Why does a child often cry in his sleep? Crying caused by physical factors, external and internal. Increased activity and overstimulation during the day

baby crying- the ability to convey information to parents about the lack of any need or the occurrence of discomfort.
A baby cries in his sleep for a number of different reasons. Every family goes through the test of crying. Let's look at the reasons for children's tears at night and how the whole family can live with them.

Newborn babies

Newborns need constant outside care. Tears are an alarm signal and should not be ignored.

An infant cries in his sleep.

. Internal organs The baby gets used to mother's milk or an adapted milk formula. This process is often accompanied by colic in the intestinal area.
Pain. Symptoms such as: runny nose, (otitis media - inflammation in the ear canal), cough. It is in a dream, when the body is in horizontal position, the exacerbation of diseases begins.
Mom isn't around. Children very quickly get used to their mother’s presence: body warmth, calm heartbeat and breathing, a quiet voice.
Teeth. Discomfort during teething accompanies every baby, starting from 5-6 months.
Hunger. A growing body needs regular feeding. The choice of each family remains with it, whether feeding will be on demand or by the hour.
Thirst. The body loses fluid and needs to be replenished.
The atmosphere in the room. Dry air in an unventilated room with high temperature create discomfort during sleep.

In children's tears there is positive sides. It is through sobbing that the lungs develop. There is nothing more effective than this method. 15 minutes of crying a day is preventive. The tears that we see on our cheeks still flow down our nasolacrimal duct. They contain lysozyme (an antibacterial enzyme), which contributes to a kind of antibacterial therapy.

Examples:

The baby pulls his legs towards his stomach, clenches his fists tightly, and shows activity. The crying is even and incessant. Taking the breast into his mouth, he falls asleep, but immediately wakes up with another cry. These are signs of colic in the intestines;
The baby was sweating, his clothes were wet, and the hair on the back of his head was matted. When you take him in your arms, the crying intensifies. These are signs of overheating. The temperature in the room where the child sleeps exceeds 18-20 degrees. In newborns, heat exchange is not yet developed, and it can regulate body temperature through breathing. It is easier to do this by inhaling cool air;
At first the baby cries quietly, then louder. Taking him in his arms, he shakes his head in search of a breast or a bottle. If he is not understood, the tears turn into a hysterical scream. It is also called hungry crying;
The baby begins to scream loudly and heart-rendingly and rub his hands on his face, eyes and ears. When pressing on the gums, the scream becomes stronger. It's teething infant cries in her sleep because the pain always intensifies at night;
Intermittent sobbing (whines for 7 seconds, silence for 20, screams for 10 seconds, remains silent for another 20). This cry is a call. If you take a baby in your arms, he immediately calms down and becomes quiet;
. For such first-years, a cry can mean her loss. As soon as the pacifier is put in the mouth, the baby begins to suck on it and calms down.

Children over one year old

Children over one year of age are also susceptible to nighttime tears. They grow and there are more reasons to cry.

Reasons for crying at night in children over one year old

Binge eating. A child who overeats at night is subjected to heavy sleep with awakenings.
Failure to adhere to a routine during the day creates difficulties for child's body when falling asleep and throughout sleep.
Gadgets. and passion for computer games leads to the creation of frightening images during sleep.
Increased emotionality. Tears can be caused by an unhealthy atmosphere in the family, negative experiences during the day.
Nyctophobia (fear of the dark). There are children who various reasons afraid of the dark.
Overexcitement. Active games in the evening and fun lead to the same night.

Examples:

The child was offered to eat his favorite sandwich for dinner. He will be pleased, but fatty food may cause night screams;
Today the little one fell asleep at 21.00 (no nap), tomorrow at 23.00 (watching his favorite movie), the day after tomorrow at 01.00 (could not sleep). In this mode it is difficult to fall asleep, and even more difficult to sleep through the night;
The kid asked to play a little on the computer or watch a cartoon in the evening before going to bed. By allowing a little fun, you expose the child to memorizing unnecessary information that will haunt him in his sleep, causing terrible dreams;
Children over a year old become active even at night, and crying can mean inconvenience: an arm or leg gets stuck, gets tangled in a sheet, opens up, or covers itself with a blanket and pillow;
During the day, the little one witnessed a quarrel between his parents, lost his favorite toy, and did not learn a poem. These experiences can cause sleep disturbance;
Cheerful music or fun in the evening can overstimulate a child. It will be difficult to calm him down to sleep and throughout the night.

