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Navigating the 4-Month Sleep Regression

Why it happens and what you can do about it

At about 3-4 months old, many babies struggle with sleep even if they were good sleepers before. Why? They’re going through many developmental changes. One of the most significant is a change in their sleep patterns. When babies' bodies and brains are busy with these changes, sleep can often take a back seat.

The 4-month sleep regression is the first of the most common sleep regressions. During this phase, your baby transitions from two sleep stages to four. This adjustment can cause your baby to wake up more often, and sometimes each slight awakening turns into a major struggle.

We've talked to many parents and noticed there are a lot of misconceptions about the 4-month sleep regression. In our experience, we spotted signs early and managed to avoid most of the fuss. Here’s what worked for us:

Longer Wake Windows: As babies reach 4 months old, their wake windows need to increase to about 90-120 minutes. We learned to identify sleepy cues to know when to put our baby down. If your baby is on the lower end of this range, you can gradually add a few minutes to each wake window. Give your baby a few days to adjust to prevent overtiredness. At this stage, we transitioned our 3-month-old from a 5-nap schedule to a 4-nap schedule.

Self-Settling Skills: Babies need to learn to self-settle when they wake up at night. We helped our baby learn this by putting her to bed while she was still awake. She would make some noise for a few minutes, but it wasn’t hysterical crying—just her way of self-soothing. We watched the clock to resist intervening. After about 2 minutes, she would find a comfy position and fall asleep. We repeated this at every nap for several days. Now, we see her on our Nanit camera waking up but then falling back asleep on her own (which is one of the major benefits of a nanny cam that records video for playback later). That’s when we knew she had conquered the self-settle skill and we were on our way to skipping the 4-month sleep regression altogether.

Regression and Feeding: When our baby woke at night, we often assumed she was hungry and fed her to get her back to sleep. During the 4-month sleep regression, this can lead to more night feedings, causing challenges like reverse cycling (where the baby gets more calories at night and eats less during the day). Instead, we tried to soothe her without feeding her right away. Sometimes, this was as simple as changing the sound machine noise or offering calming strokes from chest to toe. Other times, a quick feeding was enough to get her back down. We also recommend feeding at the end of the wake windows, ensuring the baby gets all the daytime calories needed for a good night’s sleep.

While you can't completely prevent the 4-month sleep regression, you can make it much easier by proactively adjusting your baby's sleep habits. With some planning and patience, you can limit the disruption to just a few days and help your baby (and yourself) get back to a peaceful night's sleep.

Our next newsletter will be all about naps while on the go which was overwhelmingly what you all wanted to hear most about.

Momcozy Baby Monitor

We’ve already shared with you how we love our Nanit baby monitor at home, but we recently went on our first trip and wanted to find the best WiFi-free baby monitor. After testing a few, including the Tiny Traveler, Hello Baby, and a sound-only option we found our favorite.

The Momcozy baby Monitor for travel, and here's why. First off, the video quality is unbeatable in pitch-black darkness with 1080p. It is also incredibly portable—this little device slips easily into my bag, making it perfect for trips or even a stop at Grandma’s house. The battery life was fantastic, lasting up to 20 hours on a single charge, so I don't have to worry about it dying in the middle of the night. The camera angle is remotely controllable in case baby moves and the audio quality is top-notch, giving me clear and reliable monitoring of my baby, whether I'm in the next room or outside enjoying some fresh air. Plus, the setup was a breeze; I can have it up and running in just a few minutes. It's become an essential part of our travel gear!

The Ultimate Living Parenting Guide & Free Resource List

We decided to compile The Ultimate Living Parenting Guide & Free Resource List for you to explore at your own pace. It is full of everything from free resources to courses, books, podcasts, and online content - all centered around better parenting.

Tell us if you feel we missed anything!