Why a newborn cannot sleep and cries

Often, parents of children of different ages are faced with a situation where the child has very difficulty falling asleep at night. If the problem is difficult to correct, panic often sets in. It is important to remember that childhood insomnia is not always a symptom of a sluggish or hidden disease. There are many reasons for it: nervous overstrain, developmental features, unbalanced daily routine, the restless nature of the baby himself, incorrect sleeping place and lack of proper preparation for going to bed.

So, what to do if your child has trouble falling asleep in the evening? Is it possible to solve the problem on your own, without going to the doctor, and in what situations is the help of a specialist desirable?

Difficulty falling asleep in children: characteristics of the problem

When a child begins to have difficulty falling asleep in the evenings, parents either panic or do not take any measures, believing that this condition will normalize after a while.

Both approaches are not entirely correct. To overcome insomnia, it is important to know what causes it to appear at a certain age.

Prerequisites and signs of development of the disorder

As a rule, insomnia is one of the symptoms of pathologies of internal organs or other diseases, violations of sleep hygiene and daily routine. It can also be triggered by physiological or psychological factors.

It is important to remember that each age has its own reasons for the development of insomnia. Let's take a closer look at them.

During the newborn period

According to Dr. Komarovsky, in infancy a child may have difficulty falling asleep for physiological reasons. A newborn may suffer from hunger, colic, he is either too hot or cold, or he does not feel the warmth of his mother. All these factors lead to the fact that a month-old baby cannot sleep for a long time and accompanies dissatisfaction with the situation with loud crying.

It is important to know! If parents notice that the baby does not really sleep not only at night, but also during the day, and does not stop crying, then this is a reason to immediately consult a doctor.

In children 1-1.5 years old

A one-year-old toddler begins to actively explore the world around him. At this time, many people are still teething, which causes inconvenience. Also, by the age of one and a half years, many new foods begin to be added to the little person’s diet, to which the body must get used. All this can contribute to the child having difficulty falling asleep and taking a long time to fall asleep.

In children aged 1.5 years, some pathologies may begin to secretly manifest themselves; one of the symptoms will be problems with sleep.

At the age of 2-3 years

At this time, many children are sent to kindergarten or nursery, and the kids begin to actively comprehend the world around them outside their home. All this can provoke severe stress, which will subsequently lead to the development of insomnia. Also at this time, many babies begin to refuse daytime rest, and even if they sleep, they are full of energy in the evening and it is not easy to persuade them to go to bed.

When the child is 5-6 years old

At this age, the baby usually attends kindergarten and gains access

to TV and computer. Problems with falling asleep at this time can be caused by psycho-emotional factors, for example, difficulties arise in communicating with peers, and people begin to defend their “I” in clashes with parents. At the age of 6, some children begin to go to school, and for a growing body, changing daily routines, the need to attend classes, and demanding adults can become a serious source of everyday stress.

Attention! Often, children aged 5–6 years uncontrollably watch movies and cartoons that are not suitable for children. Therefore, the child will begin to suffer from nightmares at night, which is why he will often wake up, and then toss and turn without sleep for a long time and will not be able to sleep.

Consequences of prolonged sleep

The main negative consequence is disruption of the daily routine. Therefore, in the evening, babies are full of energy and do not want to go to bed, and during the day they become lethargic and drowsy, and children may start crying.

In addition, in the absence of adequate sleep, the body's defenses are weakened, children grow more slowly and are more susceptible to various ailments. Problems with mental development may often appear.

Falling asleep: how to help your child

In the case of a child, you need to ask the same questions. And eliminate the cause.

1. Too short a time of wakefulness preceding night sleep. For example, a child got up late after a nap. Then it’s logical to shift your bedtime a little. Of course, you need to adhere to a certain daily routine, but don’t follow it fanatically. You should not keep a child in bed who, for reasons known to you, does not want to sleep at all. There is no crime in the fact that a child falls asleep an hour later. It is more important that he falls asleep with pleasure.
2. Difficulty switching from activity to sleep. If a child who is jumping around the room on a ball is removed from this ball and placed in bed, then the child will jump there too. It's like pulling an adult out of important negotiations and saying: “Sleep!” No, he won’t fall asleep. He will go over the arguments of his opponents in his head and calculate the consequences of disrupted negotiations.

The fact that it is time to sleep is clear to an adult, but not clear to a child. For a child, the phrase “It’s time to go to bed!” - a complete surprise. And surprise is stress: you didn’t have time, you didn’t finish. Give your child a chance to finish the game. Warn in advance that it will be bedtime soon. Teach your child to finish the game by playing out the story with him: “The cars went to the garage,” “The dolls went to bed.” Switch your child from active games to calm ones in advance, since calm games make the transition to sleep easier. Consider a falling asleep ritual - a familiar sequence of actions that will set you up for sleep.

