10-Month Sleep Regression: Signs and Solutions

10 months is an exciting time for babies and parents. The 10-month sleep regression is not as much fun. Your baby is starting to learn a lot and be aware of what’s going on. Dad is excited that he can play a bit more rough with the baby.

By this time, the baby is sleeping a little bit better. You’re on a schedule, and things are a little less chaotic in your day-to-day life.

You let yourself relax a little, and a new problem emerges, the 10-month sleep regression. Suddenly, your baby is crying more at night. You’re getting up more with them and don’t know what’s changed.

What is a Sleep Regression

Babies will suddenly stop sleeping as well as they were the week before.

Sleep regressions happen multiple times while a baby is growing up. If this is your first time experiencing a sleep regression, count yourself lucky.

Causes for the 10-Month Sleep Regression

Sleep regressions are a side-effect of a baby’s physical and mental development. 10 months is an important age marker for a lot of milestones.

• Rolling
• Crawling
• Standing
• Walking

Your baby should have started some or all of these activities. Your baby is excited, so they want to keep learning instead of sleeping.

Another cause for a 10-month sleep regression is teething. Your baby might be struggling to get comfortable with their new teeth cutting into their gums.

How Long Does the 10-Month Sleep Regression Last

You can expect the regression to last anywhere from 2-6 weeks. Every baby is going to be different. There are sleep training courses that you can find if you are still struggling 8+ weeks later.

How We Recognize a Sleep Regression

Teething is an easy thing to check for. Open your baby’s mouth and look for any teeth cutting through the gums. You will see the gums are slightly swollen, and you might even see a whitish tint from the tooth pushing its way out.

The American Dental Society has this chart that you can use as a reference. Every baby grows their teeth at different times but this is a good baseline to help you know where to look for cutting teeth.

As parents, we get excited to see our babies learning how to crawl or walk. It doesn’t even occur to us at first that it might cause a sleeping problem.

If you are struggling to figure out why your baby isn’t sleeping, ask yourself if they are learning something new. Are they rocking back and forth while on all fours? Are they reaching out a hand to put their weight on it but falling forward? You might have seen them try to use a chair or couch as a support to stand up.

Have you ever been so excited about something that you couldn’t sleep. Maybe your TV show ended with a huge cliffhanger, and now you can’t sleep until you see what happens next.

When you put your baby in their bed, you left them with their biggest cliffhanger ever. Now, they want to see what happens if they keep trying. You check the baby monitor and see them rolling, trying to stand or crawling.

How We Got Over the 10-Month Sleep Regression

Unfortunately, there is no immediate fix for the 10-month sleep regression. You will have to wait it out no matter what, but there are some things you should be doing to help the process.

Helping a Teething Baby

If your baby is teething, they might need a teething toy to help soothe the pain. The pain isn’t going to stop until that tooth comes through, so we are just playing a waiting game here.

Our Baby’s Schedule and Routine

During this sleep regression, we want to avoid any big changes to what you are already doing. Don’t panic and try to change up your schedule. Be consistent while you wait it out. This is what our schedule for our kids looks like at 10 months.

Overtired babies are going to sleep worse, so please do not take a nap away. They might even need even more day sleep if their naps are getting shorter. How do we get them to sleep more during the day without an extra nap? Help them be more active.

Your baby should also be getting some solid foods by now during their meals. We noticed that our babies started sleeping better when they were eating more solid foods. My wife only wanted to deal with breastfeeding and pumping for 1 year.

Help Your Baby Learn

Whatever they are trying to learn, help them learn it faster during the day. This is an awesome time as a parent. Watching them learn and grow is one of the major selling points of becoming a parent. The fulfillment makes all the hard work feel worth it.

Help them stand and walk. Cheer them on. Clap for them and watch them clap back. Have fun with your baby. I’ve missed a couple of milestones because of work. Other than having more kids, you don’t get to experience them again.

Separation Anxiety

At this age, babies are more aware of what’s going on around them. They are learning so much. Something they are starting to understand is object permanence.

Newborns only understand what they see and hear currently. Peekaboo is exciting because when you hide from them, their brains think you are gone. They were genuinely surprised and excited to see you again because they weren’t sure if and when you were going to come back.

By now, they are starting to understand that just because you leave the room, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t around. When you put them down for their naps and bedtime, you want to leave them happy. Reassure them and smile at them. Tell them they are okay and that you will still be there if they need you.

Giving Your Baby Something to Cuddle

I know that we’ve all learned to leave the baby’s bed empty. But now might be the time to introduce something small and simple. At this age, we have given all of our kids a Jellycat stuffed animal. They are small, light, and SUPER soft.

It might help to hold onto the stuffed animal, or a tiny blankie if you choose, during the day and at night. Having your scent might help your baby sleep.

Conclusion

There is only so much that you can do as a parent to get through the 10-month sleep regression. What you do during the day can help speed up the process, but there is never a guarantee when it will end.

Each one of our babies has been completely different and followed different sleep patterns. No one knows what’s best for your baby. That is for you and your spouse to decide.