Hi everyone.
Today, I'm going to be answering your sleep question,
how long does the four month sleep regression last?
I'm going to talk a little bit
about what the four month sleep regression is,
the signs of it that you might see in your little ones,
how long it lasts and what we can do to help your baby
through the other side of it and back to good sleep.
Hi, I'm Jen, I'm Little Ones village team leader,
I'm a qualified pediatric sleep consultant
and mother to Carrick and to Heather.
Little Ones have helped over 200,000 families
across the world with their baby sleep challenges
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So lets talk about our sleep question today,
how long does the four month sleep regression last?
But let me tell you a little bit
about what the four month sleep regression is.
You've probably heard an awful lot about it,
you've maybe got a very young baby just now
and you're already thinking about the four month regression
because there's a lot of information online about it,
and it can really get you thinking.
The four month regression,
as much as it's called a regression,
is actually a progression and maturation
in your little one's sleep.
What that means is your baby's sleep
becomes exactly like what ours is as adults.
Sleep cycles during the day
mature to between 30 and 45 minutes
and sleep cycles overnight become two hourly.
Sleep during this regression
also totally loses its instinctive nature.
So that sort of drive that your baby had
before the regression that said, I'm tired.
I'm going to sleep and I'm going to keep on sleeping
because I'm still tired, that's gone.
So when we lose the instinctive nature of sleep,
what does that mean?
It means that the act of falling asleep and staying asleep
very much becomes a learned behavior.
That brings me to what might the signs
of the four month sleep regression be.
So with all this maturation in sleep
and sleep cycle shortening,
the first sign that you may see
of your baby entering the regression is catnapping.
So during the day,
falling asleep and waking up quite shortly afterwards,
not being able to get back to sleep
and needing your help to do so.
Overnight your baby's first sleep cycle is 45 minutes.
So you may see a wake 45 minutes after falling asleep
at bedtime.
And then after that, you will see two hourly wakes.
Probably worth saying here that your baby's deepest sleep
and you may already know this
from having watched some of our other videos.
Your baby's deepest sleep is between seven o'clock
and 12 midnight.
So even for some babies
that are going through the four month regression,
you may see a really sound sleep
between seven o'clock and midnight,
and the two hourly wakes happen after that.
Another sign of the regression is early waking.
This is usually just due to the fact that
your baby's waking up two hourly from midnight.
And when they get around five, six, o'clock,
there'll be coming into the last two hourly sleep cycle.
And at that point in the morning,
it can be really hard to get them back to sleep
totally normal for them to start waking early.
It's just difficult for you to help them back to sleep.
And that's just because their sleep pressure
is now really, really low and their melatonin,
which helps them stay asleep.
That sleep hormone that we talk about quite often
is now completely worn off.
To answer the question
about how long the four month sleep regression lasts.
Well, it lasts until your little one can self-settle.
And the reason for that is because when a baby doesn't know
how to fall asleep independently,
they don't know how to get back to sleep.
And the same rule applies
for the end of all of these sleep cycles.
So the end of the sleep cycles during the day
and the end of the sleep cycles during the night.
So what can we do to help them?
Well we can guide them to self-settling,
but there are some easy things you can put in place.
You can meet a checklist here,
and if you could check off all these boxes,
then the next thing to do is work on self-settling.
So you want to encourage and promote
good positive sleep associations for your baby
and what might be those sleep associations.
Well to encourage really good sleep,
we want a very dark room for sleep.
This does two things.
It stops your baby being really stimulated
by everything within their room.
And as you know, the older they get,
the more curious they are.
They want to see things, hear things, play with things.
So the darker, the room for sleep, the better
totally unstimulating environment
and also a dark room helps your baby
produce that sleep hormone, melatonin
that I mentioned earlier on,
that's the hormone that helps them fall asleep
and stay asleep.
We also want to think about white noise.
Again, this does two things.
It mimics the noise that they were familiar with in the womb
so white noise for the baby
can actually be extremely comforting
and as a positive sleep association
it can signal that it's time for sleep.
What white noise also does is acts as a really good blocker.
So if you have a noisy house, like I do,
other children playing, running about,
and you're doing your house work
maybe your partner's at home working from home as well,
your white noise in the room will stop any external noises
from waking your little one up.
A sleeping bag is a great cue for sleep.
So when your baby's in the routine
of getting a sleeping bag on
they're going into the dark room, the white noise is on,
that is another good positive sleep association
and a sleeping bag will also help them stay nice and cozy
because obviously we don't want blankets
and loose things in their bed.