Anxieties and fears

Anxiety is a stable state of anxiety, characterized by frequent repetitions in different situations.
Fear is an emotional reaction to an external stimulus.

Children prone to fears and anxiety behave restlessly both during the day and at night. Such children don't sleep well, cry and scream a lot in their sleep. It is difficult to wake them up during an attack. They have increased heart rate, increased heart rate and breathing, increased sweating, increased blood pressure.

Types of fears:

Visual. The baby sees non-existent objects or images;
Impermanent images. The child dreams of simple pictures. Such fears arise in cases of serious illness;
Same. Such a dream always follows one scenario. Accompanied by movements, incoherent speech, urination;
Emotional. At the moment of emotional shock, the child experiences everything again in a dream. Accompanied by crying and screaming.

For children who show anxiety, a quiet, favorable environment should be created in the home. Parents should pay more attention, especially before bedtime. Read, talk, put you to bed, hold your hand. The main thing is that he feels your protection.

What to do if a child cries in his sleep

you need to pick him up and talk to him calmly. Crying? We try to feed, check the diaper, give a pacifier. We check the temperature, uncomfortable clothes, bed. Does the crying continue? The last option remains - pain. The cause may be bloating, ear inflammation, etc. Your pediatrician will help you with diagnosis and treatment.

Why does a baby cry in his sleep: disease or normal?

Visitor rating: (2 Votes)

When a newborn cries, it expresses the full range of emotions and demands. After receiving what he wants (food, warming, being held), the baby calms down and falls asleep. With the help of screaming, the baby copes with psychological shocks and stress. The strength and nature of the crying can also determine the condition of the newborn: a healthy, strong baby will scream with force; the patient, on the contrary, slightly squeaks and whimpers, showing little emotion. If a baby cries in his sleep, he may be disturbed by physiological and psychological factors.

The importance of proper rest

The whims of children directly depend on their well-being. Insufficient sleep makes the baby lethargic and whiny. The baby's appetite worsens, and higher nervous activity functions worse. After birth, babies sleep a lot. After falling asleep, the information received is processed, intensive growth occurs, and the immune system is strengthened.

To avoid sleep disturbances, the child’s daily routine should be monotonous: wake up, walk, swim, and fall asleep at the same time.

Reasons for crying related to physiology

There are several reasons why a child cries before falling asleep. A common problem is that the child does not eat enough. All children are very different and each requires an individual amount of food. Children up to six months can be given additional complementary foods if mother's milk is no longer sufficient. After 6 months, in addition to formula, fruits, vegetables and meat purees, broths, porridges. Additional food solves the problem of child malnutrition. A hungry baby shakes his head from side to side. While in your arms, the baby turns its head towards the chest. The nipple or nipple of a bottle is grabbed greedily by hungry babies.

Scream in night period often associated with a full diaper. A newborn feels uncomfortable in a wet diaper.

Piteous crying at night indicates pain. Pain syndrome may be caused by illness, teething, or abdominal cramps.

Crying in a dream can be associated with stuffiness or cold in the room, noise, bright light. Children do not sleep well in damp or dusty rooms with musty air. Another reason why a newborn cries at night is awkward position. The baby still does not know how to roll over on his own and experiences discomfort. Tight diapers, nappies, and undershirts can cause inconvenience. The baby may also cry from itching, since he cannot scratch himself.

A baby may also cry due to a lack of vitamin D. In the initial stages of rickets, the baby becomes nervous and easily excitable, and worsens night sleep.

Should you put your baby to bed in complete silence?

For a comfortable stay, there should be no strangers in the baby’s room. annoying sounds: loud music, noise from the street, sound of TV, screams. A baby's sleep is very sensitive, sometimes parents and family have to walk almost on tiptoe so as not to wake up the newborn.

