Sometimes parents are surprised to note that their newborn baby or baby can cry even in a dream. Without waking up, babies whimper and scream, shudder, wake up and fall asleep again. Fearing the worst, parents begin to look for an answer to the question about such behavior in medical reference books and ask the opinion of children's doctors. However, there is no cause for concern. We will tell you about why a child cries in a dream in this article.
Reasons for crying at night
Spontaneous crying of babies in a dream is called physiological night cry. He rarely testifies to the disease. Usually, this behavior of a child is associated with an abundance of new impressions received during the day. Newborns and babies do not know how to express their emotions in any other way, they cannot tell, complain, ask for help. The only means of communication available to them is loud crying.
The baby's nervous system and motor functions are not yet sufficiently developed. Any change in impulses passing through a complex system of nerve plexuses can cause crying. In a night scream in a dream, it is most often just such reasons - the features of the nervous organization of the baby. There is nothing dangerous, scary, alarming in this.
As the baby grows, his nervous system will get stronger, perception will develop. He will learn to express his emotions - with a smile, facial expressions, gestures, and then words. The sudden attacks of crying at night will stop. Another likely cause of physiological sleep crying is transition from fast sleep to slow sleep. Even in adults, such a transition can be accompanied by the appearance of vivid dreams and involuntary awakening, let alone babies!
Yes, they also have dreams, and, according to children's doctors, babies have dreams while still in the womb. The baby's sleep may become anxious and restless after the day's impressions.
If there were many guests in the house, if the child was given a lot of attention, if he was tired before going to bed, then with a high degree of probability his sleep will be very restless.
Psychologists point to another possible reason for the night roar in a dream - the child's psychological need for protection. During the nine months spent in the mother's womb, the baby is used to feeling protected, surrounded by her mother. After the birth, this feeling of reliable protection was somewhat shaken, because my mother is no longer always there, and sometimes she has to be called loudly.
Short-term night crying, sobbing can be a kind of "test" of parents - whether they are in place or nearby. If the mother runs to the squeak, then the baby can safely fall asleep further. That is why it is most convenient to place a crib in an adult bedroom in the first months. Sometimes it is enough to stroke the baby's back in a dream, and he calms down and calmly falls asleep again.
Normal physiological night crying is not prolonged, heart-rending, loud, persistent. It is more spontaneous and does not repeat itself at the same time. He does not need the use of sedatives and examination. If a child wakes up and starts crying demandingly or abruptly in a dream, then it is worth considering other reasons for this behavior.
When does a child need help?
A baby can whine and scream in a dream not only because of the age-related characteristics of the nervous system, but also for a number of others external and internal reasons that definitely need parental intervention.
Hunger
Newborns and infants up to about 6 months of age experience a physiological need for night feeding, or even more than one. Therefore, awakening and insisting on food is quite normal until a certain age. Such crying is persistent.
A child who wakes up from hunger will not calm down and fall asleep again until he gets what he needs. The solution is simple - to feed and put back to bed.
The discomfort
An uncomfortable bed, tight swaddling, annoying clothes - all these are reasons for waking up at night and demands to change circumstances. In this case, the awakening will be blurred, gradual. First, the baby will start to whimper in a dream, push, “fiddle”. The crying will gradually become more persistent.
By itself, the crumb will not calm down. It is necessary to check if the seams of his clothes are rubbing against him, whether his hands are numb in the diaper, which was tightly wrapped, whether there are protrusions, pits, uncomfortable folds on the mattress.
Swaddling is a matter of family choice. But clothes must be seamless and sewn from natural fabrics that do not irritate the skin. Ideally, the child should sleep on a firm mattress without a pillow.
Unsuitable temperature and humidity
A gradual and smooth awakening with a transition from sleepy whimpering to a loud scream may indicate that the child is hot or cold. It is easy to check this - if the back of the baby's head is sweaty, it means that the parents overdid it with heating the room, if the hands and nose are cold, then the little one is frozen.
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 a different thermoregulation, they feel very comfortable at this temperature.
And too dry air leads to drying out of the mucous membranes of the respiratory system, as a result, the baby not only becomes more difficult to breathe, but also increases the risk of respiratory diseases.
Wet diaper
The key to a good night's sleep is a good and high-quality diaper that will “withstand” at least 8 hours. However, the excretory abilities of the crumbs are different, in addition, the baby can go to the toilet for great need.
Waking up and crying in the case of a wet or dirty diaper usually does not happen more than once a night. Make sure that the diaper is not only dry but also comfortable, does not pinch in the sides and folds of the skin, does not dangle or rub the baby's skin.
