What is the four-month sleep regression?
Just when you think you have figured out your baby's sleep pattern, you have finally found your way after three months of running with your baby, and finally passed the period of confusion and confusion for novice mothers. Suddenly your baby can't sleep for a long time. He wakes up every 30~45 minutes during the daytime nap. It becomes more and more difficult to sleep for a long time. He often wakes up frequently at night, sometimes even every 2 hours.
This is 4 months of sleep regression. From the perspective of infant sleep maturity, this is actually an improvement. The baby's sleep is developing towards a sleep pattern closer to that of an adult. But judging from the quality of their sleep, this is indeed a big step backwards.
What are the changes in sleep regression?
It is normal for babies to wake up suddenly after 45 minutes. For babies, this is a complete sleep cycle. They need 15 to 20 minutes to transition from light sleep to deep sleep, and this deep sleep will not end until 25 to 30 minutes. If your baby takes a nap for more than 45 minutes, it means that they are completing more than one sleep cycle and have a certain sense of receptivity.
In the first three months, the baby’s sleep cycle at night is 4-6 hours, which means that once your baby falls asleep, it will be easier to sleep for 4-6 hours of sleep at a stretch. When a sleep cycle is over , They can continue to sleep for 4-6 hours when they wake up.
Once 4 months of age, the baby’s night sleep pattern changes, and most babies’ sleep cycle at night begins to shorten to 2-4 hours. With the shortening of the sleep cycle and the inability to fall asleep on its own, it cannot connect to the sleep cycle, or it is due to insufficient naps during the day, or excessive fatigue, which eventually causes frequent night awakening.
The experience of mothers
- 1, can't sleep well after the surge period?
About four months, the baby will go through a period of soaring, and then many mothers think that after four months it will suddenly become two hours after waking up, are they hungry? After all, I was able to sleep well before. I guessed it might be a surge period, so I nursed the baby.
The results have passed for several days, why do you still wake up frequently at night? This soaring period is too long! When I found out that this product seemed to be wrong, it didn't feel like a pot during the surge period. But I was used to waking up at night to give milk, and it was too late when I found something wrong and didn't want to continue giving it. Because the child has become accustomed to many night milks, and the extra night milk spots cultivated more night awakenings, the vicious circle has started. Because Ye Wake is used to feeding milk, and because I am used to eating so much milk at night, I have to wake up... Life is so difficult.
- z63
64z, found that the four-month-old baby began to practice turning over, and then started frequent night waking
With the development of the big movement, the babies learned to turn over. However, turning it is not so proficient, maybe half of it can't be turned back. Ah~ the mothers are throwing the pot into a hateful turnaround period. Blame it for turning over! Otherwise, my family is also an angel baby? You see, he clearly woke up by turning over. So I tried every means to prevent the child from turning over, such as jamming a pillow. The result seemed to be a little better, but I found that the child seemed to be used to sleeping in a characteristic posture. For example, when I am used to sleeping on my side, I can't sleep when I turn back. How does this feel like another pit?
What is the truth?
- 1. The surge period does not make the child get up to eat one night milk every two hours. The surge period will have one more night milk than usual. In the soaring period 6 months ago, because there was no supplementary food added, the baby may have one extra night milk at night, but no more night milk will be more than 3 times. The impact of the surge period on night milk will not exceed three days at most, and the baby's night sleep will not be affected by the surge period after six months.
- 2, the four-month turn-over period is not the real reason for the baby to wake up. The awakening that you see is a false appearance. With the development of the big exercise, the baby's self-soothing ability will be further improved. Turning over is because the child wants to find a posture by turning over or change a posture and wants to continue sleeping, but finds that he still cannot sleep after trying. The reason why parents can help their children sleep in a fixed position is similar to strengthening the package, which enhances comfort. It seems to have a certain effect, but it is not a long-term solution.
How to prevent four months of sleep regression?
1 Cultivate the ability to fall asleep autonomously as soon as possible. When the child will fall asleep on his own, even if the sleep cycle is shortened, he can continue to fall asleep during light sleep or sleep cycle transition. A sleeping child can sleep in any posture!
2 During the sleep regression period, do not excessively interfere with the child's sleep. Give a certain amount of time for the child to work hard to sleep. Can't help anymore.
3 Even if you want to soothe, don't soothe the milk easily to avoid making bad sleep worse.
4 Do not put your child in a sleeping position when falling asleep. In addition to ensuring a safe sleeping position on the side, for example, some children are used to sleeping on their side, parents help to fix the sleeping position, which also limits the child's ability to soothe himself.
5 When you find that your child still does not sleep well after the turn-over period, you need to beware. Your child's sleep ability has become very bad because of too much human intervention. So, if you want to change back, waiting is never a good idea. After all, the thing about sleeping, waiting is unknown~