However, sleeping in complete silence is not necessary. Monotonous low sounds will not only not interfere, but will also lull the baby to sleep faster. Newborns love the sounds of running washing machine, hairdryer, quiet voices of household members. Some babies fall asleep well with the vacuum cleaner running.

For a relaxing stay, bright overhead lights should be turned off at night. The baby should sleep in complete darkness or in the soft light of a night lamp. But flashing LED lights stimulate the nervous system; they do not need to be turned on before bed.

Emotional reasons for poor sleep

Not only physiological reasons prevent children from falling asleep. Psychological fatigue is also important. Even in adults, overtiredness manifests itself in problems falling asleep. The same can be said about the unstable child’s psyche. Fatigue is one of the common reasons for crying. If it takes a long time to fall asleep, the baby may cry in the middle of the night. It is a mistake to think that a tired baby will immediately fall asleep in the crib. Parents are perplexed if the newborn does not go to sleep as soon as his head touches the pillow. In fact, an overtired baby is simply not able to fall asleep on his own. He needs affection, stroking, that is, the calming actions of his parents. For better sleep The baby must be rocked in your arms.

To make it easier for a newborn to fall asleep at the same time, he must receive a sufficient amount of oxygen. Take a walk on fresh air In the evening you can go on the balcony. A 15-minute exercise will be enough. Before going to bed, it is also recommended to take a relaxing bath with chamomile or chamomile. A calm lullaby will also help calm your baby's nervous system.

The time for active games, activities and exercises is the first half of the day. Before lunch, you should also do a tonic massage. Before going to bed, you need to take time for relaxing massage movements.

Increased nervous excitability

With increased nervous excitability, which is now observed in many children, it is vital for the baby to cry out before going to bed. This way, negative emotions are released and stress is relieved. Parents can be advised to stroke and hug the baby so that he calms down faster. Excitable children have light, shallow sleep, interrupted by crying. This usually goes away on its own with age. At alarming symptoms Treatment is prescribed under the supervision of a neurologist.

A baby can also cry out of fear of losing its mother. The baby may not be comfortable sleeping alone without feeling the warmth and smell of his mother. Co-sleeping gives more comfort to the baby along with a sense of security. However, sleeping with a newborn is not safe for the baby. The optimal solution for all household members is for the baby to sleep in his own crib in the parents’ bedroom. But sleeping in a separate room can frighten the baby.

In the first weeks, crying may also be associated with the child’s adaptation to falling asleep. The newborn learns to sleep more at night and stay awake for several hours during the day. Children sleep poorly in those families in which an unfavorable psychological atmosphere reigns: parents often swear, shout, and make noise. If a baby is rarely held, he experiences a kind of touch starvation. Parents should not be afraid that the baby will become tame. By the age of one year, the child gets off his own hands and begins to fall asleep without being rocked to sleep.

Sometimes parents are surprised to note that their newborn baby can cry even in his sleep. Without waking up, babies whine and scream, shudder, wake up and fall asleep again. Fearing the worst, parents begin to look for an answer to the question of such behavior in medical reference books and ask for the opinion of children's doctors. However, there is no reason to worry. We will talk about why a child cries in his sleep in this article.

Causes of night crying

Spontaneous crying of babies during sleep is called physiological night crying. It rarely indicates illness. Typically, this behavior of a child is associated with an abundance of new impressions received during the day. Newborns and infants do not know how to express their emotions in any other way; they cannot tell, complain, or ask for help. The only means of communication available to them is loud crying.

Nervous system and motor functions The baby is not yet sufficiently developed. Any change in impulses passing through complex system nerve plexuses, can cause crying. Night screaming in a dream most often has precisely these reasons - the peculiarities of the baby’s nervous organization. There is nothing dangerous, scary or alarming about this.

As the baby grows, his nervous system will become stronger and his perception will develop. He will learn to express his emotions - with a smile, facial expressions, gestures, and then words. The attacks of sudden night crying will stop. Another one probable cause physiological crying in sleep - transfer from fast phase sleep to slow. Even in adults, such a transition can be accompanied by the appearance of vivid dreams and involuntary awakening, let alone infants!

Yes, they also have dreams, and, according to children’s doctors, babies dream dreams while still in the mother’s womb. A baby’s sleep can become anxious and restless after the day’s experiences.

