Sleep regressions seem to be talked about a lot in parent circles and it seems like almost every age has one. As a mum of 3 I fully understand the frustration of finally getting your little one sleeping well and then BOOM all of a sudden you are back to multiple night wake ups again.
Big developmental leaps, like learning to crawl and walk, can indeed cause some changes in sleep. However, there is actually only one “true” sleep regression. This normally occurs between 4-6 months of age and is actually a progression not a regression. At this age the structure of a babies sleep changes from newborn sleep (light and deep sleep) to cycle sleep. This means that your baby will spend longer periods of time in lighter stage sleep, potentially resulting in more wake ups if they can’t get themselves back into deeper stage sleep independently.
If your baby is older than this then newsflash it is probably NOT a sleep “regression”. When I work with clients whose babies previously had good sleep and then they suddenly start experiencing sleep problems it is nearly ALWAYS caused by a drop in sleep needs. What do I mean by this? As children get older they naturally need LESS sleep and more awake time. This means that we have to change the daytime routine to meet their new sleep needs and get good consolidation of sleep again.
Normally it’s either one of the following things:
- Baby needs to drop a nap.
- Structure of the day needs reorganizing to make awake windows longer
- Baby is having too much day time sleep and we need to cap naps.
- Baby is not getting adequate amounts of stimulation at the right time during the day and does not have enough sleep pressure to sleep well for naps and overnight.
The temptation, during times of disturbed sleep in babies, is to add sleep associations to help your baby get back to sleep instead of addressing the underlaying cause of the “sleep regression”. If you are currently experiencing sleep disturbances with your little one check what is an age appropriate awake windows is for your child and restructure thier daytime routine acordingly. Implement a new routine consistently for 3-5 day and see if it helps.
If you are not sure what’s going on book a 1 hour consultation with me! I will walk you through what’s happening and tell you exactly what you need to do to fix it!
Sleep Well.