1. The presence of an external stimulus that interferes with falling asleep (light, sound). Try to remove the irritant or reduce its impact.
2. The irritant inside is an obsessive thought, fear, doubt. Talk to your child about this topic. Just ask a question and then listen carefully. The baby will tell you what is bothering him.
3. Physical discomfort (new pillow of unusual height, scratchy pajamas, hot, stuffy). The simplest solution is to create comfortable conditions.

True, a tired child is able to fall asleep sitting on the threshold in outerwear or on a rug near the sofa, curled up on top of Lego pieces, or even with a spoon in his hand over a bowl of soup... If a child does not want to sleep, maybe he lacks physical activity?

1. Stressful situation, new conditions (you have to fall asleep in a new place, there are new people in the house for the child, the usual ritual of falling asleep is not performed). This happens when you travel. Give your child time to adapt and get used to an unfamiliar situation. Let him get used to the new place, communicate with previously unfamiliar people, explore everything that is of interest to him, and make sure that he is safe. And then try to follow the ritual of falling asleep - if not all, then at least some elements.
2. Tension, overexcitement. Wash the baby. Get a relaxing massage. You can say something quietly. Calm, measured, monotonous speech has a calming effect. Read a book of fairy tales. In any folklore there are “soporific” works.
3. The child has formed a negative attitude towards sleep, and he “turns on” resistance. To sneak out of bed, a child can come up with a thousand and one reasons. He may actively sabotage your request to go to sleep or manipulate you. Jokers say about this behavior: “At the word ‘sleep’, the child is attacked by thirst, hunger and constipation...”

In this case, make sure that the bed evokes only positive emotions in the child. Together with him, figure out how to decorate it, choose bed linen together, preferably with a pattern that evokes sleep (I have children’s linen with sleeping bear cubs in pajamas, with owls against the background of a starry sky - dark, restrained colors). Let there be a “sleepy” toy in the bed that is already bored and calls the baby to join.

With sufficient daytime activity, quiet playtime before bed, adherence to the bedtime ritual, and a positive attitude towards the place of sleep, the child easily falls asleep. Don't make him sleep. Create conditions for falling asleep.

Solution

For such a phenomenon as insomnia in childhood, there are several methods for solving it. You can use one or combine them to obtain a pronounced effect.

You should familiarize yourself with the options for getting rid of insomnia in more detail.

Advice from child psychologists

Despite their young age, even the tiniest infants can experience stress, which leads to insomnia. Also during this period of time, it is especially important for children to feel the love and protection of their mother; a deficiency of such sensations leads to various disorders, and insomnia is no exception. To make it easier to fall asleep in the evening and improve your relationship with your baby, child psychologists give the following advice:

• You should build a trusting relationship with your child, so that if a problem arises, he will first tell his mom and dad about it, and not other relatives or friends.
• You should maintain a positive atmosphere at home based on love, care and respect. Young children feel nervousness very acutely, and it is transmitted to them.
• If a child comes with a problem, do not make fun of him, but try to find the optimal solution together.
• You should prohibit watching any television programs before going to bed. Too funny ones will stimulate the nervous system, scary ones will cause nightmares and tears.

If you take into account all the above factors, it will be possible to reduce the level of tension at home and answer the question of why your child has difficulty falling asleep in the evening.

Optimal conditions for sleep

Perhaps the most important point. In a well-organized bedroom, the baby will fall asleep faster, and sleep will be serene and uninterrupted throughout the night.

To do this, certain conditions must be met:

1. The room must be thoroughly cleaned and ventilated every day, the air in it must always be fresh.
2. The optimal air temperature is no higher than 22 degrees. A room that is too warm or cold will make it difficult for your baby to sleep.
3. It is important to choose a bed that matches your age and height, as well as a special orthopedic mattress and pillow.
4. The room must have excellent sound insulation so that sounds from outside do not disturb children's sleep.
5. Ideally, you should completely avoid light during your night's rest. If the baby shows anxiety, then you need to limit yourself to one dim night light.
6. Before going to bed, you can give your child warm milk to drink; it has a beneficial effect on the process of falling asleep.

