Getting yourself to sleep and crying in your sleep are common problems affecting all people starting with the aged, toddlers, and senior individuals. In most cases, it can be considered as a sign of illness. Sometimes, the crying may involve some physical pains such as headaches and soar of the whole body.
In most circumstances, crying in your sleep increases your worrying rate, especially if it is a child or an aged person. Moreover, if you experience such a problem, ensure you seek medical help instantly and avoid assuming the problem since it can severely affect the body. This article gives many reasons why you cry in your sleep and the possible ways of managing the problem.
Reasons why people cry in sleep
Crying in your sleep is common and affects many people, especially older adults and children. The problem seems to be not that serious, but also avoid ignoring it since it can result in body pains such as ear infections. There are many reasons why you can cry in your sleep and are as discussed below.
- Nightmares
The first reason is nightmares. Sometimes, you can have nightmares while sleeping, which causes emotional fears. The fears usually feel real and create a lot of intensity.
Moreover, nightmares are brutal to remember when you wake up in the morning, but at times, you can remember the dream partially. Failure to remember the nightmare also increases sleeping problems since it causes many discomforts, giving the person a hard time sleeping while trying to recall the whole dream.
- Changes in sleep cycle stages
There are many sleeping cycles involved which transition from lighter sleep dreams to heavy sleep dreams. The cycle changes until you wake up in the morning. Sometimes, the cycle transition can upset an individual resulting in the person crying in his or her sleep.
For instance, you can undergo sleep transition stages and move in the bed while screaming endlessly. The transition movement can result in throwing away all beddings on the floor.
- Happy situations
While you are sleeping, you may have a dream involving a happy moment. Happy moments include; wedding ceremonies, birthday surprises, anniversary surprises, and the passing of an examination. Happy moment dreams result in one developing an emotional connection that can make you cry while sleeping.
The happy moments usually feel real, and in other circumstances, they can result in sleepwalking or even sleep-talking while crying. Combining sleepwalking and crying in your sleep can cause serious injuries such as physical body injuries.
- Sickness
Sometimes, you can cry in your sleep due to illness involving asthma, heartburns, cancer pain, physical pains such as ear infections, head injuries, among others. Also, sleeping at night can increase the pain, making you sicker than before. Moreover, illness diagnoses such as parasomnia happen when the person is sleeping, triggering crying emotions.
- Trauma
Latest trauma experiences such as trauma can result in one crying in sleep. For instance, the person might have been involved in a car accident. The accident can make one develop sleeping traumas whereby he or she keep dreaming of the accident. Also, trauma may result from sexual harassment, war involvement, and even physical beatings.
- Sorrow and grief
Instances such as grieving over the loss of a significant person can trigger emotions while sleeping. The sorrow can overburden the person resulting in nightmares. Moreover, if you are occupied during the day, the grieving emotions can be stimulated only at night when sleeping.
- Having night terrors
Night terrors are different from nightmares in that night terrors are difficult to remember after waking up. Night terrors are worse since they can result in many effects, such as sleep talking and sleepwalking. Moreover, there are many signs which indicate the person is having a night terror.
The signs include; breathing heavily, increased heartbeat rate, a lot of sweating, a lot of crying, sleep talking, and even sleepwalking. When one is experiencing a night terror, he or she can scream, sit upright in bed, sleepwalk, victim being confused though awake, unable to reply to conversation, and even turning now and then in bed. For children, night terrors require medication even though they are not dangerous.
In other cases, the person having a night terror can look scared and even cry when attempting to touch him or her. If you see your child or any person having such signs and symptoms, try calming the person, but contact a professional doctor
if the symptoms persist.
Several reasons cause night terrors, but other times, there are no night terror triggers. The causes include; a lot of stress, watching horror movies, loneliness, depression, anesthetic surgeries, and lacking sleep. Sometimes, night terrors can be caused by illnesses such as sleep apnea and restless legs illness.
How to manage crying in a sleep problem
When an individual experiences issues concerning crying while sleeping, it is advisable to try managing and to fix the condition before it becomes worse and uncontrollable. There are several ways in which you can control the situation and are discussed below.
Method 1: Rub the person’s back gently
Suppose you are close to the person crying while sleeping, also rub the back or stomach of that person gently to help transit the sleep cycle to a comforting cycle. Further, try talking to the victim gently and slowly to increase their sleep comfort and remove the experienced tension.
Method 2: Contact a pediatrician or a professional doctor
If the person is experiencing any sleep illness such as parasomnia, contact a pediatrician to help you identify the cause of the body pain and find the best way of easing the pain, especially for babies.
In addition to that, the pedestrian may give the victim the necessary medication to ease the pain, improving the person’s sleeping status. Moreover, call a professional doctor if the victim cries out with a lot of pain, increases nightmares and night terrors, and finally, if the crying becomes frequent.
Method 3: Ensure the victim is sleeping safely
There are several sleeping postures for everyone, starting from the babies to the old. For the babies, ensure they are sleeping on their back to prevent the discomfort that may arise, resulting in nightmares, night terrors, or even physical pain while sleeping. For the seniors, ensure they sleep in the recommended position, especially the side position to allow the person to sleep safely without any fear or grief.
Method 4: Keep the victim company
Loneliness can result in the victim experiencing nightmares. For instance, a child sleeping away from the parents can develop fear and tension while sleeping. The fear and tension experienced can lead to bad dreams, night terrors, among others. Night terrors and nightmares experienced can result in the child crying and sleeping while sleeping.
Therefore, it is advisable to keep the victim company during the night to prevent fear and tension in the child. Keeping the victim company enables them to sleep safely with a lot of courage, and it does not necessarily mean sleeping with the victim in one bed but sleeping with the victim in one room or one house if the victim is sleeping far away from the house.
Method 5: Monitor the victim’s sleeping cycle
Some victims have a constant transition cycle, which is easily identified. Examining the victim’s sleeping cycles helps you understand more about controlling the crying while sleeping. In this method, you can understand the best way of controlling the condition. For instance, if rubbing the victim’s back or stomach works best, consider applying the method.
Frequently asked questions:
- Which ways can I use to stop nightmares and night terror?
Stopping nightmares and night terrors is a process but does not necessarily need any medication. The following methods will help you stop both nightmares and night terrors.
1. Plan your sleeping schedule
Develop a regular sleeping schedule to help you develop good sleeping habits. Good sleeping habits include; avoid drinking coffee before sleeping, avoiding drinking alcohol to get adequate sleep, and avoiding using electronic machines like television. Instead, try to relax your body muscles, read interesting novels or books, and take a bath before sleeping.
2. Visit a therapist
It is crucial to talk to someone about the nightmares and night terrors you are experiencing. Moreover, it is advisable to talk to a therapist because some causes of nightmares and night terrors involve stress, trauma, sickness, depression after grieving, among others.
The therapist can give you the best ways to control the level of stress and depression you are experiencing. Come up with the best tools you can use to cope up with stress or depression, such as biofeedback, among others.
Conclusion
Nightmares, night terrors, sickness, among others, can cause you to cry while sleeping. The problem affects everyone, although they are more common in babies and growing children. Luckily, the information above will help you understand the causes of the cry in sleep problem and the different ways of managing or controlling the problem.
Further, the article above gives more detail on night terrors and nightmares and the best ways of controlling them. Moreover, ensure you follow the information above carefully, such as developing a sleeping schedule. Finally, it is advisable to consult a healthcare provider and avoid ignoring the problem.
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