When Is Witching Hour? Facts

The witching hour is a stretch of late-afternoon to early-evening fussiness that many babies show, most often between about 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. It usually starts around 2 to 3 weeks of age, peaks somewhere between 6 and 8 weeks, and fades on its own by about 3 to 4 months. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with magic or bad parenting. It is a normal, well-documented phase of early infancy.

If you are reading this at 8 p.m. with a crying baby in your arms and one free hand on your phone, you are in good company. Most parents of newborns go through some version of this. The sections below explain what the witching hour actually is, what drives it, and how to get through it.

When Is Witching Hour and What Does It Look Like?

The witching hour is a daily window when a baby who has been calm most of the day becomes hard to soothe. It typically lands in the late afternoon or evening, often starting around 5 p.m. and running until roughly 11 p.m. The timing is not random — the same window tends to repeat day after day.

During this stretch, a baby may:

• Cry intensely and be difficult or impossible to settle
• Pull their legs up, arch, or squirm as if uncomfortable
• Want to feed constantly, then seem unsatisfied
• Calm briefly when held, then start crying again
• Finally exhaust themselves and fall into a deeper sleep

The pattern usually ends the same way each night: the baby wears out, feeds, and sleeps. That predictability is actually one of the reassuring features. It is not a sign that something new is wrong each evening.

One clarification that helps many parents: the witching hour is not a precise sixty minutes. The name is a loose label for a fussy period that can last one to three hours or more. Some babies have a shorter window, some a longer one.

At What Age Does the Witching Hour Start and Stop?

Most babies begin showing evening fussiness at around 2 to 3 weeks old. It tends to build over the following weeks and reaches its most intense point around 6 to 8 weeks. After that, it gradually eases and is usually gone by about 3 to 4 months.

This timeline lines up closely with the well-known infant crying curve described by researcher Ronald Barr and others. Crying in healthy babies tends to rise from birth, peak around the second month, and then decline steadily. The witching hour is essentially the daily evening expression of that broader pattern.

Two things are worth knowing about this timeline. First, it is a general pattern, not a rule that applies to every baby on the same schedule. Some babies peak a little earlier or later. Second, the fading is gradual. Most parents do not wake up one morning to a baby who has simply stopped. The crying gets shorter and less intense over a period of weeks.

What Causes the Witching Hour?

No single cause has been confirmed. Researchers have looked at several possible contributors, and the honest answer is that the evidence points to a mix of factors rather than one explanation.

The most widely accepted idea is that it reflects normal development of a baby’s nervous system. Newborns are taking in enormous amounts of stimulation all day. By evening, their ability to regulate and self-soothe is worn down. Many clinicians describe the witching hour as a kind of sensory overload — the baby’s system is simply more easily overwhelmed late in the day.

Other factors that some researchers have examined include:

• Immature sleep and feeding rhythms in the early months
• Normal gut development, which some parents notice as gassiness or squirming
• Fatigue from a long day of short newborn sleep cycles
• Evening hormone shifts in both baby and parent

It is important to separate what is established from what is speculation. That evening crying peaks in early infancy and then resolves is well documented. The exact biological reason it clusters in the evening is still not fully settled. Be cautious of anyone who tells you they know the single cause with certainty.

Is the Witching Hour the Same as Colic?

The two overlap but are not identical. Colic is usually defined by the “rule of three”: crying for more than three hours a day, more than three days a week, for more than three weeks, in an otherwise healthy baby. The witching hour describes the timing of fussiness — the evening window — rather than how much total crying a baby does.

A baby can have a witching hour without meeting the criteria for colic. Many do. Colic is generally considered a more intense version of the same early crying pattern, and it follows a similar timeline, typically improving by around 3 to 4 months.

One practical point: because the two look alike, parents sometimes assume a baby who cries hard every evening has colic when they actually have a normal witching hour. The distinction matters mainly for how much support and reassurance a family needs, not because one is dangerous and the other is not. Both are considered normal in healthy, growing babies.

How Do You Cope With the Witching Hour?

There is no treatment that stops the witching hour, because it is a developmental phase rather than a condition. The goal is to reduce stimulation and support the baby through it. Different strategies work for different babies, and what helps one night may not help the next.

Approaches many parents and clinicians find useful:

• Lower the stimulation. Dim the lights, turn off screens and loud sound, and keep the evening calm.
• Use motion and contact. Rocking, swaying, a carrier, or skin-to-skin holding can help some babies settle.
• Try white noise or shushing. Steady, rhythmic sound mimics the womb for some infants.
• Feed on demand. Cluster feeding in the evening is common and normal in breastfed babies.
• Take turns. Handing the baby to a partner for twenty minutes can make the evening more bearable for everyone.

Be skeptical of products marketed specifically for the witching hour or colic. Gripe water, gas drops, and various remedies are widely sold, but the evidence that they reliably reduce evening crying is limited. Some clinicians recommend them; the research support is not strong. No product has been shown to end the witching hour, because the witching hour is not a problem that a product can fix.

If you are bottle-feeding, paced feeding and frequent burping are reasonable comfort measures. If you are breastfeeding, there is no need to switch to formula because of evening fussiness — the fussiness is not a sign your milk is inadequate.

When Should Evening Crying Worry You?

Evening fussiness in a healthy, growing baby is normal. But some signs are not part of the typical witching hour and should prompt a call to your baby’s doctor.

Contact a clinician if your baby:

• Has a fever (in an infant under 3 months, any fever is a reason to seek medical care promptly)
• Is not feeding well or is losing weight
• Has fewer wet diapers than expected
• Cries in a way that seems different from the usual evening pattern, or cries around the clock rather than mainly in the evening
• Seems limp, unusually sleepy, or hard to wake
• Has vomiting, blood in the stool, or other signs that concern you

Trust your instincts here. You know your baby’s normal better than anyone. The witching hour has a predictable shape; something that breaks that shape is worth checking.

It is also worth naming the strain on parents. Persistent evening crying is linked to exhaustion, guilt, and sometimes low mood in caregivers. That is a real and common experience, not a sign of failure. If the evenings are wearing you down, tell your baby’s doctor or your own. Support exists, and asking for it is part of caring for your baby.