As a professional sleep consultant, I hear the term \u201cregression\u201d used in regards to just about every imaginable circumstance. Essentially, if baby doesn\u2019t sleep well for a couple of nights, parents start dropping the \u2018R\u2019 word. Some people subscribe to the idea that there\u2019s an eight month regression, a 9 month regression, a 1 year regression, as well as teething regressions, growth spurt regressions, and so on. Others see these as simple hiccups caused by extenuating circumstances. But the four month sleep regression, everybody agrees on, and for good reason. It\u2019s the real deal, and it\u2019s permanent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So in order to understand what\u2019s happening to your baby during this stage, first you need to know a few things about sleep in general. So here\u2019s the science-y part, told in plain English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us just think of sleep as an on-or-off situation. You\u2019re either asleep or you\u2019re not. But sleep actually has a number of different stages, and they make up the \u201csleep cycle,\u201d which we go through several times a night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stage 1<\/strong> is that initial stage we\u2019re all familiar with where you can just feel yourself drifting off, but don\u2019t really feel like you\u2019ve fallen asleep. Anyone who has ever seen their partner nodding off in front of the TV, told them to go to bed, and gotten the canned response of, \u201cI wasn\u2019t sleeping!\u201d knows exactly what this looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stage 2<\/strong>, which is considered the first \u201ctrue sleep\u201d stage. This is where people tend to realize, once woken up, that they actually were sleeping. For anyone taking a \u201cpower nap,\u201d this is as deep as you want to go, or else you\u2019re going to wake up groggy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stage 3<\/strong> is deep and regenerative. Also known as \u201cslow wave\u201d sleep, this is where the body starts repairing and rejuvenating the immune system, muscles tissue, energy stores, and sparks growth and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stage 4<\/strong> is REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This is where the brain starts to kick in and consolidates information and memories from the day before. It\u2019s also the stage where we do most of our dreaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we\u2019ve gone through all of the stages, we either wake up or come close to waking up, and then start over again until the alarm goes off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what does this have to do with the dreaded regression we were talking about originally?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, newborn babies only have 2 stages of sleep; stage 3 and REM, and they spend about half their sleep in each stage. But at around the third or fourth month, there is a reorganization of sleep, as they embrace the 4-stage method of sleep that they\u2019ll continue to follow for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When this change takes place, baby moves from 50% REM sleep to 25% in order to make room for those first two stages. So although REM sleep is light, it\u2019s not as light as these 2 new stages that they\u2019re getting used to, and with more time spent in lighter sleep, there\u2019s more of a chance that baby\u2019s going to wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not to say that we want to prevent or avoid baby waking up. Waking up is absolutely natural, and we continue to wake up three, four, five times a night into adulthood and even more in old age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As adults, however, we\u2019re able to identify certain comforting truths that baby might not be privy to. When we wake in the night, we\u2019re able to recognize that, \u201cHey, I\u2019m here in my bed, it\u2019s still nighttime, my alarm isn\u2019t going to go off for another three hours, and I\u2019m reasonably certain that there are no monsters lurking under my bed. I can go back to sleep\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we do. Usually so quickly that, the next morning, we don\u2019t even remember the brief encounter with consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A four month old baby, of course, lacks these critical thinking skills. To a four month old baby who fell asleep at her mother\u2019s breast, the reasoning could go much more to the tune of, \u201cOK, last thing I remember, there was a familiar, beloved face, I was having dinner, and someone was singing me a soothing song about the Teddy Bears\u2019 Picnic. Now I\u2019m alone in this dark room, there\u2019s no food, and there\u2019s probably at least three, possibly four, scary monsters in the immediate vicinity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s probably an exaggeration, but who knows what goes on in the mind of a four month-old baby?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyways, now that baby\u2019s suddenly realized that Momma\u2019s not around, and they\u2019re not entirely sure where they\u2019ve gone, the natural response is to do a little freaking out. That stimulates the fight-or-flight response and, next thing you know, baby\u2019s not going back to sleep without a significant amount of reassurance that everything is OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other major contributor to this 4 month fiasco, I find, is that up until this point, parents have either been putting their baby to sleep with a pacifier, or by rocking them, or by breastfeeding them, or some similar technique where baby is helped along on the road to falling asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that baby\u2019s spending more time in light sleep, and therefore has a higher probability of waking up, this suddenly becomes a much bigger issue. These sleep props or