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Child 1.6 cries before going to bed. How to determine why a child cries before bed

Restful sleep The child pleases the parents, allowing them to fully relax and go about their business. However, sometimes going to bed in children is accompanied by prolonged falling asleep, painful screams and strong tantrums. The child screams before going to bed, seemingly without any reason, it is impossible to calm him down. Child hysteria is understood as a state of excessive emotional arousal of a child, manifested by loud screams, crying, aggressive and inappropriate behavior. Particularly severe cases of hysteria can result in convulsions. However, for the most part, children's tantrums are the norm and are easily explained. Why does a child scream before going to bed? Knowing the nature and causes, you can prevent and prevent hysteria, and also understand whether you should seek help from a specialist.

A child is born with not yet fully formed systems and organs. Thus, children develop the skill of distinguishing day from night only a month and a half after birth.

Infants have a different sleep structure from adults, with short and rapidly changing phases:

  • An adult's sleep has 4 phases;
  • In a child, the third phase is formed by the first year of life.

The baby's sleep begins with superficial or fast phase when the nervous system and brain are actively working, digesting information received in large quantities per day. Also during this period, muscle activity is observed that can frighten and wake up the child. Transitioning from one phase to another can also cause your baby to scream and cry in the middle of the night.

In children under 4 years of age, the nervous system is designed in such a way that excitation processes dominate over inhibition processes. The exception is 10-15% of children who can feel overexcited and cope with it.

Here are examples:

  1. Only little phlegmatic people can fall asleep on their own without the help of their parents.
  2. Choleric children painfully fall asleep due to excessive excitement characteristic of this type of temperament.
  3. Sanguine people have a large supply of energy, which allows them not to get tired for a long time and interferes with the process of falling asleep.

The developmental characteristics of a child allow him to begin to independently cope with overexcitation only by 3.5 years, and in practice, six months later. Until this age, it is easy for a child to become overexcited and requires a lot of work to calm down. For this reason, children scream and cry, especially before bed, when they need to relax.

Our ancestors were not afraid baby crying. In their arsenal in case a child is hysterical before bed, there were lullabies and fairy tales, as well as various nursery rhymes to distract and calm an overexcited child.

Overwork overtakes the baby quickly and imperceptibly: one minute he was playing, and the next minute he can no longer control himself, screaming and crying like a knife. Parents are perplexed by such sharp changes moods and cannot understand the reasons.

Being able to notice the signs of approaching fatigue in time is a complex behavioral skill that not all adults have, and in children it is formed only by the age of 4.

Increased excitability– this is far from the only reason for children’s tantrums before bed.

Along with overexcitation there are some psychological factors that prevent your child from falling asleep peacefully:

Children under 2 years of age cannot clearly articulate why they cannot sleep. Therefore, they often throw tantrums and cry before going to bed. This is the only way in their arsenal so far to show that something is bothering them.

Reasons for contacting a psychotherapist or psychologist may include: following cases:

  • if a child over 10 years old is afraid to sleep alone without light, talking about fantastic creatures hiding in his room (schoolchildren already perfectly distinguish between the boundaries of fiction and truth);
  • if a child throws tantrums before bed, afraid to fall asleep, screams loudly and cries bitterly in his sleep, talks about death;
  • if the child shows signs panic attack: uneven breathing, loss of consciousness and more.

Even in the absence of these signs, parents should not ignore children's fears and worries. A common fear of the dark in a small family member without taking appropriate measures can lead to mental and nervous disorders. Children's fears, hidden deep in the subconscious, can be the cause of uncertainty and complexes in adulthood.

The child grows and develops, changes occur in the body, sometimes causing discomfort.

The following are noted physiological factors, making a child cry and scream before bedtime:

Screaming and crying small child may be the reason pain syndrome or availability hidden disease. When a child regularly has difficulty falling asleep, sleeps restlessly, looks tired and loses appetite, it is necessary to seek help from a doctor as soon as possible.

Most best way fighting children's hysteria is its warning.

