While the child does not master the speech, crying is the only way to attract attention. Tears of an adult are grief and experience, tears of a baby are a natural means of communication. Parents gradually get used to the fact that this phenomenon is normal and not at all scary, but they are lost if the baby abruptly begins to cry in a dream. Why is this happening?
Baby sleep
Sleep is a special physiological state that performs two main functions: replenishment of energy costs and consolidation of what the baby learned during the wakeful period. A full sleep is 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 baby cries in a dream.
The norm of sleep 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 regimen of the day has not developed, often there is a confusion of day and night.
A baby wakes up usually because of a feeling of hunger, discomfort or just showing a normal 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 going to night sleep and observing the rule of three “T” (warm, dark and quiet) will help to cope with the problem.
Night sleep
At what age is a child able to sleep all night without waking up? This is purely individual, but most babies by the age of six months can not interrupt sleep at night for 10 hours. The child does not need to be rocked or put to sleep by force. He will easily cope with this task on his own if the parents catch the signs of drowsiness in time: the child yawns, closes or rubs his eyes, tugs at the toy. In the presence of fatigue, the period of falling asleep is normal up to 20 minutes. If you do not create conditions for sleep (bright light, noise, the presence of strangers), then this can provoke a situation when the baby cries in a dream.
The very process of falling asleep will be difficult, and night rest is disturbed due to over-excitement of the baby. To understand why this happens, you should understand the main phases of sleep.
Sleep phases
Science distinguishes two phases of sleep: active and slow. They alternate with each other for every sixty minutes. The activity cycle involves the work of thought processes, which is expressed in the following manifestations:
- A smile on the baby’s face.
- Eye movement under the eyelids or their short-term opening.
- The movement of the legs.
It was at this time that the baby cries in a dream without waking up. Processing by nerve cells of information received during the wakeful period. Experiencing the events of the day, the baby continues to respond to them. Crying can be a reaction to the experienced fear, feeling of loneliness, overexcitation.
During slow - deep - sleep, the child completely relaxes, restoring the expended energy, and he develops growth hormone.
Wake or not?
Whimpering, silent crying and sobbing during the active phase of sleep - this is the absolute norm. The kid is able to see dreams, reflecting the impressions of the past day. But children's tears may have another meaning - an instinctive desire to check whether he is safe, whether they will leave his mother. If there is no evidence of this, the child can really wake up and burst into tears for real. What should parents do if the baby begins to cry in a dream?
- You should not wake a baby if he sobs and starts slightly from dreams. He will have to learn to calm down and get used to loneliness at night.
- You can instill tranquility in a child by lightly stroking, dummy, or saying aloud quiet hissing sounds. For example, "tshshsh".
- It is appropriate to quietly sing or speak the words of an affectionate lullaby, which should later be used in similar situations.
- You can shake the crib or take the baby in your arms without affecting sleep.
The main reasons for crying
Why does a baby cry in a dream, if at the same time he wakes up? This means that he gives signals that should be decrypted, because he has no other way to attract attention. Pediatricians identify about seven causes of the baby’s tears. Dr. Komarovsky typifies them, highlighting three main ones:
- The 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 abandoned by his mother. In infancy (up to one year), direct communication with her is a leading activity, due to which the baby develops and moves to a new qualitative level.
- Unsatisfied physiological needs (hunger, thirst, bowel movements, urination, sleep).
- Pain and / or discomfort. A child can suffer from cold, heat, uncomfortable clothes, dampness. The pain causes an accumulation of gas in the abdomen, for two reasons: overeating and overheating (lack of fluid). After six months, the baby cries sharply in a dream from pain when teething. The first sign of this is the urge to stick a fist in your mouth.
How to recognize
There are many reasons, but how to understand which one caused the baby's tears? Only one way - an analysis of the actions after which the crying stops. Begin by identifying the causes of discomfort. It often happens: during wakefulness, the child is distracted from what causes him discomfort. For example, a rubber band crashes. With a decrease in activity, discomfort comes to the fore and prevents falling asleep. If the child calms down after being picked up, then instinct has worked. There is a lot of controversy about this: is it worth responding if a baby cries in a dream because of a fear of loneliness?
There are pediatricians who say that crying a little to a child is even beneficial: the lungs develop, the protein from tears, which has an antimicrobial effect, enters the nasopharynx. This produces anti-infection protection of the body. Some parents call the baby a little manipulator and try to educate him, deliberately not responding to crying and not picking up. 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 brought up from birth in state institutions cry extremely rarely. There is simply no one to approach their calls. They become self-contained and cease to hope. This leads to impaired development - hospitalism. If the baby cries in a dream, one should not be afraid to spoil him. The need for affection and care is a vital need for a baby of the first year of life.
What should alert you?
The nervous system of a child up to a year is often susceptible to diseases due to: pathology of pregnancy, difficult birth, intrauterine infections and injuries. Together with other symptoms, anxious sleep may indicate neurological or somatic problems. Every three months, a neurologist examines the baby, monitoring its development. He should be interested in finding the answer to the question why the baby cries in a dream in the following cases:
- If this is accompanied by persistent sleep disturbance (impaired falling asleep, superficial or inadequate sleep).
- If sharp, hysterical crying is repeated regularly.
- If the parents themselves fail to identify its cause.
If the baby cries without waking up, the reason is in the features of children's sleep. If the tears are associated with the transition to the waking stage, then the child signals the presence of problems, the solution of which requires adult intervention.