Lead
Two in the morning. The child cries. You pick up, the crying stops. You put them down, they cry again. After the third round, lying awake at 4 a.m. wondering whether something is wrong, you are not alone.
"Night waking" (yonaki in Japanese, used broadly for any nighttime crying) covers at least two distinct phenomena that are worth separating: the waking itself, and what happens afterward — specifically, whether the infant can return to sleep independently or signals for help. That distinction changes how the problem looks and what, if anything, can be done about it.