Evening rituals

Many experts emphasize the importance of creating special rituals that will quietly prepare the child for bedtime. They might look like this:

1. First, parents take their baby for a leisurely evening walk in the fresh air. It is extremely important to prevent active and active games during this time.
2. After returning from the street, the child is given a light dinner, which will satisfy hunger, but will not cause heaviness in the stomach.
3. Then comes the turn of swimming. For a baby bath, you can use shampoos and shower gels that contain plant extracts that have a sedative effect on the central nervous system. The water should be warm; cold or hot water can negatively affect the process of falling asleep.
4. After this, you can read a book to your child and sing a lullaby.
5. When the baby begins to fall asleep, you should wish him good night, turn off the lights completely or leave the night light dim and leave the room.

Rituals such as the one described above create the necessary mood for the child to go to bed.

Advice! It is important to remember: the established order should be strictly adhered to, only then will it have the required impact.

Medicines and herbal medicine

Most pediatricians have a negative attitude towards the use of any medications for insomnia in young children. Such drugs will initially be able to solve the problem of falling asleep, but parents run the risk of encountering new troubles: the child may become drowsy during the day, and side effects often occur after taking medications. In addition, there is no need for a growing body to start using chemicals from early childhood; this will serve a disservice at an older age.

In the case of herbal medicine, doctors also do not give a definite answer. Herbal preparations and infusions should be used if the child does not have allergic reactions to them. Then, before going to bed, it would be a good idea to add a few drops of lavender oil, which has a sedative effect, to your bathtub. As a nightly drink, you can give your baby tea with chamomile or valerian, which will help you fall asleep faster.

Advice! In any case, before deciding whether to use sleeping pills, you should consult your doctor. A specialist, in case of urgent need, will be able to select the right medicine or medicinal herb, which will protect the baby and his parents from negative consequences.

Separately, it is worth touching on such a topic as prayers and conspiracies. Some people believe in solving problems this way. Nothing bad will happen if a believer prays before going to bed for the health of his child. But it is still worth refusing the recommendations of traditional medicine. After all, even in monasteries, for a long time, in addition to verbal influence, plant-based medicines were used to eliminate various pathologies, including insomnia.

The child wants to sleep but cannot fall asleep, what should I do?

The seemingly logical statement “if a child wants to sleep, he will fall asleep” does not work in reality with a baby who cries and does not fall asleep, although the parents have already tried all the methods.

Why can't my child sleep?

Physiology

First of all, the reason is in physiology, or more precisely, in hormones. If the baby does not fall asleep at the usual time, he simply “overstayed” his waking time - the time that he can withstand without stress to the nervous system, his body begins to produce the hormone cortisol, which activates the nervous system. Cortisol is an antagonist of the “sleep hormone” melatonin and acts on a child like a cup of strong coffee. And until cortisol is destroyed, the baby will not be able to sleep, although he will be exhausted and want to sleep. Therefore, he may cry and seem to resist sleep, bend over, refuse the breast, pacifier, bottle, but this does not mean at all that he does not want to sleep - the point is cortisol, which prevents a peaceful sleep.

Incorrect sleep conditions and incorrect sleep associations

The second reason is incorrect sleep conditions and incorrect sleep associations. For example, a mother took her one-year-old baby to a children's birthday party. The holiday starts at 12. Mom thinks: “great, we’ll go to bed right after it,” but as a result, the child gets overexcited, receiving a lot of emotions (loud sounds, laughter, music, light, a lot of new people) and at the time when mom rushes to put him to bed immediately after the holiday, he refuses to sleep.

The mother is worried that the child is not sleeping, she begins to get nervous, and it becomes difficult for her to restrain her emotions. As a result, mom's cortisol adds tension to the situation.

We offer you some tips for such a case when bedtime has already been missed, the baby cries and cannot fall asleep, although it is obvious that he needs sleep.

How to help your baby sleep?

A failed dream or a crying baby is a stressful, alarming situation. To correct it, you need to start with yourself. Remember the rule “put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then on the child”? To do this, you can exhale, count to ten and remind yourself that there are no hopeless situations with sleep.

After self-soothing, strength may appear to calm the child. If he cries and arches, take him to a quiet place, try to switch his attention to unusual, not too harsh sounds, to some object, image that is unfamiliar to him, show him a thing with a new texture for him, let him touch it.

When the baby calms down a little, wash his face and offer him some water to drink or offer your breast.

Don’t worry about the “broken regime”; now the most important thing is to give the child the opportunity to regain strength. Therefore, do not look at the time or the schedule, but help your baby calm down by creating favorable conditions for him to fall asleep in comfort, silence and darkness. If the baby is 0-5 months old, he can be swaddled. Babies up to 3-4 months are calmed by associations reminiscent of the conditions of the uterus.

For older children, you can sing songs, rock them, just hold them in your arms - mother’s smell and mother’s warmth are the components that can calm a child, perhaps, of any age.

When the baby calms down, stay close, don’t leave, take care of the long-awaited sleep.

