baby could be experiencing the four month sleep regression. Sleep regressions are exhausting, but don’t stress! We’ve put together our best parent-sourced tips and tricks for helping your baby get through this developmental transition.
What Is Sleep Regression?
Sleep regression is a phase that occurs when your baby, who was previously a good sleeper, suddenly deviates from their predictable sleep habits. Your baby may begin waking up throughout the night, or refusing naps during the daytime (and they’ll definitely appear fussier). While not all babies experience sleep regressions, they are developmentally typical and generally aren’t a cause for concern.
Though living through sleep regression is challenging for the whole family, it often signifies positive developmental growth and mastery of new skills for your baby.
What Causes the Four Month Sleep Regression?
Newborn babies generally sleep most of the day and night, and wake primarily to feed. Their bodies do not recognize the difference between day and night, and they haven’t yet established circadian rhythms that define more adult sleep-wake cycles.
Once your baby is around four months old, their body will begin producing its own melatonin, and start transitioning from newborn sleep to adult sleep. Adult sleep is characterized by regular sleep-wake cycles, lasting from one to two hours. The start of the cycle is when we experience our deepest sleep, and gradually, our sleep becomes lighter and we may experience a brief period of wakefulness before falling back into deep sleep.
Some babies have a difficult time adjusting to this quick moment of awakening, hence the four month sleep regression. For whatever reason—it may be that they’re beginning to roll over or that they wake up and realize they’re in a crib and not with Mom—they struggle to fall back to sleep on their own.
How Long Will the Four Month Sleep Regression Last?
Now, some good news: sleep regressions are temporary. While there’s no precise timeline (because every baby is different), the four month sleep regression typically lasts 2-6 weeks (but you’ll feel every minute of it).
Signs of Sleep Regression
By 3-4 months, your baby may be sleeping for regular 4-5 hour stretches at a time (stressing the word “may”). If your baby hasn’t reached this milestone, it’s still likely that they’ve developed a recognizable pattern of overnight sleep. If your baby suddenly deviates from their regular sleep, you may be experiencing the four month sleep regression. Signs of sleep regression usually include:
- Increased difficulty falling asleep.
- Waking more frequently overnight.
- Increased fussiness, especially while waking.
- Nap refusal.
- Shorter intervals of sleep.
How Can You Help Your Baby Through the Four Month Sleep Regression?
Research demonstrates how important sleep is to infant development and to maternal wellbeing, so helping your baby with this transition benefits everyone in the household. And it’s an ideal phase to start introducing behaviors that reinforce “self-soothing” into your routine.
- Create and maintain a consistent bedtime routine. A predictable bedtime routine helps your baby relax and understand what to expect when it’s time to snooze.
- Begin putting your baby to sleep in their own sleep environment, whether that’s a bassinet or crib. When your baby wakes up in the middle of the night, their sleep environment will be familiar and won’t trigger panic.
- Work towards putting your baby to sleep while they’re drowsy, but still awake. It helps your baby learn how to self-soothe and go back to sleep independently.
- Make sure your baby is sleeping in a dark environment, so they begin differentiating between daytime and nighttime.
- If you’re still swaddling your baby, replace your traditional swaddle blanket or sack with a transitional swaddle suit that allows for more freedom of movement like Love to Dream’s Swaddle UP Transition Suit.
- Evaluate your baby’s wake windows. Your baby needs adequate time awake during the day to nap and sleep successfully. Ideally, your four month old should be awake 90-120 minutes between daytime naps.
- Try not to rely on overnight feedings to get your baby back to sleep. Feeding can become a sleep association, and worsen (and lengthen the duration of) a sleep regression. Adding more breastmilk or formula to daytime feedings—either by increasing the frequency or duration—or cluster feeding right before bedtime will help curb hunger overnight.
Finding What’s Right for You
Albee Baby is the oldest family-owned specialty baby shop in the US, and we pride ourselves on providing our customers with the best assortment of baby products anywhere, at fair prices, always. We’re committed to being an inclusive resource for parents, and hope you’re feeling empowered to find the right baby gear for your family. Still have questions? Feel free to contact our baby gear experts at 877.692.5233 or by email at [email protected].