How much should a 4 month old baby sleep (day, night)

Restless sleep in young children and any disturbances in this natural and very important process often appear at four months of age. In fact, this period is a crisis for many infants. Of course, in such a situation, parents need to know why such a problem occurs, as well as how much a child should sleep at 4 months, in accordance with normal indicators. Pediatricians note that this phenomenon is quite natural and is directly related to the development of a tiny organism. So don’t panic because of changes if your sleep is within the norm.

How much should a 4 month old baby sleep during the day?

If your baby was born with birth defects or was born prematurely, he may not yet be ready for a consistent sleep structure. In other cases, at the age of four months, children sleep 3 times during the day - if they wake up at 9 am, then:

first nap will be at 9:30,
second sleep - at 12,
the third nap is at 3 pm.

Work to ensure that the child does not become overtired, and then it will not be difficult for the baby to fall asleep, and the duration of rest will be from 1 to 1.5 hours. Regardless of the time of rising, the baby should be put to bed for the first nap 1.5 hours after he wakes up. The second nap must be offered no later than 2 hours after the previous awakening. Don’t forget also that you need to practice falling asleep on your own.

At this age, you can already get serious about increasing a child’s daytime sleep at 4 months to an hour. If your baby wakes up after 20-30 minutes, do not take him out of the crib until an hour has passed since he fell asleep. If the child is comfortable with this, do not approach him or show your presence. If the baby cries and is capricious, show yourself, pet him and calm him down, but also do not take him out of bed. There is no need to entertain the child during this period, and you should not talk to him. Make soothing sounds and sing a song quietly. All efforts should be aimed at ensuring that the baby continues to fall asleep. After some time, the child will understand that sleep can be longer and, if he wakes up, he will fall asleep again.

By 6 months, some babies can sleep twice a day, but for longer periods of about 1.5 hours. Others will keep 3 naps for up to 8-9 months with a total duration of up to 3.5 hours. In any case, you need to make sure that the third nap does not last too long - because this will prevent you from falling asleep before a night's rest. The maximum permissible sleep time depends on the hour at which the baby goes on his main rest.

By 9 months, 90% of babies are sleeping twice a day. A 4 month old baby sleeps in the morning and longer during the day; the evening sleep will disappear from the schedule. The first two sleeps can move down in the time grid by an hour or two, for example, the child will go to bed at 9 and 13 hours, and the waking time will increase to 3-4 hours without serious consequences.

Features of changing children's sleep patterns

It is extremely important to establish a routine for daytime and nighttime sleep, starting in the first months of life.

However, there are often cases when children sleep most of the day and are actively awake at night. Or, on the contrary, they fall asleep at 18-19 pm, waking up by 5 am. In such situations, it is recommended to gradually change your sleep pattern.

How to normalize night sleep

In the case when the child sleeps during the day and spends active time at night, his sleep should be limited during daylight hours. For these purposes, a table with a schedule can be compiled, following which you can gradually bring the ratio of sleep and wakefulness back to normal.

If your baby goes to bed too late and sleeps too long in the morning, you need to wake him up. This will allow you to create an acceptable daily routine.

When a child falls asleep in the evening and wakes up too early in the morning, you should gradually shift your bedtime.

A gradual change in the schedule suggests that with each subsequent week the baby should be put to bed 30 minutes later. As a result:

During the first week, the child will go to bed at 19-30,
The entire second week - at 20-00,
In the third week - at 20-30, etc.

For a smoother transition, you can shift the styling procedure not by 30, but by 15 minutes weekly.

At the same time, babies should not be put to bed later than 20-30 or 21 pm, because after this time they become too tired and it is already difficult for them to fall asleep

How long does a 4 month old baby sleep at night?

When the daily routine has already been formed, going to bed at night will be around 6-7 pm - depending on how comfortable and restful your sleep was during the day. On average, children sleep 3 hours during the day and about 10 at night. Therefore, if the child does not get enough sleep during the day, you need to start putting him to bed earlier so that the total sleep time is sufficient for his body. Even if you put your baby to bed an hour earlier than usual, in the morning the child will get up at what time he is used to. If the baby is not overtired, then she sleeps well during the day and does not wake up at night just like that.

