Why Does My Baby Always Wake Up Crying – Reasons And Prevention Tips

It’s the middle of the night, and you wake up to your little one crying again! Life as a parent is hard. Due to your little one waking up again and again in one night, it is almost impossible to get a good night’s sleep.

But you must be wondering why it is that your baby always wakes up crying. It doesn’t matter if they are sleeping in their nursery or just beside you; they cry every time.

A natural sleep cycle is only 30-45 minutes for a baby, and while you may think your baby only needs 30-40 minutes of naps throughout the day, they are likely waking after that amount of time and unable to transition into the next sleep cycle on their own. While this is a significant reason for your little one not getting enough sleep, there are other reasons why your baby usually wakes up crying.

We will discuss other reasons you want to know more about why your baby always wakes up crying.

While unable to complete their sleep cycle might be troubling them, other things could be disturbing them too. Let’s take a look down below what might be causing them to wake up crying and what you can do to prevent it.

Reasons Why Your Baby Wakes up Crying

You might be wondering if breaking the sleep cycle is the only reason why your baby is waiting up in the middle of the night, crying out loud. But there are other important reasons which you should know about and take care of.

You might not even know, but there are things that you can control and make better to make sure your little one gets all the necessary sleep.

Your Baby’s Sleep Cycle

Your Baby's Sleep Cycle

Babies don’t have a fixed sleep schedule, and they cannot make themselves follow a schedule. As babies tend to feel hungry soon, their sleep schedule is the same way. Like adults, babies cannot form a more extended sleep schedule and can only be trained to develop one over time.

You might be aware of the five stages of sleep where a person falls asleep into a light sleep and then to deep sleep with each stage. This cycle repeats itself throughout the whole night.

While adults can go through each stage and complete their required sleep, babies cannot follow the same.

When passing through light sleep, your little one will generally wake up, and it’s because their sleep isn’t complete, yet they tend to cry as they wake up.

Nighttime Feeding

Nighttime Feeding

As your little one starts growing up, there are some changes and issues they might face, affecting their sleeping schedule. One of those changes is nighttime feeding. When your baby is habitual to this kind of feeding at night and when you are transitioning them from not feeding them at nighttime to morning.

They generally miss this ritual and end up crying when not able to feed anymore at night. It might be hard at first, but you just need to make sure they fall asleep and not give in to their habit of feeding at night and make sure to stick to the transition.

Obviously, this is for older babies only. If you have a newborn, then they need to be fed after every 2 hours, as little as it might be.

Inconsistent Schedule

There needs to be a fixed time and schedule for everything. As adults, we can adjust our body and mind according to the priorities and the work needed to be complete, but your baby cannot do that.

Babies are very sensitive to change. Even the slightest change in their surroundings or feeding time and sleeping time can mess up their mood.

As a parent, you can’t take risks with your baby’s sleeping schedule. It needs to be fixed, and you need to make sure to follow it every day. If their sleeping routine is inconsistent, they might wake up crying at random times, which would affect your sleep too!

Baby is Teething

A teething baby is usually troubled by the pain caused in the process at random times.

You must have noticed that when your baby starts teething, they have this need to chew on something. This is because their gums swell up and are irritated by the teething process.

So pain can be at random times, even when they are sleeping. When the whole process starts, make sure to buy soft teething toys for your little one and seek advice from your pediatrician. They’ll give you some meds required during this process to make it easier for your little one.

Separation Anxiety

An infant boy, who was crying in his crib before, is now happy to see his moms face next to him.

There is separation anxiety in your baby sometimes when you suddenly start sleeping apart from them. When you are transitioning their sleeping spot from near you to another nursery, it can create these anxiety issues, and they start crying in the middle of their sleep when unable to find you.

You have to be very careful with how you deal with this situation. This usually happens when your baby gets too used to be around you all the time, and they seem to cling to you all the time.

What to do When Your Baby Wakes Up in the Night?

What to do When Your Baby Wakes Up in the Night?

After knowing the reasons mentioned above why your little one wakes up in the night crying, you should know about what to do when they do wake up. Your little one has woken up in the middle of the night, and all you want to do is sleep.

So what do you do to make sure your baby sleeps quickly so you can go to bed too!

  • Make sure that all the lights and blinds are down. If there are noises or any lights on that might disrupt your little one’s sleep too.
  • Make sure if they need a diaper change or not. Sometimes it’s one of the most manageable problems to tackle that goes unnoticed.
  • Try to soothe your little one while they are sleeping in the crib by patting them gently. Resist the urge to pick them up and rock them to sleep, as this makes your little one cling to you more. Only pick them up if they are crying too much, and you can’t soothe them otherwise.
  • Also, make sure if your baby is old enough and gets to eat in the daytime that they aren’t throwing tantrums by getting up in the night to get you to feed them. Making a schedule for them to sleep through the night is important for older babies, and you need to follow it.

How to Prevent Night Waking?

There are things that you can do before your baby falls asleep at night that can help them have a longer sleep and get you some sleep, too, without disruptions.

Let’s take a look at some of the things that might help you and your little one:

  • First and foremost is developing a good schedule for the little one. Children always mimic their parents or their older sibling. If you want your baby to sleep longer, you need to develop a schedule for them and yourself and the whole family. When you sleep on time, your baby will sleep too. As babies are sensitive to change if their sleeping schedule is inconsistent, they will keep waking up at night crying.
  • Naps are an essential part of your little one’s day-to-day life. Babies tend to get tired or hungry pretty easily and quickly. So, make sure they get to nap during the day, and it should be fixed. As a mother of a newborn, doctors suggest getting the same amount of naps with your baby.
  • Make sure that you feed your baby well before you put them to sleep and burp them. Check if their diaper needs a change too. The basic needs are taken care of, and you won’t have to worry about them.
  • Just an hour before you want your baby to sleep, start making things slow down. Don’t create an environment of high energy at home. Definitely don’t put them near their toys. Try to read books to them to create a sleepier environment. Don’t give them any screen time at all.

To Summarize

So we discussed why your baby is waking you in the middle of the night crying, the dos and don’ts that you should keep in mind, and what you can do to make sure both you and your little one have a peaceful night.

If your little one is waking you at night, that is completely fine as long as they aren’t crying. Babies don’t have a longer sleep cycle and tend to wake up in 2-3 hours. They will fall asleep soon, so don’t be too worried about it. Hope this article will help you get more sleep!

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As a writer for 1happykiddo, Saumya wants to help new parents and older siblings help raise the newest member added to the family. Her parenting tips come from her experience of being 15 years older than her youngest sibling. When not writing, you can find her reading novels, traveling, and cooking nutritious meals.

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