How to help your Baby through a Sleep Regression (without creating bad habits)

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Battling sleep regression with your baby? You’re not alone. Here’s how to help your Baby through a Sleep Regression (without creating bad habits)

Being parents is like being handed the keys to a car you’ve never driven before.

One day, your baby is sleeping through the night, taking their naps, and you’re actually thinking, “Yes! I’ve totally got this parenting thing under control.”

Then, out of nowhere, it hits. Sudden frequent night wakings, shortened naps, and a fussy, overtired baby. Welcome to the world of sleep regression.

Oh, friends, I know that feeling exactly. With Nora, it hit us just after she turned four months. She was finally giving us those precious, reasonable stretches of sleep at night.

We’d put her down, she’d babble a bit, maybe hum, and then just drift off, peaceful as anything. And then, one night, everything changed.

It felt like a switch flipped, and suddenly, the sleep we’d just started to count on vanished into thin air. She became so clingy, fussy and restless.

I tried everything i knew. Every single “quick fix” I swore I’d never do. I became a human pacifier, her only constant source of comfort and sleep. I knew, deep down, this wasn’t sustainable.

I had to go back to the basics, and make a plan. That’s exactly what I’m going to share with you in this post.

What is Sleep Regression?

Simply put, Sleep regression is a temporary period where a baby or toddler who was previously sleeping well suddenly starts having trouble with their sleep.

You begin to experience more frequent night waking, difficulty falling asleep, shorter naps or no naps at all and increased fussiness.

Sleep regressions aren’t your baby being difficult. They’re actually a sign that your little one’s brain is growing and developing. They’re becoming more aware of their surroundings, and their sleep patterns are maturing.

Common Regression Ages and what to expect

4 – Month Regression

This is the first and most important one. They’re moving from newborn sleep (basically mini-comas) to adult-like sleep cycles.

Expect frequent night wakings, shorter naps, and more fussiness. This is the time to start teaching them independent sleep skills, so they can learn how to go back to sleep on their own.

6 – 9 Month Regression

This is often tied to starting solids or early mobility such as crawling, pulling up. Expect crying when you leave the room, multiple night wakings, and fighting bedtime.

12- 18 Month Regression

Now they are often around walking, talking, one-nap transition, and teething. Who has time for sleep?

So expect nap strikes, increased night wakings, bedtime battles and early morning waking. There might also be general crankiness due to lack of sleep, and increased clinginess.

Is This Actually a Regression?

Most sleep regressions typically last 2 to 6 weeks. Some babies might bounce back faster, others might linger a bit longer. Before you assume it’s a regression, let’s rule out the other usual suspects:

It’s probably a regression if:

Your previously good sleeper suddenly isn’t sleeping as usual
It started around a common regression age
Baby seems more clingy or fussy during the day
They’re hitting new developmental milestones

It might be something else if:

Baby has a fever or seems sick
They’re teething (drooling everywhere, chewing on everything)
You recently changed something major (moved, new daycare, travel)
It’s been going on for more than 3-4 weeks

What do you do during these Sleep Regression periods?

1. Stick to your routine, no matter what.

When sleep regression comes, it may feel like the situation is getting out of your hands.

In these moments of desperation, you may be tempted to abandon everything you’ve worked so hard for.

Keep doing your normal bedtime routine, put the baby down awake in their crib, and follow your usual schedule as much as possible.

That routine helps them feel safe and know what to expect, even when everything else feels a bit overwhelming.

2. Start with the Bedtime routine.

Whether it’s a warm bath, a quiet book, a gentle lullaby, or a soothing massage with lotion, this sequence is your baby’s powerful signal.

It tells their body and mind, “Okay, it’s time to wind down. Sleep is coming.” Even if it feels like a struggle to get through, completing this familiar ritual helps prep them for rest and reminds them of what comes next.

3. Ensure that your baby’s sleep space remains consistent.

This means maintaining darkness (blackout curtains), room temperature (cool and comfortable for your baby) and using white noise if that’s part of your routine.

This familiar setting provides a consistent sensory experience, telling your baby, “This is my safe space for sleep.”

4. Consistent Wake Times

Try your best to wake your baby around the same time each morning. This practice helps to anchor their circadian rhythm, which is their internal body clock.

Just like setting an alarm for yourself, it helps regulate their sleep-wake cycle and makes it easier for them to fall asleep at appropriate times later in the day and night.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Your baby needs extra comfort, but you don’t want to create new habits that’ll be hard to break later. Think of it like this: you’re offering support, not solutions.