If there were a lot of guests in the house, if the child was given a lot of attention, if he was tired before bed, then with a high degree of probability his sleep will be very restless.

Psychologists point to another possible reason night roar in a dream - to the child’s psychological need for protection. Over the nine months spent in the mother’s womb, the baby got used to feeling protected and surrounded by his mother. After being born this feeling reliable protection things have shaken somewhat, because mom is no longer always around, and sometimes you have to call her loudly.

Short-term night crying and sobbing can be a kind of “check” of the parents to see if they are there or nearby. If the mother runs to hear the squeak, the baby can calmly continue to fall asleep. That is why it is most convenient to place the crib in the adult bedroom in the first months. Sometimes it is enough to stroke the baby’s back while he sleeps, and he calms down and calmly falls asleep again.

Normal physiological night crying is not long, heart-rending, loud, or persistent. It is more spontaneous in nature and does not repeat itself at the same time. In use sedatives and he does not need examination. If a child wakes up and begins to demand or cry sharply in his sleep, then it is worth considering other reasons for this behavior.

When does a child need help?

A baby can whine and scream in his sleep not only because age characteristics nervous system, but also for a number of others external and internal reasons who definitely need parental intervention.

Hunger

Newborns and infants up to about 6 months experience physiological need in night feeding, or even more than one. Therefore, waking up and persistently demanding food is quite normal until a certain age. This kind of crying is persistent.

A child who wakes up hungry will not calm down and will not fall asleep again until he gets what he needs. The solution is simple - feed him and put him to bed again.

Discomfort

An uncomfortable bed, tight swaddling, irritating clothes - all these are reasons for waking up at night and demanding changes in circumstances. In this case, the awakening will be unsharp, gradual. First, the baby will begin to whine in his sleep, push, and “fidget.” Gradually the crying will become more persistent.

The baby will not calm down on its own. It is necessary to check whether the seams of his clothes are rubbing, whether his hands are numb in the diaper that was wrapped tightly, whether there are protrusions, holes, or uncomfortable folds on the mattress.

The issue of swaddling is a matter of family choice. But clothes must be seamless and made from natural fabrics that do not irritate the skin. Ideally, a child should sleep on a hard mattress without a pillow.

Unsuitable temperature and humidity

A gradual and smooth awakening with a transition from a sleepy whimper to a loud cry may indicate that the child is hot or cold. It’s easy to check - if the back of the baby’s head is sweaty, it means the parents have overdid it in heating the room; if the hands and nose are cold, it means the little one is cold.

In order for the baby to sleep comfortably, a certain temperature should be maintained - no higher than 20-21 degrees Celsius and a certain air humidity - 50-70%. 20 degrees on a room thermometer may seem too cool for adults. Children have different thermoregulation; they feel very comfortable at this temperature.

And too dry air leads to drying out of the mucous membranes of the respiratory organs, as a result of which it not only becomes more difficult for the baby to breathe, but also increases the risk of respiratory diseases.

Wet diaper

The key to a good night's sleep is a good, high-quality diaper that will “withstand” at least 8 hours. However, the excretory abilities of babies are different, and the baby can go to the toilet when absolutely necessary.

Waking up and crying with a wet or dirty diaper usually happens no more than once a night. Make sure that the diaper is not only dry, but also comfortable, does not pinch the sides and folds of the skin, does not hang loose and does not rub the baby’s skin.

Pain

Crying when feeling pain is difficult to confuse with anything else. Pain in children is associated with screaming at the reflex level. At acute pain The baby begins to scream heart-rendingly and sharply, immediately wakes up, and is difficult to calm him down. This happens, for example, with otitis media, with intestinal colic.

If the pain is aching or stupid character, the child generally sleeps poorly, wakes up almost every hour, cries plaintively, protractedly, sometimes monotonously, sometimes without waking up completely. This happens when the first teeth erupt, with increased intracranial pressure which causes headaches.

How to improve your child's sleep?

Physiological night crying usually disappears on its own when the infant reaches 4 months of age. The nervous system of five-month-old babies is already more stable, although severe fatigue can cause sleep disturbances in them too.