Some simple tips will help you develop the skill of observing your child, promptly recognizing an impending hysteria and taking measures to prevent it:

  1. It is not overwork, but good fatigue that allows you to fall asleep calmly and quickly. City children are often prone to night hysterics, especially in the autumn-winter period. They are unable to spend sufficient quantity physical strength to get tired. The fatigue they get from watching TV, running around the house and playing with toys that bore them is not enough to proper development and good sleep. Children need muscle activity and a moderate amount of new experiences: morning exercises, walks at any time of the year, active games fresh air, communication with peers, classes in sports sections and studios.
  2. One of the main tasks of parents is to control the level of arousal of the child. The baby should not be bored, but impressions (visual, auditory, motor, social) should be strictly dosed. Each child has his own measure of impressions that are beneficial to health. The problem is that a child under 4-5 years old cannot feel it on his own. This is where the parent comes in, who should intuitively feel and see this line. Attentive parents can silently identify changes in their child's behavior that indicate that he is close to overexcitement and fatigue. One begins to laugh loudly, another begins to whine, a third begins to move faster, falling and hitting objects, and for a fourth, the tempo of speech and the volume of their voice change. You need to know these “bells” well, notice them in a timely manner and take action without waiting for the child to become hysterical.
  3. To accustom your baby to the modes of wakefulness and sleep, it is necessary to actively communicate with him during the day, not to create the illusion of night with closed curtains, and not to maintain complete silence during his sleep. nap. Parents can talk to each other, do something around the house, listen to music quietly or watch TV. However, you should avoid sharp and loud sounds that can wake up and frighten the baby. At night, on the contrary, it is necessary to exclude bright light, gradually teaching the baby to fall asleep in complete darkness. 2 hours before going to bed, you should set your child up for rest and relaxation, avoiding emotional stress, active games and loud laughter.
  4. Co-sleeping with a baby has two sides of its manifestation. On the one hand, the baby is comfortable and calm next to his mother, and the mother has the opportunity, without getting up, to quickly put the baby to bed in the middle of the night while breastfeeding. The other side is not so pleasant - the baby’s sleep is restless, with shudders and sobs, especially if it was preceded by hysteria, disturbs the mother during the night and does not allow her to fully rest. How longer baby will be in his parents' bed, the more difficult it will be to wean him from this habit without hysterics. It is better to immediately accustom the child to his crib, and in the future, if possible, allocate him a room or a small corner in the apartment. Personal space creates good self-esteem, feeling self-esteem and importance for the child.
  5. It is important for a calm and timely fall asleep to follow certain rules, a kind of ritual that sets the child up for sleep. Children willingly perform traditional, familiar and familiar actions. First, you need to decide on a clear bedtime and prepare for it in advance together with your baby. You can collect the toys and wish them good night, then go into a warm bath with a relaxing infusion of herbs or essential oils and wish the toys in the bath sweet dreams. Reading a book, watching a program " Good night, kids!”, massage with a drop aromatic oil, singing a lullaby with rocking in your arms and much more, which is dear to parents from childhood and finds a positive response from the child. It is useful to quietly talk with your baby before bed about how he spent the day, about his interests, impressions and friends. Warm hugs and conversations before bed, for at least 15 minutes, calm the child’s nervous system, improve falling asleep and normalize his sleep. However, in order to avoid emotional arousal and, as a result, prolonged falling asleep, these rituals must be clearly limited in time. After the ritual of going to bed, you should put the baby in his bed and wish him good night.

If a child resists and cries, this indicates that he has formed incorrect associations about sleep. In this case, you need to patiently and firmly follow the established rules, without giving in to the child’s resistance or requests. You should not follow the child’s lead, pick him up, endlessly rock him to sleep and sing lullabies. It is much better to calmly explain that it is time to sleep, sit next to the crib, and pet the baby. It is important to remember that the child needs to grow up, and the process of rocking oneself in one’s arms delays this moment.

Daytime sleep is necessary for a child to relax, restore strength and relieve stress. Many children resist and refuse to sleep during the day. If parents cannot resist the pressure of their child, negative consequences in the form of overexcitement and nightly hysterics will not take long to appear, and it will be difficult to return to the previous daily routine.

Experts believe that children need daytime rest before starting school.

Particularly excitable and emotional first-graders, under the influence of a new environment and stress, need daytime sleep for a long time. According to general standards According to the daily children's sleep recommended by pediatricians, a child from 6 to 12 months needs two daily sleep periods of 1 hour and 20 minutes. Children 1.5-3 years old need a daytime rest of at least 1.5 hours to feel comfortable.

Norms child development They say that by the age of two, a child should be able to fall asleep on his own. By this age, many enroll children in kindergartens, where the ability to fall asleep calmly and without the help of adults is an important point. Sleep habits and associations are difficult to change. However, there are moments at the child’s age when this is easiest to do: up to 6 months, at the time of weaning breastfeeding, during the period when the child begins to communicate in phrases. The task of parents is not to miss these moments and use them to normalize the right habits that will be relevant for a child up to 7-8 years old.

It is important to know if the baby has no deviations in physical and mental development, then the reasons for his hysterics lie in family relationships, difficulties of socialization and incorrect assessment of the baby’s behavior. It is important to understand the causes of children's tantrums, prevent them and help the child by guiding and correcting his behavior. This painstaking and long work requires a lot of patience and consistency from parents.

