What To Do In The 4-Month Sleep Regression: Your 10 Step Plan

Around 4 months old, your baby's brain is going through significant growth and development. Your baby is learning new skills, discovering the world around them, and becoming more aware of their surroundings. While this is an exciting time,... sleep patterns can go rather haywire.

Brain Development Boom: Think of your baby's brain as a bustling construction site, with workers building new pathways and connections at lightning speed. This intense period of brain development can disrupt their sleep patterns, making it harder for them to settle down for sleep and stay asleep through the night.

Smoother Sleep, Bumpy Transition: In the early months, your baby's sleep resembles a series of short naps, with most of their sleep time spent in "active sleep," which is light and dream-filled. Around 4 months, their sleep cycles start to resemble ours, with longer adult like stretches of deeper sleep. This transition from short catnaps to longer periods of rest can be likened to learning a new skill—it takes time for them to adjust, leading to more frequent awakenings and not just for them!

During the 4-month sleep regression, your baby's sleep structure goes through a permanent neurological change. Many parents ask if they can avoid this regression, but the truth is all babies will go through it. There is alot you can do to get through it and understanding the structure of your baby's sleep is a big piece of the puzzle.

Setting the scene for sleep is a powerful sleep cue that you can do to help you baby sleep soundly. The three things you want to focus on are darkness, noise and temperature. Darkness helps regulate the production of the sleepy hormone called melatonin. Using white noise will help to maintain a consistent environment to minimise anything audibly distracting to your baby, and having a comfortable temperature will keep them snug and less likely from waking due to feeling too cold or hot. These three factors combined create a sleep-friendly haven that will encourage your baby to drift off to sleep and stay asleep for longer stretches.

Setting a regular wake time for your baby is one of the first things I recommend to my clients. It isn't just about consistency—it's about having a strategy to set the day up! It gives you the ability to guide your baby through their day based on their age-appropriate wake windows and also positions naps to align perfectly with their natural rhythms. This simple but powerful strategy ensures that your little one gets the rest they need while helping you maintain a sense of structure and predictability in your daily routine.

Establishing a consistent routine is key to helping your baby achieve the ideal amount of day and night sleep. It can be overwhelming trying to navigate when to start and finish a nap, especially during the challenging four-month sleep regression.

That's where my 10 Step Plan to Master the Four-Month Regression Guide comes in. It will provide you with detailed napping routines tailored to babies aged 3 to 6 months, complete with contingency plans for those days when naps don't go as smoothly as planned. You will know what to do and when. It will be your saviour, you will finally have a plan to structure your day.

Adding in and using a calming wind-down routine is essential. Not only does it signal to your baby that it's time to wind down, transitioning them from a stimulating environment to a calm one, but it also provides you with precious one-on-one time to nurture your bond.

Babies co-regulate, so a soothing wind-down routine offers the perfect opportunity to mutually fill your love cups and ease them into a state of calm readiness for sleep.

Understanding your baby's age-appropriate awake windows is another crucial aspect. Knowing when they're drowsy but not overtired allows you to put them down for naps when they're primed for sleep, enabling them to practice self-settling skills and drift off more easily. With these strategies in place, you'll be better equipped to navigate the challenges of the four-month sleep regression and help your baby establish healthy sleep habits for life.

During the 4-month sleep regression, you are likely to see your baby struggling to settle back to sleep after waking up. During the early months, your baby naturally formed sleep associations. A sleep association is any condition that your baby relies on and needs to fall asleep.

As your baby moves into the 4-month regression, where sleep cycles mature and change, the impact of these associations becomes more important and evident as you will now be doing overtime to get your little one back to sleep.

As your baby wakes up between sleep cycles, they will notice the sleep associations missing and need you to recreate the same conditions in order for them to fall back asleep so that they can link cycles. This will lead to your little one needing to cry out for help and to signal to you that they need you.

The reliance on sleep associations are a big factor of the four month sleep regression in a very big way, as your baby will be seeking out whichever way they are used to falling asleep to be able to settle back to sleep. By working on layering in sleep associations that you don't need to provide and weaning from those that you do, you can help your baby learn to self-settle.

Night feeds are a natural part of your baby's sleep routine at this age. Transitioning to four-hourly feeding, especially if your baby is consistently gaining weight and has surpassed 4.5kg, is considered an age-appropriate and healthy goal. Imagine you getting to finally sleep too, in beautiful four hour blocks... bliss!! Gradually increasing the time between feeds can encourage longer stretches of sleep during the night.

If your baby wakes between 4-hourly feeds, try resettling them until they fall back asleep or until it's time for their next feed at the 4-hour mark. With the right approach, you can establish a night routine that aims for feeds at 7pm, 11pm, 3am, and then up for the day. No more getting up every two hours. My guide can help you both achieve these nice solid blocks of night sleep.

IS YOUR BABY REVERSE CYCLING?

Do you find yourself repeatedly waking every 1-2 hours for overnight feeds with your baby? This frequent feeding pattern, known as reverse cycling, can result in your baby taking in more calories at night than they are during the day.

To fix this, you can aim for 4-hourly feeds during the night while making sure your baby is having nice full feeds during the day. This strategic approach helps to shift the majority of calorie intake back to the daytime hours, aligning with a more typical circadian rhythm.

If you're unsure about any aspect of your baby's feeding or sleep patterns, seek advice from your trusted Paediatrician or Child Family Health Nurse.