What is the 8 month Sleep Regression?

    My name is Mica. I am a certified sleep consultant and founder of Rested Mama, Happy Baby. I help families on their journey to establish healthy sleep habits and get the whole family sleeping again! If you have an 8 month old, you might be thinking…”What?!  I thought we just had a sleep regression for 4 months!”  I know, it’s rough, but the good news is that the remaining regressions are not considered “permanent.”

    There is a ton happening with your little one during this time that causes the temporary detour of good sleep behavior. Research does show that this regression occurs because of the colliding changes that occur in developmental growth and overall change in sleep needs for day and night.  

Development:

    From a developmental perspective, your 8 month old is expanding their physical capabilities and also their awareness across people, language and more!  These include:

• Ability to scoot and crawl
• Learning to pull themselves up and stand assisted
• Realizing ability to be more mobile
• Increased language skills 
• Developing better understanding of communication 

     Emotionally and in awareness, an 8-month old also starts to recognize the difference between familiar and unfamiliar faces and also begins to be affected by a bit of separation anxiety.  This is why you might feel that your once ‘independent’ 8-month old starts to show some strong preferences and attachment to a parent.  Don’t worry!  It’s just their awareness that mommy and daddy can come and go.  

Sleep:

    In addition to these cognitive and physical growth skills, this is typically the time where the sleep needs of your child changes and typically will go from 3 naps to 2 naps as they are able to stay up for longer periods of time.  This becomes a perfect storm for sleep disturbances. 

    Treading during this time can be a bit tricky as your child may not only be overtired, but also find themselves a little distracted by all these new and shiny skills they have. Much like the 4-month sleep regression, the 8-month sleep regression can show up in the same way.  You may notice your child is experiencing the following:

• A sudden increase in night wakings, anywhere from 2+ may occur
• Difficulty going to sleep at bedtime
• Difficulty falling back asleep after night waking
• Increased fussiness, crying, or frustration
• Longer naps and less night time sleep - Yes, what a trade off!

What you can do about it:

    Don’t worry, however, hope is not lost.  This regression does last about 3-6 weeks and can impact your child anywhere between 7 - 9 months depending on their adjusted age.  How do you manage through this time?  These are my top tips:

1. Teach independent sleep skills - If you child is not yet an independent sleeper, this is the perfect time to start so they can work on connecting those sleep cycles and allow them to grow their independence and control over sleep.
2. Practice their new skills - If your child is showing signs of crawling or standing up, use your wake time to practice these skills in different ways.  This will remove the “novelty” of the new skill. 
3. Re-evaluate their sleep schedule during the day -  It might be time to transition to 2 naps, which can better help with night time.  
4. Be consistent - This time is usually when all bad habits come back to relieve the immediate pain of sleepless nights.  However, bringing back bad sleep habits will only exacerbate your child’s dependency on you to fall asleep and will not improve the sleep regression.
5. Caregivers should take turns - Provide security and ease their development of stranger danger and preference for a caregiver by ensuring you are taking turns during this time.
6. Practice leaving and coming back -  Get your child used to knowing that yes, you may need to leave, but you will always come back.  This is great to help ease separation anxiety.

    I know this time can be overwhelming, and for some parents bring back a little PTSD from maybe even worse sleep deprivation during the newborn stage, but this will pass.  This is a perfect time to take a step back, re-evaluate your sleep routine and habits, and bring back your sleep training method for consistency.  If you need help, always feel free to reach out.  Our Rested Mama Library has great resources to help you navigate through this time and long term sleep. 

  Learn more about how we work with families to help their babies sleep 10+ hours at night without Cry-it-out or Ferber.  Join our free webinar!

Sleep is around the corner,

Rested Mama, Happy Baby Founder