Joint efforts, search for compromises, perseverance and love of parents will save the child from hysterics before bedtime and make his childhood happy and joyful.

There may be several reasons, and many of them are present even in most of us adults:

Temperament! It is given to us from birth, there’s no way around it... Just like the characteristics of temperament, the habits of falling asleep can be divided into 4 main models of behavior (very conditionally, of course):

phlegmatic quiet people who “don’t give a damn” even if they turn on a drill instead of a lullaby - “if I’ve decided to sleep, I’ll sleep!”

melancholic whiners, these love to whine pitifully at every opportunity in front of their parents, and indeed any adults (what acting talent!), sometimes it seems that they don’t even have the strength for real sobs... - “I like it when people feel sorry for me, even for no reason!” (the bedtime ritual is just another excuse)

extravagant sanguine people who don’t have enough days to do their business - “why waste time sleeping? Let’s talk, let’s chat, let’s play, I DON’T WANT TO SPAaaat!” (and I won’t let anyone sleep;)

and troublemakers - choleric people, who are always dissatisfied with everything, because they know how best to do and are constantly eager to “save the world”, at least around themselves - “I don’t like this pillow, this bed, this room, and I’m tired of you all too ":)

Has anyone recognized themselves? :) Of course, this does not mean that you are an obvious phlegmatic person if you fall asleep without problems - the behavior patterns of each of us may be different depending on situations or circumstances: hard and difficult work will knock down even the most typical sanguine person.
But let's return to our children. I propose to figure out “who is who” only in order not to fight, often, with non-existent dragons, such as colic and hunger - crying before bed, basically, occurs only because the child has no other way to relieve tension and he “discharges” » ( in the first months of life, difficulties in falling asleep can also be attributed to getting used to the rhythms of day and night).

When will crying before bed stop? Well, there will be no crying, whims will appear;), or rather, as we grow older, crying will smoothly move into another state: into long heart-to-heart conversations, into singing lullabies together, and also this fairy tale, and those pictures., and what Dad is doing it there, and now I want to eat, etc. This is where the temperaments described above can help us draw up optimal mode specifically for your child:

for a baby who likes to attract attention to himself before bed, to “build up” the whole family with his endless demands, it would be good not to indulge him and at least for a while leave him in the room alone and in silence - he will soon get tired of staging performances without spectators... :)

but a child who has been in a calm environment all day and (quite naturally) clearly does not want to sleep, needs to give free rein to his emotions at least before bed: put the toys aside and let him jump, chase around the apartment, and eventually scream :) (provoke such things yourself games!)

And some restless people, on the contrary, before going to bed like to hug someone and just lie quietly; they “cannot” fall asleep alone, because they were given too much independence at other times.

But why AFTER sleep? Why do adults wake up in a bad mood? :) There are plenty of reasons: you woke up ahead of time (noise outside the window or wall), you didn’t sleep well in an uncomfortable bed (the sheet was bunched up), it’s stuffy, you’re thirsty, you need to go to the toilet... and then there’s an overflowing, pressing diaper...

Frequent Crying before bed in infants is a release of accumulated emotions, the baby still does not know how to TELL about the reason for his dissatisfaction. You just need to be patient and tell yourself: “This is such a period, in a month or two everything will pass.” Keep your composure! Try to just switch off... (easy to say... :))

Keep an eye on the baby more closely - perhaps he begins to yawn and stretch much earlier than you are going to put him to bed, and vice versa: the baby is at the peak of activity, and you are rocking him to sleep... You need to catch such moments and try to adapt the whole family to his rhythm - as soon as possible Overall, your baby’s sleep and yours will be much calmer.

(these tips do not apply to children with medical problems: intracranial pressure, ear pain, toothache, etc.)

On average, about 30 percent of young children suffer from sleep disorders, pediatricians say. What does this mean? First of all, the baby cries a lot just before going to bed, he has difficulty falling asleep, often starts and wakes up. Children can cry the most various reasons And main task parents - to accurately establish them so that they know how to act correctly.

Why does a child cry before going to bed, how to calm him down and what should you pay attention to? We’ll talk about this and more in this article.

Key reasons

In fact restless behavior and crying before going to sleep at night can be caused by many factors. As a rule, this behavior occurs in children under one year of age and is most often associated with physiological reasons.

The first thing you should pay attention to is possible colic. They annoy newborns very often. During attacks, the child unconsciously presses his knees to his stomach to eliminate unpleasant and painful sensations. You can calm him down by placing him on your stomach. A heating pad helps a lot.

