Who doesn’t hate sleep regression? Your 4 month old or 2.5 year old have been doing great for the past couple of months. She’s been falling asleep without much effort. She’s been sleeping through the night, no problem. Mom & Dad can place her in her crib when its time to go to bed, walk away and Bob’s Your Uncle, baby is fast asleep without any assistance from you. Things are going so well you’ve started a nightly routine of your own that involves some adult time, maybe a glass of wine to unwind or some rated R Netflix binging. You get all nice and settled on the couch one night, go to turn on the TV and suddenly hear the faint cries of your toddler in the background. “I thought she was sleeping?!” “What is she doing up?!” “What time is it?!”
Questions like these will pop into your head before you stumble on over to your munchkin’s room to find her standing up with her sleep sack off and all her blankets on the floor. Her diaper is not wet, she is on a full stomach from dinner just a few hours ago and she is not getting sick. You put your best foot forward and attempt to get her back in bed, comfortable again and sleep in no time. A power struggle ensues for the next hour before she’s finally back asleep, just for you to realize the small opportunity you had to relax on the couch has dwindled and now its time for you yourself to start getting ready for bed. You think this is a one time incident that will surely not be present tomorrow or the next day. But, nap time comes around and you find yourself in the same predicament.
This is your child reverting back to infant like behavior. Sleep regression is real and frustrating. How many hours did you spend training your little one to do what you taught them regarding sleep? Probably a ton! It worked until it didn’t. And now you are in the trenches trying to figure out why your child has just unlearned everything. Here are some tips for staying calm and carrying on:
1) Don’t panic. This may seem obvious but your child feeds off your energy. If you lose your cool or get overwhelmed, they may sense that and tighten up themselves. Stress makes it hard for anyone to focus, children as well. If a child suddenly feels stressed around sleep time, getting them to rest is going to be much harder. Find ways to sooth your toddler, instead.
2) Reading around sleep time is a perfect way to get children to settle down at any age, even for naps. Find a book they love to read and point to pictures and have them follow along. This is also a great bonding activity. You could alternatively just tell them a story. Children love story time, especially from a smooth recognizable voice. Keep encouraging them to lay down as they listen to help them further relax.
3) Hugs and affection go a long way to helping children settle down. Sometimes before bed I will give my daughter, Ché a big, long embrace before I set her down in her crib. She gets so comfortable in my arms that she relaxes very well. If I can, I’ll give her a hug for a few moments longer than normal to help her get into sleep mode as much as possible. A good hymn or nursery rhyme sung into her ears like, “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” helps tremendously as well.
4) Avoid doing anything overly stimulating before naps. Television and lights from our devices for instance can disrupt our cicada rhythms and trick our brains into thinking we are more awake than we actually are. So, you want to avoid screen time for children at least 1 hour before bed time. Also, if a child has been running around outside and raised their heart rate, they’re going to need some time to bring it back down. Bring them back inside and offer them a snack and some quiet time for at least 30 minutes before attempting to put to sleep.
5) Try a learning activity before you get into your night/nap time routine. Sometimes when children are mentally stimulated for enough time they’ll desire a reset afterwards. After attempting to identify colors, numbers or letters for about 20 or 30 minutes, children will often feel like some rest to shut off their brain isn’t such a bad idea. That’s if you’re dealing with toddlers. This would be a great opportunity to lay them down and go into reading time to take the edge off of them. If you’re dealing with infants, try some tummy time and reaching for toys as a great way to stretch their muscles before nap time
We hope this lists helps you navigate through what could be some rough terrain. Just remember, most kids do revert back to what you taught them. If you find yourself in the thick of it try some more extreme measures like talking with a sleep trainer, or sleep whisperer as some of them are called. Asking for help is not a bad thing. Let us know what got you through those tough months in the comments below.