Pay attention to night feedings. At 4 months, it is vital for a child to eat 3 times a night. But closer to 7-8, you can already think about whether the baby is really hungry. If a child often wakes up at night, hunger is not always the main reason. Negative associations with the sleep process, the formed habit of waking up for feeding, and the child’s inability to fall asleep on his own when he wakes up play a role here. To determine whether your baby needs feeding at night, watch how your baby eats. If the baby eats with appetite, feedings are needed. If after a couple of sips you begin to fall asleep, it is time to slowly give up eating at night.

Another reason why children often wake up at night is because their parents put them to bed too late.

Try moving your bedtime 30-40 minutes earlier during the week; it is quite possible that night awakenings will disappear.

During periods when a child masters new skills such as crawling, holding his head, etc., the restlessness of his sleep can also be affected. After all, such exercises are tiring, and a tired child will not sleep peacefully like an adult. Such periods of new skills usually last 1-2 weeks, so you just need to try not to disrupt the regime and be patient.

Signs of Poor Sleep

Knowing how much sleep a child should sleep at 4 months, and having a good understanding of the mood of your own baby, it is easy to notice certain signs that accompany sleep disturbances:

the baby often cries, gets irritated and shows a bad mood;
the child’s capriciousness has a basis, which is why he constantly demands attention to himself and clings to his mother at any opportunity;
you can notice how clumsy and uncoordinated his movements become;
children at 4 months can cuddle up to their mother and hide their face on her chest;
the baby’s interest in his own toys weakens significantly, moreover, the baby is no longer so inquisitive in his cognitive activity;
the baby can yawn, suck fingers, rub his eyes;
a clear symptom that means lack of sleep, poor appetite, and sometimes refusal to eat.

Such signs clearly indicate fatigue, and sometimes severe fatigue, both physically and psycho-emotionally. And yet there are exceptions - in some children it is quite difficult to recognize fatigue, and then you will have to navigate according to the normative indicators of a given age, and try to prepare the baby for bed 30-40 minutes before the scheduled time. The common belief that the baby will fall asleep when he wants does not work in this case, and parents will have to take strict control of this process, and better sooner rather than later, so as not to lead to serious consequences.

It is also worth paying attention if it is difficult to wake up the baby, much less get him up.

There are only two explanations for this phenomenon - the child’s more than calm temperament, who prefers long rest, or neurological pathologies.

Another problem is crying in your sleep. This can occur due to mental overload and overexcitation, when, against the background of new impressions, the cerebral cortex shows increased activity during sleep. But the cause can also be illness, teething, or a feeling of pain in the tummy.

New stage of development

From the age of four months, the child perceives some aspects of life from an adult point of view. This, of course, only applies to physical manifestations: for example, sleep.

A baby's sleep pattern changes from a newborn's sleep to an adult's sleep, which causes sleep problems in most children. Children wake up more often and fall asleep worse. The period is called the “four-month regression.” Regression also affects the child’s general behavior. Poor sleep virtually guarantees anxiety and worry throughout your waking hours.
Physical development. At the age of 4 months, children master more precise coordination of hand movements and learn fine motor skills of their fingers. The nervous system is rapidly improving. The child learns to make a large number of new movements - roll over in the crib, spin. Someone is already trying to crawl. The sounds the baby makes become more complex.
Mental development. At 4 months, children begin to understand the consequences of something. They can already connect the action and what follows it. Now the child can look at the toy from all sides. You can already give your baby rattles - the baby will learn to shake them himself to make sounds, and this will be good entertainment.
The baby begins to realize that the world around him consists of objects that exist regardless of whether they are in his field of vision or not. The absence of a mother nearby is perceived more calmly.

Sudden mood swings are inevitable. After all, consciousness changes greatly in a short period of time, and this causes panic in children. At such a time, you need to pay more attention to the baby, not be surprised by his tears and whims, and also be prepared for the fact that the child will refuse to eat and sleep very poorly. But this condition will also last no longer than two weeks, after which parents will only be surprised at how much their baby has developed during this time.

