My Daughter Is Crying in Her Sleep

Looks like you've got great responses for this one. I was going to tell you to take her to the doctor too. My 4 year old used to cry to, never ran a fever, or showed signs of being sick, but always had ear infections when she did this! Weird that there were no real signs for me to see, but I'm glad you took her in.

E.

My 3 yr. old does this all the time. My now 5 yr. old did this alot when she was 3 & 4 yrs old.

Sometimes I think it's when they just did too much during the day & they are just restless in their sleep rather than sleeping hard. My 3 yr. old is hard to soothe (when she's sleeping). Usually I'll rub her back but then she gets madder at me (when she's sleeping). I don't understanad. So I just check on her to make sure nothing is hurting her & then I go back to bed.

Sorry I can't help much but you're not the only one who is experiencing this.

My 4 year old daughter (also Emma =)) does that occassionally. We usually cannot wake her up and if we try to interfere, she gets more upset. I've had the most success just picking her up and hugging her, rubbing her back, etc. to soothe her back to sleep. She is very sensitive, so some one elses suggestion of something bad happening that day could be a possibility.

My parents said that my brother did that when he was a baby (very often and would walk around - scared them a lot) and the only way they got him out of it was putting him in front of the TV or turning on music. I guess that got his mind to something else. He would wake up and go back to bad. We haven't gotten to the point where we've tried that yet.

That's all I've got. I'm curious to see what other advice you get. Good luck!

B.

Hi C.,

I know it seems really sad to us, but they genuinely don't remember it in the morning since they are sleeping. I think you going in to soothe her is pretty much all you can do for her at the time. I'm thinking it might just be a phase that will hopefully pass soon, because it's probably more stressful for you than her.

By the way, I love all three of your little girls' names. They're beautiful names!

Good luck - I hope this passes soon!

C.

Just a thought, a friend of ours has a daughter and when she was 3 years old, she would do the same thing. Not sure how they figured it out, but they shared with us that she was going through a growth spurt. Said it's happened a few times where she'd cry in the middle of the night.

Anywho - just a thought. Have you shared this info with your doctor?

Blessings,
J.

Have you tried to wake her up and ask her about the dream -- why she's crying? It may help her to talk about it. I'm sure she will fall back to sleep, even if you talk for about 1-2 minutes.

My daughter did this once. It was just a bad dream, and she didn't wake up on her own.

This is pretty much normal. I have 2 kids one is 3 and the other is 1. The oldest one did it real bad. The only thing the doctor is telling me is she is having some sort of a dream. If the patting the back doesn't work, then just kind of listen to make sure she calms down. Also, if you watch her and she starts flipping and flopping and screaming out, do not wake her up. That is one of the worst things you can do. Let them come out of the dream or nightmare by themself, then hold them and pat them to calm them down.

I know I'm not 3, but my husband has to wake me up all the time because I'm crying in my sleep. I have done this forever according to him. If I can remember my dream when he wakes me up, I'm having a nightmare. I guess if she's not remembering what was going on in her sleep-that's good. Poor baby.

Our 4 year old will do that on occasion. We will gently wake him up and then stay with him until he falls back asleep, which generally does not take that long. It is the sadest thing isn't it?

My daughter did this a lot when she was 3. There were a lot of changes going on at her daycare. She was having night terrors and touching her or having any contact with her made her meaner. We could only stand by and make sure she didn't hurt herself. After about 20 minutes she'd calm down and settle into sleep again. As things smoothed out at daycare her sleep got better. Now when she cries out in her sleep I know someting is bothering her. I start asking questions when she's awake and then explain the situation so she's not afraid and that usually solves the sleep problems. Going on a campout for the first time disturbed her sleep. Once I knew she was worried about being alone, I was able to tell her that she wouldn't be alone, that Daddy would be there and then she was fine.
Good luck.

She probably having night terrors. My son did that, too. He doesn't do that so much anymore. If she seems fine in the morning, I wouldn't worry too much about it. There's not much you can do about bad dreams anyway as much as you would like to. They are just going to happen. Maybe keep an eye on what she watches during the day or what she's doing. Maybe she's being overloaded with something?

I've done the same thing for as long as I can remember. Cry in my sleep and sing in my sleep. Go figure! Anyway, I think it's just a way for her to relieve stress and nothing to worry about...well except maybe to allieviate any stress she may have. Even if nothing is going on to cause her anxiety (a new teacher at school? New friends? Change of routine? etc) she still might do it. Like I said, I've done it for years and I relate it to someone talking in their sleep. No big deal.

I have some experience with this too. To some degree, it's the person, but consider these too.
1-Needs to go to the bathroom.
2-Scary TV, movie or story.
3-Having gotten in trouble during the day.
4-Quarreling with siblings or other children.

These generally happen when my four year old is really sleeping hard from an extra busy day. I gently wake her and "direct" her to dream about pleasant things like butterflies or gentle specific things that she loves, but my first question is to ask her if she needs to use the potty. That usually works, but in a severe case, I would put some classical lullabys on softly with encouragement to "float away to dreamland".
She also seems comforted by her favorite Teddy.
Hope this helps,
C. S.