Sleep: 3-4 Months

With brain maturation and the continued refinement of their circadian rhythm, more of the infant’s sleep will need to occur during the night. 3 to 4 month-olds will need to start their nighttime sleep much earlier in the evening in order to get enough sleep. This is a big change, with the infant’s bedtime changing dramatically from 10-11 pm to as early as 6 pm. Parents can sometimes confuse this need for an early bedtime with the need for a nap. Taking a short nap in the evening instead of having a consolidated stretch of nighttime sleep can cause the baby to become overtired and fussy, with more night-wakings.

Daytime naps become more predictable, usually 3-4 naps during the day by 3-4 months of age. The first morning nap usually emerges around 2-3 months of age. Within 1-2 hours of waking up in the morning, most infants will predictably show signs of sleepiness. Because this first morning nap is right after night sleep, the brain is more rested, enabling the baby to fall asleep more easily. As the day goes on and the baby becomes more fatigued, each successive nap can be harder to transition into, especially if the baby is also becoming overtired.

With the infant’s sleep becoming more predictable and habituated, parents can try to fade away their support in helping the baby fall asleep. Trying to put the baby down to sleep in a “sleepy but awake” state gives the baby a chance to learn to self-soothe into the transition to sleep. This fading away can be very easy for some babies as they learn to fall asleep from a drowsy state with minimal intervention from the parents. Other babies will take longer to learn this skill. Reading cues and preventing the overtired state helps babies make a positive association with falling asleep right when they are tired.