Here are some gentle soothing techniques to apply that don’t become dependencies

Go in and briefly comfort them with your voice.
Place a gentle hand on their chest for a minute.
Pick them up if they’re really upset, but put them back down awake.
Offer extra comfort during the day with snuggles and attention.

It may be so tempting to grab onto any “quick fix” that offers immediate relief. This can actually create new, harder-to-break sleep habits that prolong your struggles long after the regression itself should have passed.

5. Take turns with your partners, friends and loved ones

Everyone needs help, you are not an island.

Especially here in Nigeria, where family and community support are usually built right into our lives. But even with that strong network around us, it can still feel incredibly hard to actually say “I need help” when you’re completely overwhelmed.

So share the burden and reduce the mental load on yourself. If possible, create a plan for night wakings.

Maybe one parent takes the first half of the night, and the other takes the second or one handles all wakings until a certain time (e.g., 2 AM), and the other takes over after that.

One parent gets truly uninterrupted sleep for a solid block of hours while the other is on duty. This is crucial for mental resilience. Even a few hours of deep sleep can make a world of difference.

If you can afford paid help, then get one. Could be a nanny, a helper, whichever one you can afford.

What not to do during a sleep regression?

1. Putting them on your own bed.

If they learn that your bed is the ultimate comfort zone and that the only way to get comfort is to sleep on your bed. They will become reliant on that sleep environment.

Then when the regression passes, moving them back to their crib becomes a fight.

2. Feeding/rocking to bed

If your baby is always fed or rocked completely to sleep, they won’t learn how to do it themselves.

What started as a quick way to get them to sleep now means you’re up every 1-2 hours repeating the entire process.

This can lead to over-tiredness for both of you and makes it very difficult for your baby to learn independent sleep skills.

3. Don’t Intervene at Every Little Sound

As parents, instincts can make us rush to pick up your baby at any sound. Give them space to self-soothe.

That way they can learn to settle down on their own and develop independent sleep skills.

Hard as it sounds, It is necessary.

4. Overfeeding your baby

When your little one suddenly starts waking up a lot at night, your first thought is probably to feed them and feeding may seem like a good way of comfort. But is it?

For 4 month regression, their stomachs are small and they are growing rapidly. So if your young baby wakes up crying during a regression, especially if they haven’t fed in a few hours, absolutely offer a feed.

Then put them back down as soon as the feed is done, while they’re drowsy but still a little bit awake, to help prevent them from fully associating feeding with falling asleep.

But for older babies 6 months+ It gets trickier. Sleep regression can cause them to wake more frequently out of habit, for comfort.

So feed them very well during the day, and offer an extra feed or two during the evening (often called cluster feeding) to prepare them before bedtime.

If they wake up at night, wait for a few minutes before you respond. Most times, they settle down without a feed.

If you suspect it’s not hunger, go in and offer verbal reassurance, a quick pat, or gently guide them to lie down if they’re standing. See if that helps them settle without a feed.

Common Sleep Regression Scenarios and how to handle them

1. When your baby doesn’t want to sleep in the crib anymore

It can be surprising that your baby who previously loved their sleep space starts screaming the moment you lay them down, or even just walk towards it.

At around 8-12 months, it’s ideal that babies develop attachment to you and realise that you as a person can actually leave. It is called separation anxiety. They feel as if you are abandoning them.

So practice short, positive separations (e.g., “Mama’s just going to the kitchen, I’ll be right back!”), then return quickly

Try making their crib a happy place. Put a few toys and let them play around there. You can even put an item that smells like you such as a cloth around the sleep area.

Sit with them and reassure them that you are close-by. Be consistent and don’t change from crib to bed to car seat as they may get confused. It’s your calm, loving consistency that brings them back on track.

2. Skipping naps and early morning wake up

These are situations when naps disappear or get super short and they wake up before the sunrise.

It could be over-tiredness. An overtired baby fights sleep, wakes up more often, and gets up earlier.

If they wake before your desired wake time (e.g., before 6 AM), treat it like a night waking; minimal interaction, quiet comfort, try to encourage more sleep in the crib. Don’t rush to get them up and start the day.

3. If the Regression seems to never end

This may be due to quick fixes and bad habits you introduced during initial regression such as co-sleeping, constant feeding which have become part of them that they can’t let go.

The regression itself might have passed, but you’re left with a new sleep challenge.

So gradually reduce co-sleeping once they’re sleeping better. If they ended up in your bed a few times, they’ll definitely readjust to their crib.

However, if it’s truly been more than 6-8 weeks of severe sleep disruption, and you’ve tried consistency and addressed habits, it might be time to speak to your paediatrician or a certified sleep consultant. They can rule out medical issues.