What is a sleep regression?

During their first 2 years of life children develop at a very fast rate. There are some ages where they go through a leap in their development. These can cause a shift in sleep patterns and this can result in new issues with sleep, such as protesting, shorter naps and more night wakes.

As a sleep consultant, the topic I get asked about the most is the 4 month regression. Parents can find it incredibly tough as baby starts to have more night wakes and do shorter naps. Many of us just think of sleep as an on-or-off situation. You’re either asleep or you’re not. But sleep actually has a number of different stages, and they make up the “sleep cycle,” which we go through several times a night. So in order to understand what’s happening to your baby during this stage, first you need to know a few things about sleep in general.

That right there might be the single most common question new parents ask. Is it a developmental milestone? A regression? Are they getting too much sleep during the day, or not enough? Maybe they’re just hungry. Maybe they’re too hot, or too cold. Let’s try to figure it out.