sleep associations can be very sneaky indeed, because although they may be helpful in getting your little one to that initial nodding off stage, the lack of them when they wake up means that baby\u2019s not able to get back to sleep again without some outside help. Cue the fight-or-flight, the crying, and the adrenaline. When this starts happening every half an hour, parents can find themselves in a nightmarish situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, the good news for anyone experiencing the dreaded Four Month Sleep Regression is that it\u2019s not, in fact, a regression at all. A regression is defined as \u201creversion to an earlier mental or behavioral level,\u201d and that\u2019s actually the opposite of what your baby is experiencing. This would be much more aptly titled the \u201cFour Month Sleep Progression\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, onto the big question. What can you do to help your little one adjust?<\/p>\n\n\n\n First off, get all of that light out of baby\u2019s room. I\u2019m not kidding around here. You might think that baby\u2019s room is dark enough, or that baby might not like the dark, and that it\u2019s comforting to have a little bit of light coming through the windows or seeping in from the hallway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baby\u2019s room should be dark. I mean coal mine on a moonless night kind of dark. Tape garbage bags over the windows if you have to, or cover them with tinfoil. (Just be prepared to explain it to the police when the neighbors accuse you of running a grow-op.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newborns and infants are not afraid of the dark. They are, however, responsive to light. Light tells their brains that it\u2019s time for activity and alertness, and the brain secretes hormones accordingly, so we want to keep that nursery absolutely pitch black during naps and bedtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other nemesis of daytime sleep, (and nighttime for that matter, although not nearly as often) is noise. Whether its UPS ringing the doorbell, the dog warning you that the squirrels are back and for sure going to attack the house this time, or something falling on the floor three rooms away. With baby spending more time in lighter sleep, noises will startle them easily and wake them up, so a white noise machine is a great addition to your nursery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWait, isn\u2019t that a prop,\u201d you\u2019re asking. Well, in a way, it is, but it doesn\u2019t require any winding, resetting, reinserting, or parental presence. It\u2019s just there and it can be on as long as baby\u2019s sleeping, so it\u2019s not a prop we need to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bedtime routines are also an essential component to getting your baby sleeping well. Try to keep the routine to about 4 or 5 steps, and don\u2019t end it with a feed. Otherwise, you risk baby nodding off at the breast or the bottle, and that will create the dreaded \u201cassociation\u201d that we talked about earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So try to keep the feed near the beginning of the routine and plan the songs, stories, and getting into PJs towards the end. The whole process should be about 20 – 30 minutes long, and baby should go into their crib while they\u2019re still awake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re noticing baby getting fussy before bedtime, you\u2019ve probably waited too long. Four month old babies should really only be going about two hours between snoozes, and bedtime should be between 7 and 8 at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, there are going to be regressions, actual regressions, later on in your little one\u2019s youth. Traveling, illness, cutting teeth, all of these things can cause your little one to have a few bad nights in a row. But when it comes to the four month \u201cprogression,\u201d I\u2019m happy to report that this is a one-time thing. Once you\u2019re through this, your baby will have officially moved into the sleep cycle that they\u2019ll essentially be following for the rest of their life. Four glorious stages repeated multiple times a night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And by taking this opportunity to teach them the skills they need to string those sleep cycles together, independently, prop-free, without any need for nursing, rocking, or pacifiers, you\u2019ll have given them a gift that they\u2019ll enjoy for the rest of their young lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, some kids are going to take to this process like a fish to water, and some are going to be a little more resistant. If yours falls into the former category, count yourself as lucky, take delight in your success, and go ahead and gloat about it on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those of you in the latter camp, I\u2019m happy to help in any way I can. Just visit my website or give me a call and we can work on a more personalized program for your little one. The most common thing I hear after working with clients is, \u201cI can\u2019t believe I waited so long to get some help!\u201d So if you\u2019re considering hiring a consultant, now is absolutely the time. I offer a free 15 minute evaluation so I can get to know the specifics about your little one\u2019s situation, so book a call now and we can move forward as soon as you\u2019re ready to get your little one sleeping through the night!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a professional sleep consultant, I hear the term \u201cregression\u201d used in regards to just about every imaginable circumstance. Essentially, if baby doesn\u2019t sleep well for a couple of nights, parents start dropping the \u2018R\u2019 word. Some people subscribe to the idea that there\u2019s an eight month regression, a 9 month regression, a 1 year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classifiee"],"yoast_head":"\n