8–10 month sleep regression
Around eight or nine months, a settled sleeper starts waking at 2am standing in the cot, refusing naps, and losing it at bedtime. Here is what is actually happening — and what helps.
The second big sleep regression lands somewhere between eight and ten months. It rarely feels like the first one. By now you thought you had a sleeper. The 3am stand-up in the cot is a shock.
What is actually happening
Three developmental waves arrive within a few weeks of each other, and each one is capable on its own of disrupting sleep.
Object permanence arrives — your baby now understands that when you leave the room you still exist. Which means they know you are missing, and they have feelings about it. This is the beginning of separation anxiety as a conscious experience rather than a reflex.
Gross motor takes off — crawling, cruising, pulling to stand. A baby who can stand up in the cot will, and they will do it at 2am, and they will not always know how to get back down. The cot is suddenly a new kind of room.
Babbling begins to sound like language. The brain is working hard on sound-to-meaning mapping. Heavy cognitive days often produce restless nights — sleep is where consolidation happens.
What the pattern usually looks like
- A long standing-up wake somewhere between 11pm and 3am, with crying and sometimes cruising the rails of the cot.
- Bedtime resistance where there was none — crying the moment you leave the room.
- The nap schedule wobbles: the morning nap shortens or refuses, or the afternoon nap becomes the problem.
- Clinginess during the day — separation protests at daycare drop-off, or when you leave the room at home.
- Appetite may dip. Teeth may or may not be arriving. Drool and chewing are often not teeth at this age.
How long it lasts
Typically two to six weeks. Long enough to feel permanent, short enough that most families come out the other side without intervention. If it has been grinding on beyond six weeks with no sign of easing, that is a signal to look at the environment, daytime sleep, or to have a conversation with your maternal and child health nurse.
What tends to help
- Practise the new motor skills in daylight. A baby who has sat up and lain back down thirty times in the living room is less likely to need you to do it at 2am.
- Keep the nap schedule. Tired babies sleep worse at night, not better. Most 8–10 month olds still need two naps — usually around 9am and 1pm — with 2.5–3.5 hours of awake time between them.
- Keep the bedtime routine unchanged. Change is noise at this stage. Predictability is signal.
- When they stand and cry, go in briefly. Lie them back down without a conversation or a pick-up. Leave. Repeat. It takes several nights before the new instruction lands. It does land.
- Offer a small security object — a breathable comforter they can keep, from around 7 months onwards, under Red Nose safe-sleep guidance. Not a blanket over the face. A small cloth they can hold.
What does not help
Introducing new sleep props. A sudden switch to dummies, white-noise machines, or a new bedtime parent tends to produce new wakes rather than fixing old ones. If you want to add something, add it in daylight first and wait a week before relying on it at night.
Dropping to one nap. Most 8–10 month olds are not ready for the transition to one nap, and the transition tends to worsen night sleep for several weeks. The two-to-one nap transition usually lands around 14–18 months.
When to talk to your GP or MCH nurse
- Poor weight gain, or feeding consistently backwards for more than a week.
- Breathing that sounds laboured, snoring, or pauses in breathing at night.
- Persistent crying or distress that does not respond to usual comfort.
- You are not okay. Eight-month sleep disruption plus parental exhaustion is a clinical situation, not a parenting failure.
This regression is hard, and it is the first one where your baby feels like a little person with feelings about you. Most families pass through it in about four weeks with a steady routine, a practised set of boundaries, and the same bedtime song for the ninety-first time. Hold the routine. Hold your nerve. It passes.
Questions we hear a lot.
Is the 8-month regression real or is my baby just teething?
Usually both at once. The developmental leap is real and well-documented; teeth may also be emerging. The regression pattern tends to persist past the individual tooth, which is how you can tell them apart.
Should I drop the morning nap?
Almost certainly not. Eight to ten months is early for the two-to-one transition. Most babies need both naps until at least fourteen months.
My baby stands up in the cot and cries. Do I pick them up?
Go in, lie them down gently without words, and leave. Pick-ups during the regression often extend the wake. The exception is genuine distress or illness — a brief cuddle and return is always reasonable then.
Is this separation anxiety?
Separation anxiety is one of three things happening at once. It rarely explains the whole picture, but it is a real and healthy developmental step.
If this was useful.
Written by Seen Editorial · Editorial board
Reviewed by Dr. James Walker · Consultant paediatrician, RCH Melbourne
Last reviewed 2026-04-19. Reviewed annually or sooner if Australian guidance changes.
More from this cluster.
4-month sleep regression: what's actually happening
The one every parent hits. What changes, why, and how long it lasts.
Newborn sleep 0–3 months: what to expect
Hour by hour — what newborn sleep actually looks like, cleared of myth.
Safe sleep: the current Australian guidelines
Red Nose Australia's guidelines, plain-English, kept current.
Self-settling: what it is and when it works
The research on self-settling, the temperaments it helps, and the ones it doesn't.
Night feeds: when do most babies drop them?
The weight, the developmental stage, and why your baby might be different.
Day/night confusion in newborns
Why your newborn sleeps all day and parties all night — and what shifts it.
Take the walk-through. Three minutes, a clear summary, your next step.
Not a diagnosis — a plain-English picture of what you're noticing and where to take it.