Main signs of sleep disturbance

By 4 months, behavior may suddenly change, causing sleep to suffer. Although, a 4-month-old baby should sleep about three times during the day and wake up once at night to feed, but there are violations of the following nature:

has difficulty falling asleep, sometimes you have to rock the baby to sleep for hours;
During sleep, the child gets restless, often wakes up, and becomes sensitive to any extraneous sounds;
due to lack of sleep, whims arise, sometimes hysterics occur;
Due to lack of sleep, the appetite increases, and at night the baby asks to eat 15 times, falling asleep between feedings for half an hour.

The listed signs greatly exhaust parents. The child is restless at night, but also does not want to sleep normally during the day, and constantly asks to be held.

Don't panic if your child exhibits this behavior. This condition often occurs in most babies who are already 16 weeks old. Problems associated with 24-hour sleep most often go away without consequences after 6 weeks.

Among the main reasons associated with sleep disturbances, there is rapid development in physiological and psychological terms, which occurs precisely by 4 months. The tiny body is rebuilt, and sleep occurs in the same phases as in adults. At this age of the baby, parents should be patient.

Should you lull your baby to sleep?

If a 4-month-old child does not sleep well at night, then before bedtime mothers often resort to bathing, relaxing massage, and evening feeding. This way the baby calms down and gets ready to relax.

But what should parents do if the baby does not want to fall asleep during the day? One of the options for solving the problem is motion sickness of the baby. Professional psychologists have highlighted several pros, cons and advice for a mother who decided to rock her baby to sleep.

pros

Rocking in the tummy. During late pregnancy, the baby felt his mother's tummy swaying as she walked and changed position. Rocking before bed reminds him of his mother's womb and helps him feel comfortable faster.
Mom's care. Direct tactile contact with the rocking mother shows the baby that she is nearby, loves and cares for him. He is very pleased with this.
Easy to rock. Movements should be smooth and easy so that the child does not feel ill.

Cons and pitfalls

Addiction. If you rock your baby to sleep before bed, the baby will get used to it very quickly. And getting rid of established habits can be difficult even for adults, what can we say about a child who does not understand why the usual and pleasant way of things has suddenly changed. Nevertheless, gentle rocking motions help you fall asleep quickly and have a comfortable sleep - but interrupting them will not be so easy.
Dizziness. If you rock your baby too hard, he will become dizzy. The organ responsible for the orientation of the body in space will be fully formed by the age of one year. Now the baby may simply experience nausea.

To help mom

Rocking cradle. Even a light four-month-old baby can be difficult to hold in your arms for a long time. Mom may experience back pain. Fortunately, special slings, rocking chairs, rocking pillows and cradles have been invented for this purpose. The latter will be an excellent transitional stage from rocking in your arms to falling asleep on your own in a crib.

Baby's sleep at 4 months: do you need silence?

The moment of ensuring silence so that the baby can quickly fall asleep is also a controversial issue. A 4-month-old baby's sleep can take place both in conditions of complete silence and with some noise. It all depends on what you yourself are used to and what you are teaching your baby to. If everyone in the house walks on tiptoe, then it is unlikely that the child will be able to fall asleep and sleep even with the slightest noise. Therefore, immediately determine for yourself what conditions you can create for your baby on an ongoing basis to make it as comfortable and easy as possible.

Some parents play quiet, calm music for their children before bed and tell them fairy tales. But if the child does not react at all to extraneous sounds, you need to see a pediatrician. This behavior may be associated with hearing impairment.

Other parents claim that if there is any extraneous noise, the baby immediately wakes up. This is normal behavior that depends on the individual characteristics of the child’s body. There is no need to teach your baby to sleep with music or to fall asleep to a lullaby if you see that the baby is uncomfortable.

Children sleep in the conditions to which they become accustomed from the first days of life.

Sleep norms for 4 month old babies

When a baby turns 4 months old, many new, interesting events happen. The newborn becomes more and more interested in surrounding objects, begins to listen to music, and communicates a lot with his parents while awake.

It is during this age period that the baby’s rest time during the day is reduced. During the day, a four-month-old baby sleeps several times:

a long rest can last 2 or 3 hours;
there may be two or one short-term dreams (half an hour or an hour).