To improve the sleep of a baby from 1 month and older, you should remember that The daily routine for a baby is very important. During the day, the baby should spend enough time in the fresh air. All new impressions, games and acquaintances should be shifted to the first half of the day. In the evening, the child should not communicate with big amount strangers. Dimmed light, quiet voices, and a restorative massage before swimming will be beneficial.

If the baby does not sleep well, parents can try bathing in cool water according to the method of Dr. Evgeniy Komarovsky.

Don't overfeed your baby because this is also a common reason restless sleep at night. In the penultimate evening feeding, it is better so that the child does not eat his fill, but in the last, which completes all evening procedures, you need to feed the child enough, but not excessively. In a ventilated room with humidified air, a clean and fed child will sleep much more soundly.

Another reason why a baby may have trouble sleeping at night is excess nap. A newborn normally sleeps up to 20 hours a day. You need to create a regime in such a way that you need at least 12-13 hours of sleep at night. The rest of the time can be divided fractionally into daytime rest. If you cannot establish a routine, you should not let your child sleep during the day. Usually 2-3 days of such decisive and tough behavior from adults is enough for the regime to fall into place and the baby to start sleeping at night.

Other causes of night crying are also quite easily eliminated - a hungry baby needs to be fed, a damp baby needs to be changed. The most difficult thing to help a baby with is a painful cry at night, since it is difficult to understand what exactly is hurting him. A small cheat sheet will help parents with this:

The child screams and constantly pushes, draws in his legs, has a swollen and hard belly -it's about colic. You can put a warm diaper ironed on your tummy and make light massage around the navel clockwise, give dill water or any drug based on simethicone - “Espumizan” or “Bobotik”. Typically, colic is a physiological “trouble” that goes away on its own when the child is 3-4 months old.

A child sobs in his sleep, and then wakes up and screams sharply, “gets upset” - the reason may lie in inflammation of the middle ear. Otitis media occurs quite often in infants. This is easy to check - by pressing on the tragus (the protruding cartilage at the very entrance to the auricle) the pain intensifies, and the child begins to cry even more. If there is no pus, blood or other fluid coming out of the ear, you can drip Otipax or Otinum, wait until morning and call a doctor.

If there is discharge, nothing should be dripped; you should not wait until the morning and call an ambulance.

The child whines in his sleep, worries, but does not wake up, and if he wakes up, he does not stop crying. Perhaps the reason for this behavior lies in teething. You should check the baby’s gums with a clean finger; if there are bumps that are painful to the touch, then you should use one of the dental gels approved by age - “Kalgel”, “Metrogil Denta”. They will alleviate the child’s condition somewhat, and he will be able to fall asleep.

Sluggish crying in a dream, similar to whining, which continues for a long time and is repeated several times a night, should alert parents. If at the same time the child’s “fontanel” looks swollen and tense, it is quite possible that we're talking aboutabout increased intracranial pressure. You definitely need to show your child to a doctor.

The child falls asleep well, but often starts in his sleep, cries in episodes 5-7 times a night, and wakes himself up. The reason for this behavior may lie in psychological discomfort. This is usually observed in families where there is a lot of rowing, quarreling, shouting, and conflict. Kids feel everything, they just can’t say anything yet, besides, they get mother's milk cortisone is a stress hormone if the mother is very nervous and worried. Cortisone excites nervous activity. Certain nervous manifestations Parents will be able to notice the baby’s symptoms not only at night, but also after sleep. These are flinching, fearfulness, restlessness and moodiness. There is only one way out - stop making mom nervous.

And some more useful tips:

Night crying attacks always have a reason. But if a newborn usually cries only due to physiological needs - hunger, thirst, cold, then a two-month-old baby is already emotionally developed enough to cry in the middle of the night about bad dream, a frightening feeling of loneliness, defenselessness. Parents should approach each specific case taking into account the individuality and age of the child.
The true motives for whining and screaming in dark time days will not immediately become clear to parents. During the first weeks, the baby gets used to the new environment, to the world around him, and his parents get used to the baby and get to know him. Gradually, by the nature of the crying, by the duration, intonation of the cry and other signals understandable only to mom and dad, they unmistakably guess what exactly the baby needs at one time or another. You just need to be patient.