Even a short sleep will allow the child to regain strength.

The main recipe for healthy sleep: remember that there are no hopeless situations with sleep, do not panic if you miss sleep, create conditions for the baby to sleep, and in the future - monitor the baby’s waking hours and signs of fatigue.

Frequent Waking Melatonin Cortisol Signs of Fatigue

Signs of Overfatigue TimeWaking ConditionsSleep QualitySleep AssociationsSleep Cortisol Endorphin Adrenaline Lack of sleep

Parents' mistakes

Parents themselves are often to blame for the onset of childhood insomnia. They often allow the following factors to occur that negatively affect the process of falling asleep in children:

1. The room in which the child sleeps is not intended for this, or the sleeping place is uncomfortable.
2. The rest of the family does not want to remain quiet when the baby is put to bed.
3. The child spends little time outside, mostly sits in front of the TV or plays with a tablet, and plays with toys for a long time before going to bed.
4. Active games are allowed before going to bed.
5. Parents do not pay enough attention to maintaining the daily routine.
6. There is a nervous atmosphere at home.
7. Visiting kindergarten causes a lot of stress for the child, but adults do not try to understand the situation.
8. Children have latent, indolent diseases, while parents prefer self-medication and do not consider it necessary to show young patients to specialists.

All of the above factors significantly influence the occurrence of insomnia in children of different ages. If desired, all of the above problems can be corrected.

Adequate sleep is extremely important for a growing body, since it is during the night's rest that increased cell division occurs and the baby accumulates strength for a new day. When the first signs of childhood insomnia appear, do not panic. Sometimes optimizing a child's sleeping place helps to cope with insomnia. If the measures taken do not give any effect, then the little patient should be shown first to a pediatrician, and then to specialized specialists - a neurologist and a somnologist. Only a doctor can find out the cause of insomnia and take the necessary measures to eliminate it.

Causes of poor sleep in babies

Faced with such a problem as a child’s lack of sleep in the evening, parents are often lost and cannot take adequate action without outside help. At the same time, the baby has trouble falling asleep in the evening, but sleeps normally during the day.

It is important to know that the occurrence of difficulties with laying down indicates the presence of illness or a change in the baby's routine.

According to Dr. Komarovsky, the reasons may be as follows:

• lack of desire to sleep in the baby;
• the child has confusion with day and night;
• the newborn is hungry, thirsty, or the baby is in pain;
• the psychological and emotional mood of the parent - depression and overwork have a bad effect on the child’s ability to fall asleep;
• feeling of discomfort - wet diaper, uncomfortable pajamas;
• lighting and noise in the room - loud sounds and bright lights have a negative impact on the baby;
• the newborn shows excessive activity and emotions before going to bed;
• Overexcitement is one of the main reasons for poor sleep at night.

According to Komarovsky, the factor why the baby does not fall asleep well may be the absence or change in the established bedtime routine. It is necessary to create an accurate daily schedule for the child based on his individuality. For example, bathing or reading will be associated with subsequent falling asleep.

Thus, the appearance of insomnia is possible during transitional moments. When the baby walks soon, he will talk or as his teeth grow. You should wait out these moments, sleep will return to normal.

If the situation in the room has changed or the baby is afraid to fall asleep alone at night, this can also provoke a difficult bedtime.

The effects of various ailments can interfere with healthy sleep:

• asthma;
• heartburn;
• cold;
• ear infection;

If you find out the true reason why your child has difficulty falling asleep at night, you can easily adjust bedtime.

Unmet needs

An older person, for example, 1-1.5 years old, may feel hungry or want to pee. Unlike adults, children need to eat before going to bed.

In addition, there are several important rules that will make it easier for you to put your baby to bed:

• Place the baby in different positions that are comfortable for the mother. Because the mother has the biological right to choose a position, as the leader in the mother-baby pair.
• Do not create special conditions for daytime sleep - silence, darkness, etc., all this will complicate falling asleep in unusual conditions.
• After 3 months, exclude dreams on the street - otherwise addiction will appear, which is not always convenient. In addition, sleeping on the street creates unnecessary difficulties for the child in the form of air movements, exhaust gases and other emissions, which are concentrated precisely at the level of the stroller. It is better to ventilate the room well before going to bed.
• Keep your baby active and awake so he can fall asleep better.

Observe your child, his signals, his condition. Show love and patience. You will succeed! Yes, sometimes children are like little aliens with whom it is not clear how to handle and how to decipher their language. If you feel this way, check out these awesome courses for new mothers that will definitely help you:

"Natural Parenthood: Myths and Reefs"

"Secrets of Happy Motherhood"