Baby / 3 March, 2026 / Lucy Shrimpton

Sleep Regression: Is It Real? What Is It? And How Do You Manage It?

Sleep regressions. Two words guaranteed to make any parent tense up. Just when you think you’ve cracked bedtime, everything seems to unravel. Naps shorten. Night wakes creep back in. What once felt manageable suddenly feels exhausting.

But what if nothing has gone wrong?

Lucy Shrimpton, The Sleep Nanny, believes it’s time to rethink the idea of regression altogether. Rather than mysterious setbacks, these phases are often signs of growth. Babies and toddlers are constantly developing, and when their brains and bodies change, their sleep does too. What looks like going backwards is often your child moving forwards.

Lucy Shrimpton on sleep regression

Here, Lucy explains why “sleep regressions” might not be regressions at all, and what parents can do instead of bracing for the worst.

When parents ask me about sleep regressions, the first thing I do is shift the frame of the question. Yes, there are times when a child’s sleep seems to get harder. Yes, there are moments when what once felt easy feels suddenly difficult again. But I don’t see these as mysterious regressions that strike without pattern or purpose. What we often call a “sleep regression” is really a developmental progression. It’s a signal that your child is passing through a phase of growth or change and their sleep needs or skills are shifting as a result.

Does regression mean something’s gone wrong?

A regression suggests something has gone wrong. In reality, what is happening is completely human and predictable if we understand a bit about how sleep develops. Babies and toddlers are constantly maturing. Their brains are becoming more alert, their nervous systems more responsive, and their bodies more capable of interaction and movement. When sleep was “working” before, it was because your approach fit with their needs at that moment. When their needs evolve, if your approach stays the same, the old way stops fitting the new reality.

That’s why so many parents start to notice something around ages like four months, nine months, 18 months or two years. Those ages often coincide with leaps in physical or cognitive development. Suddenly your baby is more alert at nap times, more aware of the environment, or more restless because they’re mastering sitting, crawling, or walking. It looks like sleep has gone backwards, but what’s really happened is that your child’s sleep-related skills and requirements have shifted.

A classic example is a little one who previously nodded off almost by accident. If their alertness increases, that asleep-by-chance moment no longer happens. It might feel like their sleep has regressed, but the sleep “skills gap” has simply widened: they need a little more help with settling because they are more engaged with the world at the point of bedtime. The challenge isn’t the baby’s sleep going backwards. It’s that what we were doing is no longer well matched to their level of alertness and sleep-skill ability.

Don’t panic. Take stock of these three things.

So what does this mean in practice? If you feel like you’re in a sleep slump, the most useful first step isn’t to panic or to brace for “the regression” to arrive. It’s to take stock of three things: how much sleep your child actually needs at this stage, what the ideal window is for that sleep to happen, and what skills they have (or don’t have yet) to settle themselves into that sleep. When you tune into those changes, you begin to see patterns rather than problems.

Managing these phases is about adjustment rather than fixing. Your child isn’t doing something wrong, and you’re not either. What’s required is a tweak here, an upgrade there, perhaps a fresh approach to how you help them settle. Sometimes a small change in timing is all that’s needed. Other times it’s helping them practise a skill like self-settling so they feel more confident moving between sleep cycles.

I also want to reassure you that there is no single age or milestone that guarantees a regression. If parents spend time expecting a sleep setback around the four-month mark, nine months or two years, they will almost always find one because they’re primed to see it. That can create a sense of inevitability that adds stress rather than clarity. In my view, these are not events that “happen to” a child, but natural transitions in their development that show up in sleep because sleep is one of the most sensitive behaviours to developmental changes.

When to get support

If you find yourself feeling stuck, overwhelmed or simply unsure what to try next, it’s absolutely okay to ask for expert support. Even with years of experience, I sometimes find value in an outside perspective. We all benefit from a fresh set of eyes when we’re too close to something, and sleep is one of those areas where it can be especially hard to see the forest for the trees. A bit of reassurance, a clear steer on what to adjust, and some accountability can get you back on track more quickly than spinning through endless advice online.

Above all, please be gentle with yourself. You’re doing your best in a landscape that is, by its nature, always shifting. There is no final endpoint where sleep suddenly becomes fixed. Children grow, their capacities expand, and your responses evolve right alongside them. That’s not a regression. That’s progression in real time.

Article by Lucy Shrimpton, The Sleep Nanny. Lucy will be sharing her expert advice live at The Baby Show, returning to NEC Birmingham from 8–10 May 2026. Lucy will be offering practical, reassuring guidance for parents navigating everything from newborn sleep to toddler transitions.

If you’d like to hear Lucy speak in person and get your questions answered, visit www.thebabyshow.co.uk/nec to book tickets and find out more.

Follow Lucy Shrimpton on Instagram.

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