The 6 Week Sleep Regression
Right around 6 weeks, many parents notice their baby suddenly stops sleeping or has a hard time staying asleep, staying asleep and is more restless than normal. Typically around the 6 week mark, you may notice nap times have turned into more of a struggle, your baby wakes easily and isn’t sleeping as soundly, or nighttime sleep has turned into a complete wreck.
Common signs of any sleep regression:
Many night wakings
Short or skipped naps
Increased fussiness and crying
Extra clingy
Changes in appetite
We are most familiar with the 5 main sleep regressions: 4 months, 8 months, 12 months, 18 months and 24 months!
The 6 week sleep regression is often overlooked because your baby is still a newborn and sleep is most likely all over the place already.
(You may even be wondering about Wonder Weeks….)
According to Dr. Weissbluth, an American Pediatrician, at 6 weeks, babies are coming out of the newborn stage into the “peak of fussiness state.” Meaning they are coming out of the newborn drowsy state and observing the world around them! All of the observing is overwhelming and also causing them to be overstimulated which results in being overtired and cranky! So at 6 weeks it is really a double whammy of sleep regression and growth spurt!
The good news is this sleep regression and growth spurt does not last long!
The growth spurt only lasts a few days and the peak of fussiness will last a week or two before you start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Helpful tips to get through this:
Feed on demand
Follow wake times (~45 minutes)
Using calming tools (The 5 S’s by Dr. Harvey Karp)
Baby wear
Go on a walk
Take a bath
Go into a dark room with loud white noise
But also:
Know a sleep regression and growth spurt are temporary and will not last forever. You may have to adjust your schedule a little, but things will normalize soon. The best thing you can do is be consistent and don’t start changing your routine.
Expose your baby to natural light (especially in the morning and at the end of the day) and let the body’s natural circadian rhythm do it’s job and soothe your baby to sleep. (Read more about day/night confusion here).
Try soothing equipment such as a swing during awake time, getting outside for a walk in the stroller for movement to soothe him to sleep, and a baby carrier with skin-to-skin contact so you can have your hands free.
Additional feeding are temporary; if breastfeeding too often becomes painful, look to other feeding solutions like using a bottle and asking your partner for help.
Help you baby relax before nap times and bedtimes with a warm bath, a gentle baby massage, dimly lit room, swaddle and white noise machine.
Try moving your baby’s bedtime earlier to help accommodate the extra tiredness they’ll experience. Remember, putting baby to bed later than normal or after the point of being overtired does not mean they will settle to sleep easy – in fact, it’s the opposite. The more overtired a baby is, the more they’ll fight sleep and be more restless during the night.
If helping parents navigate the tricky sleep situations is your jam, make sure you check out the Sleep Consultant Academy and start building a side hustle or career doing just that!