If your baby's not rolling and it's safe to do so,
a swaddle is also a really good sleep association.
And that will stop certainly in younger babies,
the startle reflex with the hands flailing
that can wake them up soon after they've fallen asleep,
and it can help them stay asleep
because they won't startle between their sleep cycles.
What we also want to ensure
is that your baby is perfectly ready for sleep
when they go to sleep,
because it's really difficult to settle a baby
that's under tired.
It's really difficult to settle a baby that's overtired.
So by following an age appropriate nap pattern
found in our programs,
you can ensure that your little one
is perfectly ready for sleep,
and that will make then falling asleep a little bit easier.
We also want to ensure, of course,
that they're feeding really well during the day
so that they're not hungry before their nap time.
And we want the majority of their nutrition
within their 12 hour day
so that we can minimize waking overnight for feeds.
Perfectly natural for your baby to wake
for the feed overnight.
Absolutely, it can be the case right up to eight months
that your baby might wake for one or two feeds overnight
while milk is still the priority nutrition for them.
So we've covered positive sleep associations.
We've got the room perfect for sleep.
We've got their awake times right
so we know that they're ready for sleep.
We've got hunger ruled out
because their feeding really well during the day
over six months if your little one's ready
there'll be eating solids too.
That's great.
It's maybe worth me mentioning here too,
that the four month regression,
although we call it the four month regression
sometimes can happen much earlier or much later.
So if you see signs of the four month of regression
like we've just spoken about waking up
and catnapping where they didn't before,
more frustrated going to sleep,
waking two hourly overnight.
It could be that your little ones
is in the four month regression a little earlier,
or if your little one can already self-settle off to sleep,
there may well be a chance
that you're gonna sail through the four month regression
and you don't even notice it.
So the key thing really,
when you've got all of these other things
checked off your list, is self-settling.
When your baby can't self-settle,
they can't link their sleep cycles.
So we want to work on their ability to fall asleep
in their beds independently.
And we can do that nice and gently.
The best way to guide them to self-settling
is to think about what their current sleep association is,
and you start to reduce that.
So if your baby is fed to sleep, held and rocked to sleep,
then gradually reduce the amount that you're doing all that
before you put them into bed off to sleep.
Once your little one is self settling,
then if they are still waking during the day,
and they're still waking overnight two hourly
it's time to adopt the same sort of method
that you did during the day for the overnight wakes as well,
it's totally normal and absolutely natural
for your baby to take a wee bit longer,
to learn to link their sleep cycles.
So if the self-settling really well during the day
and the still waking two hourly overnight,
don't worry about it,
but it's time to start working on the overnight wakes
in the same way that you did start of their sleep.
Something else that is worth me touching on here
is pacifiers and dummies,
because these are actually parent-led sleep associations.
And what that means is that until your baby
is able to seek, find and pop the dummy back
in their mouth themselves,
you need to do that for them.
Most babies post six months,
will have the cognitive development
to be able to learn to search about, find it
and pop it in their mouth.
And after that point,
you'll probably find that things are much, much easier
if they are using a dummy.
Up until they can do that
you need to replace the dummy for them.
So if they're waking during the naps
and they're waking during the night two hourly,
they need their dummy,
their sleep association to get back to sleep.
If you really are struggling with the two hourly wakes
and your little one has a dummy,
it's maybe worthwhile thinking about to get rid of them.
We've got a blog on our website on how to remove pacifiers.
And you can take a little look at that.
I've put the link in the description below
for this as well to help you.
So to just refresh everything then
that we spoke about there
We want to set up positive sleep associations
for your little one.
We want to make sure that all their ducks are in a row
to promote good sleep.
Have really high expectations of your little one,
because they can do it with your help,
but the way out the other side of regression,
and to get to the end of the four months sleep regression
is to guide your little one to self-settling.
So if it's something that they're not able to do just now,
then you want to work on that and their overnight sleep,
and their naps during the day will really improve.
So the four month sleep regression lasts
until your little one
is able to settle off to sleep themselves without your help.
I hope you found this video today informative.
If you'd like any more information
on the four months sleep regression
I've stuck some more links in the description below
for you that you can click on
they'll take you directly to our website
and the blogs within.
And of course,
if you would like help with your little one sleep,
please do consider subscribing to our baby sleep program.
And that's on our website as well.
I hope you've really enjoyed this.
Please do consider subscribing to the channel
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Take care and I'll see you all again soon.