You are peacefully asleep when you hear your baby crying. You climb out of bed, head to the crib expecting to find your baby wide awake begging for a feeding. When you arrive you discover your baby crying during sleep apparently for no reason. You feel confused and not quite sure what to do.
To begin with, relax, this behavior is very common even though it is not present in most babies. Your dilemma is shared by a percentage of parents and babies, and is usually outgrown sometime during the first year.
What causes your baby to cry in their sleep? The crying can many times be traced to physiological changes. This can include cutting teeth or rapid times of growth. There is almost no way you can detect these changes visually and while teeth may be cutting it could be weeks before they actually show up.
Doctors and baby psychologists believe crying, laughing, giggles, and other baby sounds in the night could be caused by the beginning stages of dreaming. Their dreams could be stimulating response which are not strong enough to wake them but do cause reactions.
It is possible your baby crying during sleep indicates an illness, but most times this is not the case. Check your baby for a fever using a good digital thermometer. If there is no fever it is likely a normal baby reaction.
What should you do if your baby is crying while they sleep? The first thing to do is wait a couple minutes and see if they calm themselves. If their crying continues then you can take a few simple actions to help them stop crying.
The first thing to try is to simply roll them a little, or move them gently. Do not immediately pick them up. Most times just the simple movement stops the crying and their sleep becomes quiet.
If the crying continues then go ahead and pick them up, rock them gently, which should bring the crying to an almost immediate halt. Changing their stimuli is usually all which is required.
If your baby enjoy using a pacifier, you can offer the pacifier to see if this helps them to continue sleeping without the crying.
The good news is since a baby will wake up if there is a real problem, you can be fairly confident your baby crying during sleep is not harmful. If you still feel concerned, or have additional worries, check with your babies pediatrician. They will not laugh at your question, but can give you reassurance and offer additional advice on what is going on with your baby.
While knowing your baby crying during sleep is not harmful does not help you stay asleep, it can help you fall back to sleep more easily. You are sure to still wake up to go check the baby, but at least when you return to bed you will no longer toss and turn fearfully. You can relax, sleep deeply, and know your baby is fine.