Sleep Regression or Bad Habit?
Sleep regressions are one of the most thrown around terms in the parenting world.
Short nap? Sleep Regression.
Night waking? Sleep Regression.
4-months old? Sleep Regression.
Crawling? Sleep Regression.
Increased fussiness? Sleep Regression.
Learned any new skill? Sleep Regression.
The thing is, sleep regressions aren’t totally real. What is real, is major periods of development, growth spurts, and sometimes bad habits that can impact sleep.
How can you tell the difference between a sleep regression and simply a bad habit?
A sleep regression commonly rears its ugly face around 4 months & 18 months. The reason why, is that at 4-months old, there is a permanent change happening with your baby’s sleep. They’re completely changing their sleep cycles from 2 stages to 4 stages as their circadian rhythm gets used to life outside the womb. At 18-months of age, your toddler is developing a lot. They are learning how to walk, how to run, how to talk, and they’re definitely realizing how to express their big feelings. All of these changes can impact sleep such a way that if you were to put your child down in their crib, they might protest big time.
Sleep regressions are also prevalent when families aren’t practicing independent sleep. If your child requires assistance to fall asleep (whether that be by a pacifier, feeding to sleep, rocking to sleep, etc.), then these periods of big change will hit them harder.
A bad habit is different, but only slightly. Bad habits are often adopted while your child is sick, or while you were on vacation, or just another time when you decided to change things up with your child’s sleep.
A bad habit can change your child’s sleep, similar to a regression, but you’re usually able to pinpoint right when things changed. While on vacation, did you add in an extra night feeding since you didn’t want the baby to wake up your toddler? Did you resort to co-sleeping with your toddler due to lack of space, but now they refuse their crib? Did you rock your baby to sleep while they were sick and now they will only fall asleep while on you?
These all have a space in time when they started!
So, where do we go from here?
Sleep regressions and bad habits can both be rectified with legitimate schedule changes and consistency with your sleep approach! No habit is too bad, no regression too severe that you can’t come back from it.
My 3 recommendations to get back on track would be:
always lay your child down awake
solidify your bedtime routine
keep things consistent
If you find yourself in a space where you can’t figure out how to get things back on track, let’s set up a free call and see if working together would make sense for your family!
