Dealing With The 4 Month Sleep Regression

The newborn stage is coming to a close when you’re suddenly hit with the 4 month sleep regression. Night feedings are already keeping you and your partner up all night.

You feel bittersweet. On one hand, you love seeing your baby grow and that they can interact with you now. On the other, you miss when they slept almost all day.

Just when you thought you were getting into a rhythm, your baby is refusing to sleep. They are waking up more and are acting more fussy. Going through this as a first time parent is confusing and frustrating.

What is going on and what do we do about it?

What is the 4 Month Sleep Regression

If this is your first baby, it’s likely the first time you are going through a sleep regression. A sleep regression is when your baby’s development causes your baby to sleep less. That can mean going to sleep later at night, waking up more in the middle of the night, or waking up earlier than normal.

Your baby has only been in this world for 4 months, and they have a lot to learn. The biggest change they are experiencing right now is their sleep cycle. Of course they are going to have a hard time sleeping! Their brains are CHANGING the way they sleep.

Your Baby’s Changing Sleep Cycle

Up until now, your baby’s sleep cycle has essentially been reversed and shortened.

We all have heard of REM sleep before. The other part of sleep is Non-REM sleep. Creative, I know. Your deep sleep stage is part of the Non-REM cycle. Right now, when you fall asleep, you experience Non-REM sleep first. For your baby, it’s the other way around.

Newborns enter REM sleep first. That’s why you can see them make small twitches and hear their cute little baby noises. Their brain starts to reverse the order of their sleep between 3 and 4 months old, hence the cause of the 4 months sleep regression.

Get ready. Their wake windows are also about to shorten.

Your baby still might not be ready to sleep through the night. This is only the start of their sleep cycle development. Their cycle won’t mirror yours until they are about 5.

Other Possible Causes for the 4 Month Sleep Regression

Other than your baby’s brain changing, we’ll look at the other possible causes.

Teething

It’s not common for babies to start teething this early, but it’s not impossible either. Our firstborn started teething at this age, but our other two didn’t start teething until they were about 6 months old.

If they are teething, they should only be uncomfortable for a couple days at most.

Hunger

If you are breastfeeding, your baby will eat more as needed. You might go through cluster feeds to increase your supply.

If your baby is bottle fed, you might need to increase how much they eat in a feeding.

You can start to introduce simple solids at this point. Stick to one ingredient at a time for allergens’ sake.

Overtired or Undertired

It’s easy to find yourself with an overtired or undertired baby. It feels like every week you have to change their naps. It is probably time again to change up their wake windows to keep them from being over or undertired.

How to Get Through the 4 Month Sleep Regression

Every sleep regression will feel stressful. Don’t let it get to you.

Be Patient

The more you can be patient and keep your cool, the more smoothly this will go. Understanding what’s going on in their brains might be enough to help you get through it.

You’re not doing anything wrong. You are an AWESOME parent.

You’re baby is going through some changes that you don’t have control over.

If your baby is teething, you shouldn’t need to wait for more than a couple of days.

Napping After the 4 Month Sleep Regression

Nap schedules are a surprisingly big deal. Our house feels like a military base sometimes with the schedule and structure my wife puts together.

Everything is scheduled out. Everything… I’m not a schedule kind of guy. I like to go with the flow.

Kids don’t like the flow. They think they like the flow, but that’s how you end up with an overtired baby or toddler.

So what should your schedule look like? However you like, but your 4 month old shouldn’t be staying awake for more than 3 hours at a time.

Conclusion

You’re doing great. You didn’t do anything to cause this sleep regression. You might as well get used to them since there are going to be more.

Be patient with your baby knowing that they are going through big time development. You aren’t going through this kind of change, and I bet you still struggle to sleep sometimes.

Love your baby. I hope this helps you get back to sleep.