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Why Do Babies Cry in Their Sleep?

Have you ever wondered “Why Do Babies Cry in Their Sleep?”. Perhaps you have not. But parents with newborn babies commonly come across similar incidents when their babies happen to cry in their sleep.

So why do babies cry in their sleep?

Crying is the commonest response and reaction of babies during the first few years of their lives. During the first phase of their lives, their brains are not improved enough to respond in an advanced way. They cannot speak up for themselves and communicate their likes, dislikes, pains, wants and needs or whatever. Therefore, they do cry about anything and everything. It is the experience of the parent or the caretaker to identify the reason behind each of their cries.
Often they cry when they are hungry, and when they are uncomfortable. However, in this article, we are mainly focusing on the reasons for the question “why do babies cry in their sleep?”

Babies and Sleep

In one of our previous articles on “How much Do Babies Sleep?”, we educated the new parents about the time difference in babies’ sleep parallel to their growth. During the first months of their lives, sleeping hours are longer than the time they stay awake. Therefore, parents often check on their babies and how their babies are asleep. Doing so, some parents notice babies cry while they are sleeping. What happens during their sleep is they cry their eyes closed. Confused and worried parents ask why babies cry in their sleep.

Seeing their babies crying in their sleep, parents identify the reasons to be having nightmares or being hungry. The following are some of the reasons for them crying in their sleep. Understanding these common reasons why babies cry while still asleep will definitely help you know what to do when your baby starts crying in their sleep.

Why do babies cry in their sleep?

Babies crying during their sleep is not as common as crying when they are awake. But some babies happen to cry their eyes shut when they are asleep. Hearing them cry, parents check on them and sometimes notice they stop crying and fall asleep again.

Why do babies cry in their sleep? The 3 Most Common Reasons

Crying while transitioning from one sleep cycle to the next
Crying due to overtiredness
Can babies have nightmares?

Transitions from one sleep cycle to the next sleep cycle

Babies sleep in cycles similar to adults. However, their sleep cycles are shorter than that of the elders. Baby’s sleep cycles last around 40 minutes after which they often are awake fully or briefly. Therefore, babies rapidly transition between sleep cycles while spending more time in deep sleep. During deep sleep, a baby’s eyes often move a lot and this is known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM). At the same time, they happen to jerk, twitch, open and close their arms and even cry during REM sleep.

Crying due to overtiredness

Babies are energetic over time and their sleeping requirement decreases gradually. But the first months of the year are often more sleep and fewer hours awake. Therefore, sleep is essential for babies to reach their potential growth both physically and mentally. They become tired due to a lack of comfortable sleep. As a result, they are over-tired which in turn triggers fatigue-fighting hormones. Consequently, babies find it challenging to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Tip –
If you sense your baby is overtired, it’s best to condense your usual bedtime routine and help your baby begin to settle to sleep quickly.

Can babies have nightmares?

Most of us have seen how the facial expressions of babies appear and fade even when they are sleeping. People provide various interpretations of the sweet dreams they see and how angels make them smile. But to be honest, they are mostly fables.
Therefore, babies smiling or crying while sleeping have nothing to do with sweet dreams or nightmares. In reality, these expressions are merely involuntary and not meant responses to a dream. At the age of 2 or more, babies start to see dreams during their sleeping hours. Therefore, babies do not see night terrors or bad dreams that cause them to cry.

Why do babies cry in their sleep? Other Reasons

Apart from the above-mentioned major reasons for babies to cry in their sleep, there are moments like wet diapers, tight diapers, teething pains and skin irritations that make them cry even in sleep.
Babies experiencing new teeth are often in pain and they happen to cry or whimper even during sleep. So you can check whether your baby is working on a new tooth and you can consult a pediatrician to get recommendations to reduce discomfort.
Tip – Ensuring a healthy and comfortable atmosphere for the baby. Temperature between 68℉ and 72℉ is recommended by the experts.

More Tips to deal with your baby’s crying

Before being panicked why do babies cry in their sleep? make sure you properly examine how often your baby cries in sleep. To do the inspection, it is a good idea to wait and watch before intervening when your baby is crying in their sleep. A too quick response might inadvertently wake your child or prevent them from falling back to sleep on their own. Sometimes, waiting and watching can be the best remedy for the baby because they are likely to fall asleep on their own.

Spending some extra time with your baby, and soothing them helps the baby to fall asleep soon. Most babies settle down faster and stop crying once you rock them gently. A breastfeeding mother can comfort her baby by bringing him to her breast to comfort him and put an end to the crying. This will work most of the time even if the baby is not hungry.