Physiological night crying is a short-lived phenomenon. If it drags on for six months, it is worth showing the child to a pediatrician and neurologist. It is possible that there are other reasons that prevent your baby from sleeping well at night, and they may require medication.
Quite often, prolonged night crying and whims in babies are a consequence pedagogical mistakes of parents. If at first they taught the child to fall asleep in their arms, they rocked them, and then they began to try to make the baby fall asleep on his own. It is worth preparing for the fact that the baby will protest quite violently and behave badly and restlessly at night. But if parents show calm persistence, they will be able to overcome such difficulties.

Parents of children, especially those under one year old, often have to deal with the fact that their beloved child sobs in his sleep. Sometimes the sobs soon subside, and the baby does not even wake up and continues to sleep peacefully. But it also happens that at first the child simply whines, and then everything turns into strong crying, which only the mother can calm if she takes the baby in her arms. Pediatricians recommend not to worry about this: after all, even adults tend to show emotions in their sleep, what can we say about kids?

Children's sleep is crucial for the full and harmonious development of the baby. Newborns sleep much more time than older children, because adaptation to new living conditions requires large quantity strength and emotional resources. But regardless of age, from time to time mothers and fathers notice that the child sobs in his sleep. This is alarming and frightening at the same time, especially for parents of first-born children. However, you should not immediately panic and come up with tiny non-existent diagnoses. In most cases, the cause of sobbing is quite understandable.

So, why can a child under one year old sob in his sleep:

because his day was full of impressions, and during sleep, information is processed and accumulated emotions are released;
because he is hungry or thirsty;
because he needs physical contact with his mother (significant adult);
because the baby will soon be teething (in some cases, restlessness at night may begin a month or two before the appearance of the first tooth);
because he has colic;
because the weather has changed dramatically (most children are very weather dependent, which can manifest itself in night sobbing and moodiness);
because he does not know how to fall asleep on his own in the intervals between sleep phases;
because it is experiencing a crisis stage in development associated with the development of a new achievement - speech, the ability to sit, stand, crawl or walk independently.

Up to a year, parents are required to undergo a medical examination with their baby from a pediatrician and other specialists several times. If the results of analyzes and hardware studies correspond age standards, and experts confirm this - there is really no reason to worry. Periodically, night sobs (physiological night crying) occur in all healthy children.

As the child gets older, he begins to sleep until the morning and gradually learns to fall asleep on his own after waking up in the middle of the night.

The reasons why children a year old and older sob at night are most often associated with:

with physical discomfort (teeth, painful sensations various localizations, disease);
with overexcitation of the nervous system (emotionally significant events during the day, excessive watching of cartoons, computer games);
with an unstable emotional situation in the family and strong feelings arising from this.

Scientists are still at a loss as to whether newborn babies dream, but older children can dream. Therefore, sobbing in a dream can also reflect some unfavorable story from the day.

In order for your beloved child to sleep as soundly and calmly as possible, first of all you should adhere to a certain regime.

It has been proven that children do not like chaotic actions and lack of routine. They are much more comfortable when a certain sequence of familiar events is repeated day after day.

Listening to your child's needs is also very important. And following the recommendations below will only strengthen positive effect.

So, to prevent your baby’s restless sleep it will be useful:

It is important to remember that children react very sensitively to emotional background and the mood of the parents. Therefore, if your baby starts sobbing at night, there is no need to worry.

Small children and crying are such identical concepts that no one has any doubt: a newborn baby will definitely cry. This is understandable, because through tears and screams the baby can communicate his wishes and inconveniences in the only way available to him.

If a baby cries during the day, then it is relatively easy to determine the reason, because in addition to this, he gives some other signs. What if it’s dark outside the window, you lay down and tune in to deep sleep, but suddenly your baby’s crying wakes you up. Why does a child cry in his sleep and not wake up? We will solve this riddle in this article.

Experienced parents know that infants sleep differently than adults and older children. The whole point is in the child’s daily biorhythms. His internal clock, responsible for the “sleep-wake” cycle, have not yet been perfected, and the process of their establishment is accompanied by various failures, thereby the baby’s body seems to select its own individual time through experiments.