If this does not work, please note medicines, for example, to "Espumizan" or "Plantex". They quickly eliminate excessive gas formation and help the child fall asleep as quickly as possible. Besides, good remedy Fennel tea is considered to cure colic.

Second common physiological reason- teething. If you notice that your baby cries after and just before bedtime, he may be teething. At the same time, the gums actively swell and become inflamed, causing a lot of unpleasant and downright painful sensations.

How to help relieve pain and relieve your baby from discomfort? We recommend purchasing one of the pain-relieving dental gels from the pharmacy. It quickly relieves pain and helps the child fall asleep faster.

In addition, children may cry before bed for other reasons:

How can I help?

To help your child fall asleep, check if he is cold. Perhaps you should change the diaper or change a position that is not entirely comfortable for him, which makes it difficult to fall asleep. Dressing children in looser clothes can often solve the problem.

In short, first make sure that crying is not associated with satisfaction physiological needs crumbs.

The reasons for a child's crying before bed are not always so harmless. When should you see a doctor? We recommend making an appointment with your pediatrician if your child:

  • does not calm down for a very long time;
  • constantly wakes up at night;
  • screams at night;
  • shudders when falling asleep;
  • if his chin trembles from time to time.

You should act immediately if children twitch in their sleep, sob and wake up, but at the same time eat well, are not overstressed and are not overloaded with information. There is a high probability of the initial stage of rickets - a dangerous childhood disease.

Please note the accompanying clinical symptoms that accompany this illness:

  • sudden fearfulness;
  • disruption of biological rhythms;
  • lethargy and lethargy;
  • excessive sweating;
  • unpleasant smell of sweat;
  • irritability and moodiness;
  • itching and redness of the skin;
  • constipation, diarrhea and so on.

A little more about the mode

If your child goes to bed every day different times, it is absolutely not surprising that he screams and is nervous, and it is difficult to fall asleep. What does correct mode mean? In addition to sleep, the child’s dosed acquisition of information is of great importance. In other words, parents need to protect him from any emotional shocks that could harm his nervous system.

In addition, it is extremely important to organize a full regular meals at the same time (but this does not apply to infants, they should eat when they are hungry).

Work on creating a good bedtime routine. For example, you can try relaxing baths with medicinal herbs- sage, lemon balm, chamomile and so on.

Without correct mode All hyperactive children with high excitability cannot do without it. IN in this case often the regime is the only the right option of all possible. Form the right associations with sleep in children.

You can create a certain sequence of actions that will help your baby calm down. Here is one possible scheme:

  • A calm game with concentration training (about 15 minutes).
  • Relaxing bath.
  • Lullaby song.
  • Turning on the night light in the children's room.
  • Falling asleep.
  • Healthy and deep sleep.

Fine known to the child the algorithm of habitual actions makes him calmer, gives him a feeling of protection and safety. As a result, the body absolutely naturally begins to fall asleep without additional effort on the part of the parents./p>

It is better to refuse to have guests at evening time, if possible, avoid active games and sudden emotional outbursts. In addition, it is not advisable for children to watch TV or play computer games before going to bed.

Let's sum it up

For young children, crying is a normal reflex reaction to a stimulus. If babies do not yet know how to talk, then they communicate their needs by crying, screaming and whims. This should be a signal for parents.

Do not forget that in some cases an appointment with a pediatrician is required, especially if crying before bed is a regular phenomenon and difficult to eliminate. Most likely, the pediatrician will redirect you to a neurologist and other specialists.

Difficulty falling asleep, poor quality of night sleep - it is very difficult to effectively cope with these and similar problems on your own.

Don't forget that for young children, sleep is just as important as good nutrition. So make sure your little ones always try to go to bed at the same time every day and sleep soundly. This is a guarantee wellness and proper development.

Your baby, your little happiness, before going to bed for the night, turns into a scandalous monster that simply drives parents crazy with its crying. And these are not empty whims! Most likely, your baby tells everyone around him about his problem.

Obvious problems include colic, teeth, colds and other diseases. In this case, you should pay attention to the health of the baby. But if the child is healthy, then the cause of the evening whims should be found in overwork. For babies aged 4 months and years to 6 years optimal time to start night sleep - from 18.00 to 20.00. Most parents adjust their child's daily routine to fit their own routine or established stereotypes, and as a result, they cannot understand why the child cries before bed. As a child, my parents always had a bedtime at 21.00, so they try to put their little one to bed at this time. But a baby’s biological clock works completely differently than we sometimes want. Early bedtime promotes quality sleep and prevents overwork, and therefore moodiness.

