I have had a lot of clients lately with 4 month old babies. This is such a great age for sleep, but it usually doesn’t seem that way from the parents perspective. So because of that, this age is commonly referred to as “The 4 Month Sleep Regression.”
What is interesting to note is that babies have sleep milestones as well as physical, and developmental milestones. So once we understand the what, when, how and why behind these milestones we can actually use them to our advantage and maximize our children’s sleep potential.
The first of these milestones happens between 6-8 weeks. This is when night time sleep becomes organized. This means your babies body can now tell the difference between day and night. So what we normally start seeing is one longer chunk of night time sleep. This chunk of sleep can be anywhere from 3-8 hours but the average is 4-6.
But the big sleep milestone happens at 4 months and like I said above, is infamously known as “The 4 Month Sleep Regression.”
My friend and Colleague Amy Lage from Well Rested Baby does an excellent job of breaking it down for us. Here is what she says-
“What you are experiencing is a change that all babies go through around 4 months of age. While many refer to it as the “4 month sleep regression”, it is actually a sign that your daughter is growing and maturing and making an exciting leap forward. A sleep regression is defined as a cognitive, physical and/or emotional development that disrupts a child’s normal sleep pattern. A child younger than 4 months actually has not developed any sleep patterns – so it is not possible for a regression to have taken place! Up until now your daughter’s daily needs have been random: she has slept when she wanted to sleep and eaten when she wanted to eat. Now suddenly her body is developing biological rhythms that tell her when she should be sleeping.
We all have internal clocks called circadian rhythms that are genetically controlled. These biological clocks have evolved from daytime (light) and nighttime (dark) cues. These biological rhythms make us feel drowsy at certain times and sleeping in sync with them will produce the most restorative and best quality sleep possible. As we age these times shift. Up until this point, your daughter’s brain was too immature to sync with this internal clock. For this reason, her body had an easy time sleeping anywhere and at anytime. Now that her brain has started to mature, she is in need of a schedule that works with this rhythm – including a bedtime that fits in and allows her to sleep before she is overtired.
For a child her age, I recommend getting her on a schedule where her first nap is starting between 8-9am, her second nap is starting between 11:30-12:30pm and her third nap starts about 90 minutes after she wakes up from nap two. As her naps are just starting to develop, you will need to watch her for her sleepy cues and then get her down within these windows. Remember, at 4 months old her circadian rhythms are just starting to develop. They will continue to evolve over the next few weeks; therefore you will see some inconsistency with her napping. Some days will be great and others will be all over the place. You will need to be consistent with your approach and put her down for her naps in these biologically age appropriate windows – while not allowing her to become overtired. Having her on a schedule where she is sleeping during her biological sleep waves will allow her to achieve her best quality sleep, however she will still need to learn some self soothing skills. If you have not started already, this is a good time to allow her to learn to put herself to sleep.
Bedtime should roll right into this schedule and be about 90 minutes after she wakes up from her third nap. So if she napped from 3-4:30pm, bedtime would be at 6pm. It is a common misconception that putting your child to bed this early will cause them to wake early. This is not true. An early bedtime that occurs before a baby can become overtired, actually allows them to sleep longer and later into the morning. It is very common for babies her age to start sleeping 12-13 hours a night at this point if they go to bed early enough.
I understand that this change can be frustrating as it has caused her sleep to seemingly take a step back, but I can assure you that this is a necessary step to getting her on a consistent schedule and allowing her to learn to be a great independent sleeper.”
The above was taken from a Q&A that Amy did here-
http://hoboken.mommies247.com/hot-topics/well-rested-baby-qa-with-amy-lage-2/
Imy daughter is 4 months and one week old. I am working on the nap schedule you have listed above. I wake her at 7:30 then nap at 9:30. My question: sometimes this nap lasts 2 hrs, which changes her next nap time, which then does not allow for a third nap time because she goes to bed at 7pm. She then wakes at 11, nurses and goes back to sleep, 2- nurses and sometimes cries and then I take her into my bed to stop the crying. Repeate. This night waking is newer, she would normally sleep until 3 or 4 then nurse and go right back to sleep till I woke her at 7 am. I’m sure you have suggestions!!! I would like her to take three naps then bed and at least sleep till 3-4am on her own!! Tia.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! My 3 1/2 month old is going through this and for the first week and a half I was oblivious, thinking it was a cold then a growth spurt that made him wake up so, so, so often at night. This makes me have hope that SOON sleep will return to our house. I will begin a more appropriate nap/bedtime schedule and routine to help develop good sleep habits early!
So what happens if the baby becomes overtired before the wake window? So let’s say they wake at 6 but are rubbing their eyes at 7:30. Should you keep them awake until 8 then? Same with nap 2, what if they are getting tired before 1130?