Why does a little woman crying in her sleep?

While the child does not master speech, crying is the only way to attract attention. Tears of an adult are grief and experience, the tears of a baby are a natural means of communication. Parents are gradually getting used to the fact that this phenomenon is normal and not at all terrible, but they are lost if the babe sharply begins to cry in a dream. Why is this happening?

The dream of a baby

Sleep is a special physiological condition that fulfills two main functions: replenishing energy costs and fixing what the baby has learned during the waking period. Full sleep is also a condition for the development of the child, and an indicator of his physical and mental health. Therefore, parents are very worried if the child's rest is interrupted, and even more so if the babe in a dream cries.

The sleep rate for a child up to six months is from 18 to 14-16 hours a day. But in the first months of life the baby can wake up every 3-4 hours, and there is no pathology in it: a stable regime of the day has not been developed, often there is a confusion of day and night.

The baby wakes up usually because of feeling hungry, having discomfort or simply showing the usual instinct. Therefore, mothers need to have patience and remember that sleep is a conditioned reflex activity, which means that the development of a certain ritual of retirement to a night's sleep and observance of the rule of three "T" (warm, dark and quiet) will help to cope with the problem.

Night sleep

At what age is the child able to sleep all night without waking up? This is strictly individual, but most babies by six months can not interrupt sleep at night for 10 hours. The child does not need to rock or sleep forcibly. He can easily cope with this task on his own, if the parents in time catch signs of drowsiness: the child yawns, covers or rubs the eyes, pulls the toy. When there is fatigue, the period of his falling asleep is normally up to 20 minutes. If you do not create the conditions for sleep (bright light, noise, the presence of strangers), then this can provoke a situation when the infants in a dream cry.

The very process of falling asleep will be difficult, and night rest is broken due to overexcitement of the baby. To understand why this happens, you need to understand the main phases of sleep.

Phases of sleep

Science identifies two phases of sleep: active and slow. They alternate between each other for every sixty minutes. The activity cycle implies the work of thought processes, which is expressed in the following manifestations:

• Smile on the face of the baby.
• Movement of the eyes under the eyelids or their short-term opening.
• Movement with legs.

It is at this time that the baby is crying in a dream, not waking up. There is processing by nerve cells of the information received during wakefulness. Experiencing the events of the day, the kid continues to react to them. Crying can be a reaction to the experience of fear, a sense of loneliness, overexcitation.

During a slow - deep - sleep the child completely relaxes, restoring the spent energy, and he develops a growth hormone.

To wake up or not?

Whining, quiet crying and sobbing during the active phase of sleep is the absolute norm. The kid is able to see dreams that reflect the impressions of the past day. But children's tears can have one more meaning - an instinctive desire to check whether he is safe or not left by the mother. If there is no confirmation of this, the child can really wake up and burst into tears for real. What should parents do if the baby begins crying in a dream?

• Do not wake the baby if he sobs and slightly shudders from dreams. He will have to learn to get complacent and get used to being alone in the night.
• To inspire the child's peace of mind, it is possible with the help of a gentle stroking, a dummy or the uttering of quiet, hissing sounds aloud. For example, "tshshsh."
• It is appropriate to sing quietly or say the words of a gentle lullaby song, which in the future should be used in similar situations.
• You can shake the crib or take the baby in your arms without harming the sleep.

The main causes of crying

Why does a baby cry in a dream, if at the same time he wakes up? This means that he is giving signals, which should be deciphered, because he has no other way to attract attention. Pediatricians allocate about seven reasons for the tears of an infant. Dr. Komarovsky typifies them, highlighting the three main ones:

• Instinct associated with the fact that the baby is not able to survive alone. He will cry if he has subconscious fears that he is left a mother. In infancy (up to one year), direct communication with her is the leading activity, thanks to which the infant develops and switches to a new qualitative level.
• Unmet physiological needs (hunger, thirst, defecation, urination, sleep).
• Pain and (or) discomfort. A child may suffer from cold, heat, uncomfortable clothing, dampness. The pain causes the accumulation of gases in the tummy, the causes of which are two: overeating and overheating (fluid deficiency). After six months, the baby is suddenly crying in a dream of pain with teething. The first sign of this is the desire to put a fist into his mouth.

How to recognize?

There are many reasons, but how to understand what kind of tears caused the baby? The only way is to analyze the actions, after which the lament ceases. You should start by identifying the causes of discomfort. Often happens: during wakefulness the child is distracted from what causes inconvenience to him. For example, cuts a rubber. With a decrease in activity, discomfort comes to the fore and prevents falling asleep. If the child calms down after being taken in his arms, then the instinct has worked. On this issue, there are many disputes: is it worth reacting if the babe in a dream cries for fear of loneliness?

There are pediatricians who say that it is even useful to cry a little for a child: lungs develop, a protein from tears that has an antimicrobial effect, gets into the nasopharynx. This produces anti-infection protection of the body. Some parents call the kid a little manipulator and try to educate him, deliberately not responding to crying and not taking them in his arms. Is it correct?

Neurologists believe that the infant is not able to consciously manipulate the situation, and the answer lies in a different plane. Babies raised from birth in state institutions, cry very rarely. There is simply no one to appeal to their appeals. They lock themselves in and stop hoping. This leads to a disruption in development - hospitalism. If a little woman is crying in her sleep, do not be afraid to pamper him. The need for caress and care is the vital need of the baby of the first year of life.

What should alert?

The nervous system of a child up to a year is often prone to illness due to: pathology of pregnancy, severe childbirth, intrauterine infections and injuries. Coupled with other symptoms, anxious sleep can indicate neurological or somatic problems. Every three months, a neurologist examines the baby, monitoring its development. He should be interested in finding an answer to the question of why a baby is crying in a dream in the following cases:

• If this is accompanied by a persistent sleep disorder (sleep disturbance, superficial or inadequate sleep).
• If a sharp, hysterical crying is repeated regularly.
• If parents can not independently identify its cause.

If the baby cries, not waking up, the reason - in the features of a child's dream. If tears are associated with the transition to the wakeful stage, then the child signals the presence of problems, for the solution of which the intervention of an adult is required.