Often, problems with lying down occur in those children who previously suffered from colic. Such babies feel comfortable and sleep well only next to their mother, but now the mother goes to bed much later than the child needs! As a result, the baby cannot fall asleep without a guarantor of his peace of mind and becomes overtired.

Also, working parents who come home late at night often experience their child’s whims before bed. Mom and dad simply don’t have time to play with the baby and carry out all the necessary rituals before bed. As a result, he goes to bed late, gets overtired, and releases accumulated stress hormones by crying and screaming. In this case, it is better for parents to put the baby to bed early and postpone communication until the morning. This way, your baby’s sleep will not be disturbed, and you will get real pleasure from communicating with a well-rested baby.

It will be easy for you to notice the symptoms of fatigue in your toddler: rubbing eyes, hairs, yawning, less interest in games and the world around him. If you see such signals, and the time on the clock is already 18.00, then it’s time to get ready for bed. To help you fall asleep peacefully, create and perform a sleep ritual every evening that will put your baby in the right mood. By ritual we mean specific sequence simple actions that will calm the baby. This could be a massage, bathing, reading a book, a lullaby or something else. Be sure to create conditions for your baby to fall asleep: darken the room, create silence. If you pay attention to your baby's signs of fatigue and respond to them in a timely manner, he will fall asleep without tears or whims.

If your child cries a lot before going to bed, if the baby does not get enough sleep, sleeps insufficiently or poorly, then do not refuse professional help. Olga Snegovskaya is a well-known consultant on children's sleep, which will certainly help you cope with the problem that has arisen.
Contact details: phone +7 903 0117303, e-mail [email protected]

The sleep of a newly born baby is inextricably linked with emotional state moms. If she is nervous and irritated because the child does not fall asleep, the baby becomes even more capricious. It is with the help of the mother that the newborn enters correct rhythm life.

Emotional sunsets

You are already tired of the fact that every day at the same time your baby puts on a “concert”. This phase usually occurs between 18 and 22 hours, and it cannot be avoided, even if the day has passed quietly. The baby may cry for 1-2 hours, despite all attempts to calm him down. In fact, this is how the child frees himself from the stress accumulated during the day and moves from wakefulness to sleep. The baby, tired during the day from the abundance of new impressions, “switches off” only after fulfilling his “norm” of crying. It's imperfect, but nonetheless effective way self-soothing.

Older children may react to overwork by running around and screaming loudly, and an adult may lose his temper after a hard day at work.

Features of age

The first feature is that he is more superficial and sensitive, and this is the norm. Up to 6 months, sleep consists of two phases: restless at the beginning of the cycle and calm at the end (in adults, the alternation of phases is the opposite). During restless sleep the child tosses and turns a lot, smiles, frowns, and his eyes may be slightly open. No need to worry. This phase is necessary for normal functioning nervous system and to process the information received during the day.

The second feature is that newborns do not know about the existence of day and night! As a result, they may sleep a lot during the day and wake up at night, crying or hooting. The baby usually stops confusing day with night by the age of 1.5 months - at this time he begins to have a period of wakefulness tied to daytime. To help your child get things done biological clock, focus on the contrast between day and night: during the day, communicate more and play with your baby. During naps, do not darken the windows or maintain absolute silence. At night, on the contrary, create complete darkness, do not talk to the baby, if he wakes up, do not play with him.

Is silence necessary?

The sound of the TV and muffled voices will not. If the baby hears the soft background of a working washing machine, calm, muffled voices of the parents - he will get used to these sounds, will not be frightened by them in his sleep and, accordingly, will sleep better, and the parents will be able to continue doing their usual things without fear of waking up the baby. But sharp and loud sounds should still be avoided, as they can frighten the child.

Causes of poor sleep

Colic. Mitigate this process associated with settlement gastrointestinal tract microflora, it is possible if you do not rush with complementary foods and only feed the baby breast milk up to 4-6 months, as WHO currently recommends.

Teething. Soothing gels and massaging the gums with a toy from the refrigerator help.

Rickets- common reason sleep disorders in the first year of life. It is caused by a violation of phosphorus-calcium metabolism due to vitamin D deficiency. initial stages In rickets, there is always an increase in neuro-reflex excitability; this symptom can be clearly detected from 3-4 months, in some cases even earlier - from 1.5 months. The child develops anxiety, fearfulness, irritability, and sleep is noticeably disturbed. Children often startle, especially when falling asleep.

Emotional overload. Parents should supervise their child's activities before bedtime. 1-2 hours before bedtime, it is not advisable to watch TV or play active or noisy games.

Enlarged pharyngeal tonsils and adenoids, which cause snoring and restless sleep in about 5% of children aged 1-7 years. Inflamed tonsils and adenoids must be treated.