Pain
Crying when pain is felt is difficult to confuse with another. Pain in children is associated with screaming at the reflex level. With acute pain, the baby begins to scream heart-rendingly and abruptly, immediately wakes up, it is difficult to calm him down. This happens, for example, with otitis media, with intestinal colic.
If the pain is aching or dull, the child generally does not sleep well, wakes up almost every hour, cries plaintively, prolonged, sometimes monotonously, sometimes without waking up to the end. This happens when the first teeth erupt, with increased intracranial pressure, which causes a headache.
How to Improve Baby's Sleep?
Physiological nocturnal crying usually goes away on its own when the infant is 4 months old. The nervous system of five-month-old babies is already more stable, although severe overwork can cause sleep disturbances in them.
To improve the sleep of babies 1 month old and older, remember that the daily routine for the crumbs 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 a large number of strangers. Subdued light, quiet voices, and a general strengthening massage before bathing will benefit.
If the baby does not sleep well, parents can try bathing in cool water according to the method of Dr. Yevgeny Komarovsky.
You can not overfeed the childas this is also a common cause of restless sleep at night. In the penultimate evening feeding, it is better that the child does not eat his fill, but in the last one, 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 well-fed baby will sleep much better.
Another reason why a baby may sleep poorly at night is excessive daytime sleep. A newborn normally sleeps up to 20 hours a day. It is necessary to draw up a regimen in such a way that at least 12-13 hours are spent on a night's sleep. The rest of the time can be split into daytime rest. If the regimen fails, the child should not be allowed to sleep during the day. Usually 2-3 days of such decisive and tough behavior of adults is enough for the regime to fall into place, and the baby began to sleep at night.
Other causes of night crying are also quite easy to eliminate - a hungry baby needs to be fed, a raw one needs to be changed. The most difficult thing is to help a baby with a painful night cry, since it is difficult to understand what exactly hurts him. A small cheat sheet will help parents with this:
- The child screams and constantly pushes, draws his legs, he has a swollen and hard stomach - the thing is colic. On the tummy, you can apply a warm iron-ironed diaper, make a light massage around the navel clockwise, give dill water or any preparation based on simethicone - "Espumizan" or "Bobotik". Usually colic is a physiological "nuisance" that goes away by itself when the child is 3-4 months old.
- The child sobs in a dream, and then wakes up and screams sharply, "goes in" - the reason may be covered in inflammation of the middle ear. Otitis media is common in infants. It's easy to check - when you press on the tragus (protruding cartilage at the very entrance to the auricle), the pain increases, and the child begins to cry even more. If no pus, blood or other fluid is released from the ear, you can drop Otipax or Otinum, wait for the morning and call a doctor.
If there is discharge, nothing can be dripped, you should not wait until morning and call an ambulance.
- The child whimpers 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 allowed by age - "Kalgel", "Metrogyl Denta". They will somewhat ease the child's condition, and he will be able to fall asleep.
- Sluggish crying in a dream, similar to whining, which lasts a long time and is repeated several times a night, should alert parents. If at the same time the child's “fontanelle” looks swollen and tense, it is quite possible that we are talking about increased intracranial pressure. It is imperative to show the child to the doctor.
- The child falls asleep well, but often flinches in sleep, cries episodes 5-7 times a night, 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 scandal, quarreling, shouting, and conflict. The kids feel everything, they just can't say anything yet, in addition, they receive cortisone with their mother's milk - a stress hormone if the mother is very nervous and worried. Cortisone stimulates nervous activity. Parents will be able to notice certain nervous manifestations in the baby not only at night, but also after sleep. These are flinches, fearfulness, anxiety and moodiness. There is only one way out - to stop being nervous for mom.
And some more useful tips:
- Crying attacks at night always have a cause. But if a newborn usually cries only because of physiological necessity - hunger, thirst, cold, then a two-month-old baby is already emotionally developed enough to cry in the middle of the night about a terrible dream, a frightening feeling of loneliness, defenselessness. Parents must approach each specific case taking into account the individuality and age of the child.
- The true motives of whimpering and screaming in the dark will not become clear to parents at once. 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 crying, by the duration, the intonation of the cry, and other only understandable signals for 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 lasts six months, it is worth showing the child to a pediatrician and a neurologist. It is possible that there are other reasons that prevent the baby from sleeping normally at night, and they may need medication.
- Quite often, prolonged night crying and whims in babies are a consequence of pedagogical mistakes of parents. If at first they taught the child to fall asleep in their arms, shook it, and then began to try to make the baby fall asleep on its own. It is worth preparing for the fact that the baby will protest rather violently, behave badly and restlessly at night. But if the parents show calm perseverance, then it will be possible to cope with such difficulties.
How to understand why a baby is crying and how to recognize its signs? See the following video about this.
