How to deal with toddler sleep regressions
At 18 months old, my third son started skipping naps. I put him in his room at the same time every afternoon, but instead of sleeping, he occupied himself by pulling every book off his bookshelf, scattering stuffed animals around the room and yelling for me to LET HIM OUT.
But that was nothing compared to the full-fledged nighttime revolt: everything from hysterical crying at bedtime to prolonged periods of wakefulness in the middle of the night. A week later, confused and exhausted after my son had spent the hours between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. crying in his bed and refusing to go back to sleep, I texted a friend who is a pediatric nurse, desperate for answers.
“What is happening"!” I asked.
Her answer" The 18-month sleep regression. But my son was a toddler, not a baby, and had been snoozing happily for months on end. Did all 18-month-olds really go through this"
Maybe not all?but more than a few of them definitely do. ?These sleep changes are entirely normal and an expected part of development, so it?s more of a sleep maturation or evolution than a regression,? says Phil Boucher, a pediatrician in Lincoln, Nebraska.
If you?re currently in the throes of a sleep regression, there?s good news: you don?t have to simply wait for the phase to pass. We asked experts to explain why these naptime/bedtime dramas happen and what you can do to help your child sleep restfully again.
The 18-month sleep regression
Your toddler goes through many major development m...
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