The total amount of rest is from 15 to 16 hours. During the day, the baby is now more awake, enthusiastically playing and communicating with her parents.

Recommendations for mothers

There are several important recommendations that will help young mothers put their baby to sleep:

talk to your baby;
follow a routine;
feed the baby before bedtime;
if the baby is full, offer him a pacifier;
do not force your baby to sleep: he will fall asleep when he is really tired;
resting together will help your child fall asleep faster;
resort to tight swaddling.

For a child to have a sound and healthy sleep, the correct microclimate in the room is necessary. The most optimal temperature is 22 degrees. It is these indicators that have a positive effect on the child’s immunity, which cannot be said about greenhouse conditions, when the temperature reaches 25°C.

Why healthy sleep is so important

Oddly enough, but healthy and complete rest at this stage of a child’s life is a prerequisite for normal and harmonious development. A cheerful, well-rested baby begins to explore the new world around him with interest. The child is cheerful and playful, easily gets carried away by certain activities for a short time.

In addition, a well-rested toddler will find it easier to exercise (exercise, “bicycle” exercise, etc.).

If by the fourth month of life the child’s sleep has not returned to normal and there are certain problems, they need to be solved. It is much more difficult to adjust older children to their schedule and establish the correct daily routine for them.

Children who live without a schedule are more irritable and capricious, they get tired quickly, and are less focused and attentive. In the future, such absent-mindedness interferes with studying and communicating with other people.

A child needs sound and healthy sleep not only for him, but also for his parents. A well-rested mother is full of strength and desire to take care of the baby, she does not get irritated over trifles and rejoices at every, even minor, success of her little happiness.

Proper organization of children's sleep, especially at such an early age, is entirely in the hands of parents.

Even if there are some problems, only parents are able to solve them and create comfortable conditions so that the child can relax and gain strength.

Confused day and night

If a 4-month-old baby doesn't sleep well at night and instead takes naps during the day, the mother should take certain measures. First of all, you need to organize your baby’s day so that he gets a lot of impressions: communicate with the child, play games with him, do gymnastics. This will allow your baby to feel tired at the end of the day, and he will sleep through the night until the morning.

The routine of a 4 month old baby consists of wakefulness and rest. At the same time, a 4-month-old child’s sleep takes about 15 hours a day, which indicates the need for proper preparation for it.

How to teach your child to sleep healthy

To make falling asleep easy, and at night the whole family sleeps peacefully, you should develop some set schedule. I would like to note right away that the process is very long and is accompanied by a number of difficulties. Parents should be patient and then everything will definitely work out.

Rules for healthy sleep:

A solid sleep pattern day and night.
Your baby has already grown a little and there is no need to put him to bed with the first yawn. Let him play for 20-30 minutes and wait for his time. After a few days, the baby will want to sleep at the right time.
You should not put your child to bed later than 20.30–21.00.
Even if the child is cheerful and active, the body is already tired. Excessive overwork has the opposite effect. Instead of falling asleep instantly, children begin to be very capricious, cry, etc.
Schedule rest time during the day and stick to your goals. This makes it easier for a little person to get used to being put to sleep.
Come up with some sort of bedtime ritual.
Reading a book, bathing the baby, playing with the baby in some way. The main condition is a series of classes that are calm and do not overstimulate the child’s psyche.
Provide your child with a suitable place to sleep. In a comfortable and cozy crib, the baby is not at all scared. A prerequisite is the availability of clean bed linen. It's not just about hygiene; remember how nice it is to fall asleep on fresh, washed and ironed bedding made from natural fabrics. Ventilate the room before going to bed. Choose a dense mattress that does not sag under the weight of the child. A four month old baby does not need a pillow. He'll sleep just fine without her.
Choose dim lighting in the children's bedroom. The room must be darkened while you sleep, and a dim nightlight must be turned on at night.
You need to wake up your child in the morning. Often mothers wait for their child to wake up on his own and this leads to late awakening at 10.00 and later. Doing this is fundamentally wrong; if a baby at 4 months sleeps more than 10 hours at night, the routine is significantly disrupted. It is waking up at the same time every day that helps the baby and mother maintain a schedule during the day.
During sleep (both daytime and nighttime), use a good, high-quality diaper that can keep the baby dry.
A baby with wet pants or a leaky diaper will toss and turn and sleep very little.