Children under the age of one year unconsciously change the duration and frequency of their sleep several times. For example, a baby aged 0 to 1 month sleeps from 20-22 hours a day. A growing baby begins to sleep less and less, until by about a year he has only one 2-hour sleep during the day and 8-9 hours at night.

As for crying in sleep, until the sleep pattern is established, the night whimpering will be his frequent companion. In most cases, it is short-lived and does not greatly affect the peace of mind of the child and his household. But if the crying is quite strong, frequent, constant and incomprehensible, and the newborn baby cries without waking up, then it’s time to think about hidden reasons such a phenomenon. It is possible that the problem will be easily fixable.

Hidden Reasons

If you have an urgent question about why an infant cries in his sleep, then you need to do something and the sooner the better. What can cause attacks of night crying that a newborn baby torments himself and his parents?

Physiological reasons: discomfort due to a wet or dirty diaper, sweaty back due to the hot air in the room, a reflexive desire to eat, a numb hand, dry mucous in the nose, interfering with breathing, etc.
Fatigue. Many parents deliberately exhaust their child with active entertainment and walks before bedtime, hoping that he will fall asleep, as they say, without sleep. hind legs. The effect of such enterprise is exactly the opposite of expectations - instead of sleeping, the baby rebels, but he himself is not to blame for this, because this happens at the level of consciousness. The reason is the content of cortisol, a stress hormone that accumulates under heavy loads in order to maintain the body in working condition.
Too much information. If a newborn baby has experienced many previously unknown impressions during the day, his brain will try to process and organize information received from outside throughout the night. While a child’s tired body is trying to sleep, his overexcited brain is actively working, and this is a serious obstacle to proper rest.
Instinctive craving for mother. The baby's desire to be near his mother is always strong - both day and night. Let's say you put your baby to sleep in your arms and put him in a crib. It seems to you that he is fast asleep and will not feel your departure. But this is a big misconception, because even sleeping children feel everything. As soon as he begins to miss his mother’s warmth, he will immediately try to whimper through sleep.
Dreams. This may surprise some, but a newborn baby is also capable of dreaming. They are formed on the basis of his knowledge of the world around him. Since the child’s nervous system, as well as the brain, are not yet mature enough, his dreams are disordered and thus can frighten the baby. That's why he can cry without waking up.
Negative experiences during the day. Quarrels between parents, accompanied by swearing; mother's irritation, even hidden; long trips; loud sounds heard on the street - all this provokes stress, which makes the child cry in his sleep.
Disease. The onset of malaise is quite common reason, explaining crying. Perhaps the baby’s temperature begins to rise or he is worried about colic or teething, and he involuntarily communicates this by crying. If these reasons are excluded, problems remain with nervous system baby, which only a neurologist can diagnose.

There are many reasons and not all of them require intervention.

Sometimes it is enough to wait 1-2 minutes until the baby cries and he will calm down.

Ways to prevent crying in your sleep

In some cases, recurrence of nighttime crying attacks can be avoided by doing the following before going to bed:

Remember the three basic needs of a baby: affection, food and cleanliness. If your newborn cries at night, try checking before bed to make sure these needs are being met.
Establish rituals before bed, for example, bathing - feeding - reading (song) - sleep. This will help you get in the right mood for your upcoming vacation.
Forget about active games before laying - they only cause proven harm.
Provide your baby with fresh, humidified, cool air in his room. Equally important is clean, comfortable underwear.
Try to avoid a tense situation in the family - it is your baby who suffers first of all.
Decide on a daily routine as soon as possible, because its absence can cause crying in your sleep.
Do not overfeed your baby before bedtime. Even adults have nightmares from overeating, especially children.
Consider your attitude towards co-sleeping, because it has been proven that children sleep better next to their mother.
Don't turn off the light near your baby's crib - leave a dim nightlight.

It is not so easy to find out why a child cried in his sleep, but it is worth doing. By finding out what exactly causes your baby to cry and taking appropriate actions before bed, you yourself will be able to sleep peacefully.

How to get rid of stretch marks after childbirth?