Sleep regressions will come and go
during the first few years of your little one's life,
but it can be hard to know
when one of those pesky sleep regressions
is around for your little one.
Today I am answering your sleep question.
My eight month old has been waking at 3:00 am
for the past week, is this a sleep regression?
And in this video,
I'm going to give you some ideas
about what could be causing that 3:00 am wake
and how to know if it is the eight month sleep regression.
So stay tuned.
My name is Nicky,
and I'm a Pediatric Sleep Expert here at Little Ones.
I'm a mother to three beautiful children,
and through my own parenting journey,
I realized there was a bit of a gap out there for parents
around being able to access
reliable trusted, scientifically-backed advice about sleep.
And so Amanda and I decided to do something about it,
we created Little Ones,
which is a company devoted
to helping you and your little one,
get the sleep that you need.
We have a range of comprehensive online sleep programs
available through our mobile app
to talk you through everything from settling to naps
to night sleep to sleep regressions to self settling,
nap transitions, starting solids, you name it,
right from birth.
We would love to help you and your family
achieve better sleep,
so please check out our website, www.littleones.co.
Okay, so let's talk about your eight month old,
and this 3:00 am waking.
First, I'm going to say
that there definitely is a sleep regression
that happens between around eight to 10 months old.
This regression isn't necessarily caused
by a change in your child's sleep,
but their sleep is affected,
and that's why it's often referred to as a sleep regression.
Their sleep is regressing as a result
of a bunch of neurological and physiological changes
that are happening at this age.
So around eight months,
your little one is experiencing
a big leap in their development.
They may be crawling.
They might be pulling to stand.
They will be sitting.
Their language and comprehension is coming on in big bursts.
There are a lot of these big developmental milestones
that they're reaching,
and unfortunately, this does have an impact on their sleep.
So you can tell if your little one
is going through this sleep regression
because they might start doing one
or some of the following things,
refusing to settle to sleep for their naps,
sleeping for shorter period for their naps
than they normally would or waking earlier,
waking earlier in the morning,
resisting bedtime in the evening, waking more overnight,
and or staying awake during the night when they do wake.
All of these things, a few of these things,
definitely signal that your little one
is experiencing the eight to 10 month regression.
Never fear, this regression will not last.
It's just a blip in your little one's sleep
as they are consolidating all this new development.
So unless any new sleep associations
or sleep habits creep in during this time,
the regression will be short-lived.
So if you're little one for the past week
has been waking up at 3:00 am,
it could be linked to this regression.
It would depend on whether they were experiencing
any of these other signs of the regression
that I've just mentioned.
I'll just quickly go through a couple other things
that could be causing a 3:00 am wake at this age,
regression aside.
So by eight months,
you would definitely want to have dropped
from three naps a day down to two naps a day
for your little one,
so if your little one is still having three naps a day,
then that definitely could be the reason
that they've started waking at 3:00 am,
and I would suggest that their last nap of the day
is also happening too late.
So around this age,
you want to be having them awake from their last nap
before 3:00 pm in the afternoon,
in order to settle easily at bedtime
and have a more consolidated sleep overnight.
So if they're still having three naps a day
and that last nap is happening
after 3:00 pm in the afternoon,
then I would say that is definitely the reason
for that 3:00 am wake.
The other factor that can start
to affect a child's nighttime sleep at this age
is an increased hunger,
and this would be
if they are not fully established on solid food yet.
So definitely you're still expecting milk feeds
during the day at this age,
but your little one should be supplemented
with solid food as well.
So if at eight months your little one
is not having three solid meals a day,
so breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
then I would look at how you can,
how and where you can increase their solids intake,
which should naturally decrease their milk intake,
and that can help with waking from genuine hunger overnight.
So what you'd want to have
is your little one having a nice protein lunch,
so make sure there's a lot of protein in their lunch meal,
and then you can also have some nice carbohydrates
in their dinner time meal as well.
So they're getting nice and full throughout the day
to stave off any genuine hunger that is occurring overnight.
Those are the two things I would be looking at
for night waking, aside from the regression at this age,
their nap structure
and also the amount of solid food
that they're having during the day.
Unfortunately,
there's not much we can do for this regression.
You are just going to have to ride it out
for a little while,
but just be careful not to introduce
any new sleep habits at this age
because they will catch onto those sleep habits like that,
and because they're a bit older,
they can be quite difficult to get rid of.
So stick with the status quo,
keep your routine flowing nicely, keep everything the same,
unless you need to drop a nap, and, fingers crossed,
that the regression will be over before you know it.
If you need any more help
with any of the areas that I've talked about today,
make sure you check out our website
and see how we can help you further.
It was great talking to you today,
and I'll talk to you again soon.