Sleep crisis at 4 months: Why baby doesn't sleep well

All children go through changes and sleep disturbances. However, the reasons why a child sleeps poorly are individual. For some people, the sleep crisis passes relatively easily - they are capricious for a couple of weeks, and then everything returns to normal. Other children lose their routine so much that they cannot recover for many months. Both they and their parents suffer as a result.

To prepare parents for what they will have to face during the four-month crisis, experts have identified several common signs of this period:

changes in appetite: the child either eats too much, too little, or refuses to eat at all;
frequent waking up. Parents will notice this very quickly, because a woken up child does not lie quietly: he wakes up those around him;
The baby (and you) spend a lot of nerves on his tears, whims and even hysterics. Conventional methods that previously calmed the baby down now either don’t work at all or are less effective;
very poor night's sleep with many interruptions. For some children, sleep at night disappears altogether, and during the day they sleep only a couple of hours longer than usual.

As a rule, to cope with these terrible disorders of the regime and nervous system, you need to look for the root cause. Most often it lies in associations associated with falling asleep. The child has formed the habit of swinging on his arms or eating before going to bed. They expect this to continue and become capricious if their parents don't give them what they want. And if the child wakes up often, he expects this scenario to be fulfilled just as often, and the parents physically cannot rock the baby to sleep all night, as well as feed it.

The only advice in this case is to wait until the period of rapid development ends. But if several weeks have already passed, and the baby’s sleep has not returned to normal, it’s time to wean him off habits associated with falling asleep. There is no point in expecting that after a few more weeks the child will outgrow his sleep problems - most likely, he needs help.

Sleep table

Although there are certain norms of daily sleep for newborns, how much sleep a child who has reached 4 months old depends on the family atmosphere, the health of the baby, and how much time the baby spends outside. Many children happily fall asleep outside with the stroller rocking evenly, feeling the presence of their mother.

The duration of rest also depends on what sleep and wakefulness regime the parents taught the baby to follow during this period.

Four-month-old babies rest longer at night than 1- and 2-month-old babies. And during the day, their rest, on the contrary, is reduced.

You can see in the table below how long a child who is four months old sleeps:

Total amount of sleep	From 15 to 16
Rest at night	From 11 to 12
Rest during the day	From 3 to 4
Waking time	From 8 to 11

The table shows approximate data on the daily rest of the baby. Each baby has its own sleep schedule at four months, and the numbers given will help you determine the most optimal daily routine.

A baby's longest sleep, in the second half of infancy, occurs at night. Some children fall asleep throughout the night, without interruption. And during the day the child sleeps less, and therefore the number of feedings is reduced.

How much should a 4 month old baby sleep: briefly about the crisis

Small children do not have such a thing as “sleeping through the night.” For them, the night ends after 5 hours of sleep without waking up, so by 2-3 months many children have already switched to this mode. After 5 hours and one feeding or rocking, the baby's sleep cycle changes. The child can sleep both in the fast phase with light sleep, and in the deep phase with vivid dreams.

It is during this period that problems begin. If at the beginning of the night (that is, in the evening, when it’s time for the baby to sleep), the child cannot fall asleep without the help of mom or dad, then in the next period of sleep - in the middle of the night - the baby will want his mother to rock him to sleep or sing a song. And then the baby will wake up every 50-90 minutes, and all these times you will need to come and lull it to sleep, otherwise tears and screams will begin... Problems caused by associations of falling asleep with the mother are difficult to eliminate.

Between 4 and 6 am, the child may wake up several times, but not completely - this will simply be the shallowest phase of sleep. This is why some parents notice that half an hour after “waking up” the baby is drawn to sleep again. This is not a problem - the child was just in the lightest phase of sleep, so now he feels the need to “get some sleep.”

What is sleep and how does it happen?

A healthy holiday is the key to a good mood, good spirits and a desire to conquer new horizons. And from a scientific point of view, sleep is a natural physiological state of the body, when all reactions are reduced to a minimum, the body is at rest, and the brain “rests” from the information received.