We have all heard this expression…. “crying myself to sleep”.  Maybe, most of us have even done it a few times.  Literally, crying, and the production of tears, has positive physiological benefits for us.  The one that stands out the most to me is the stress reduction shedding tears can accomplish.  One article I read stated the following about stress and toxins in our bodies.

 

 

 

Crying can elevate mood.

Do you know what your manganese level is? No, neither do I. But chances are that you will feel better if it’s lower because overexposure to manganese can cause bad stuff: anxiety, nervousness, irritability, fatigue, aggression, emotional disturbance and the rest of the feelings that live inside my happy head rent-free. The act of crying can lower a person’s manganese level. And just like with the toxins I mentioned in my last point, emotional tears contain 24 percent higher albumin protein concentration – responsible for transporting many small molecules (which has to be a good thing, right?) – than irritation tears.

 

Crying lowers stress.

Tears really are like perspiration in that exercising and crying both relieve stress. For real. In his article, Bergman explains that tears remove some of the chemicals built up in the body from stress, like the endorphin leucine-enkaphalin and prolactin, the hormone I overproduce because of my pituitary tumor that affects my mood and stress tolerance. The opposite is true too. Bergman writes, “Suppressing tears increases stress levels, and contributes to diseases aggravated by stress, such as high blood pressure, heart problems, and peptic ulcer

 

Now it is one thing to cry yourself to sleep, but another thing to watch someone else do this.  Especially a baby. One of the hardest things a parent has to do is watch, as their little one attempts to learn how to comfort themselves, how to trust that they can relax in their little cage called a crib, and allow “the sandman” to sprinkle sleepy sands in their eyes.  This smiling, sweet child of 30 minutes ago, has become a screaming, tear stained, flailing alien who is ONLY comforted by being picked up.  

 

Let the sleep games begin!

 

Once they are safe in your arms, they snuggle up close, get warm and comfortable, and you can begin to see the sleep effects taking place.  Eyes roll back in their head, hands, arms and legs go limp, breathing becomes deep and regular.

 

Thank goodness… because your back is killing you right?  So we gently lean over and place this precious bundle of joy into their crib to be rewarded with crying anew and the cycle starts over.  

 

Don’t lie…

 

If you had or currently do have kids, you ignored the “put them to bed sort of asleep, NEVER pick them up and confuse them, and for heaven’s sake let them cry it out” rules.  WHAT… you did all those steps right?

 

 Come on….

 

We all come to this place where our little sweethearts have figured us out.  They know what make us smile and what makes our hearts break as well. That pitiful call for rescue at midnight, 1, 3, 4, ad infinitum is a killer.  Add the pitifulness of the sounds emanating from our precious bundles of joy to the fact that parents are EXHAUSTED, we look for every which way we can to make this process proceed in the most painless way possible. And when I say painless, I mean, how to make sure mommy and daddy get to sleep through this time period.  

 

Unfortunately, just like most things in life – there is no shortcut here.  In fact, while we all look for the shortcut (I know I did), the reality is that we come to the place where we just have to bear down and endure the pain.  And the tears.  Both from baby and parents. And maybe even grandparents. Maybe if we join in with the tears, some of the stress caused by the tears will melt away.

 

Shortcuts only hurt us in life.  

 

What they do is teach us to cheat.

 

 And cheaters never win.

 

 So go the hard way.

 

 Cry through the pain.

 

Push through the night.

 

Because Joy comes in the morning.

 

I read that somewhere….. (wink).