Crying spells can be triggered by a wide range of causes, from hormonal shifts and sleep loss to neurological conditions and medication side effects. Sometimes the cause is obvious, like grief or stress. Other times, the crying feels disproportionate to the situation or comes out of nowhere, which is usually what prompts people to search for answers. Understanding the most common triggers can help you figure out what’s behind your own experience.
Hormonal Shifts
Fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone are among the most common triggers for unexplained crying spells. These hormones directly influence the brain chemicals that regulate mood, so when levels drop or swing unpredictably, emotional reactions can intensify well beyond what feels normal.
In premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), crying spells typically hit during the luteal phase, the one to two weeks before a period, when both estrogen and progesterone drop sharply. They usually ease once bleeding starts. What makes PMDD different from ordinary PMS isn’t that hormone levels are abnormal. It’s that the brain is more sensitive to those fluctuations, amplifying the emotional response.
During perimenopause, the same mechanism gets worse. Estrogen and progesterone become erratic rather than cycling predictably, and women who were already sensitive to hormonal shifts often find their mood symptoms intensify. PMDD and perimenopause can overlap, making it harder to pinpoint the cause without tracking symptoms against your cycle.
The Postpartum Period
Most new mothers experience what’s commonly called the “baby blues,” which includes mood swings, crying spells, anxiety, and difficulty sleeping. These symptoms typically begin within two to three days after delivery and resolve within about two weeks. The cause is a dramatic drop in pregnancy hormones combined with exhaustion and the emotional weight of new parenthood.
Postpartum depression is different. It can develop within the first few weeks after birth, during pregnancy, or up to a year later. Unlike the baby blues, it doesn’t resolve on its own in two weeks. Untreated, postpartum depression can last many months or longer, and the crying spells it produces tend to be more persistent, more intense, and accompanied by feelings of hopelessness, guilt, or difficulty bonding with the baby.
Sleep Deprivation
Poor sleep doesn’t just make you tired. It fundamentally changes how your brain processes emotions. Brain imaging studies have shown that sleep deprivation amplifies activity in the amygdala, the brain’s emotional alarm system, while weakening its connections to the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for keeping emotional reactions in check. The result is that your brain overreacts to stimuli that wouldn’t normally faze you. Sleep-deprived people in one study rated significantly more images as emotionally charged compared to those who slept normally, suggesting that everything simply hits harder when you’re exhausted.
This helps explain why new parents, shift workers, caregivers, and people with insomnia are all more prone to crying spells. Even a few consecutive nights of poor sleep can lower your emotional threshold enough to produce tears over things that would normally feel manageable.
Depression, Anxiety, and Bipolar Disorder
Crying spells are one of the hallmark symptoms of major depression, but they also show up in generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and bipolar disorder. In depression, the crying often feels constant, heavy, and disconnected from any specific event. You may cry without being able to identify why, or find yourself unable to stop once you start.
In bipolar disorder, crying spells can appear during depressive episodes, but they also occur during what’s called a mixed episode. A mixed state involves symptoms of both depression and mania at the same time. You might feel intensely energized and restless while simultaneously feeling tearful and upset. This combination is particularly disorienting because the emotional signals conflict with each other.
The key distinction with mood disorders is pattern and duration. Crying spells that persist most days for two or more weeks, especially alongside changes in sleep, appetite, energy, or concentration, point toward a mood disorder rather than a situational trigger.
Pseudobulbar Affect
Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is a neurological condition that causes sudden, uncontrollable episodes of crying or laughing that don’t match your actual mood. You might burst into tears during a casual conversation or laugh at a funeral, fully aware that the reaction doesn’t reflect how you feel inside. The episodes are involuntary, often out of proportion to any trigger, and sometimes happen for no apparent reason at all.
PBA results from damage to the brain pathways that regulate emotional expression. It’s associated with a range of neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumors, and epilepsy. The prevalence is strikingly high: studies estimate PBA affects up to 50% of people with ALS, up to 48% of those with traumatic brain injury, and up to 46% of people with multiple sclerosis.
PBA is frequently misdiagnosed as depression because the crying looks similar on the surface. The critical difference is that in PBA, the crying doesn’t reflect your underlying emotional state. You may feel fine, or only mildly sad, and still cry intensely. There’s no definitive test for it. Diagnosis is based on symptom patterns, neurological history, and ruling out mood disorders.
Medications That Can Trigger Crying Spells
Several common medications can cause mood changes, depressed mood, or emotional instability as side effects. If your crying spells started or worsened after beginning a new medication, the drug itself may be the cause. The classes most commonly linked to mood disturbances include:
- Corticosteroids (like prednisone): can cause depression, euphoria, mania, and mood swings, sometimes within days of starting treatment
- Beta-blockers (used for blood pressure and heart conditions): linked to depression, insomnia, and nightmares
- Hormonal contraceptives: documented to cause depressed mood and mood changes
- Acne medications containing isotretinoin: associated with depression and behavioral changes
- Proton pump inhibitors (used for acid reflux): can cause depression, confusion, and agitation
- Asthma medications like montelukast: linked to depression, nightmares, and agitation
- Some antihistamines: can cause depression, agitation, and mood changes
- Certain antibiotics: associated with depression, confusion, and irritability
The important thing to know is that these side effects don’t always appear right away. Some develop gradually over weeks, making them easy to miss. If you suspect a medication is contributing, don’t stop it on your own, but bring it up with whoever prescribed it so you can explore alternatives.
Stress, Grief, and Emotional Overload
Not every crying spell has a medical explanation. Prolonged stress, grief, burnout, loneliness, and emotional exhaustion all lower the threshold for tears. Crying is a normal physiological response to emotional overload, and the body uses it as a release valve when other coping mechanisms are overwhelmed.
What distinguishes normal situational crying from something that needs attention is the pattern. Crying that tracks clearly to a stressful event, eases when the stressor resolves, and doesn’t interfere with daily functioning is usually part of a healthy emotional response. Crying that persists after the situation improves, feels uncontrollable, disrupts work or relationships, or is accompanied by other symptoms like changes in sleep or appetite may signal something deeper.
How to Tell What’s Behind Your Crying Spells
Because so many different conditions share this symptom, tracking a few details can help narrow the cause. Pay attention to timing: do the episodes cluster around your menstrual cycle, coincide with a medication change, or worsen with poor sleep? Notice whether the crying matches your mood. If you feel genuinely sad, that points toward depression or grief. If the crying feels disconnected from how you actually feel, PBA or medication effects are more likely.
Frequency and duration matter too. Occasional crying during a difficult stretch of life is expected. Crying spells that happen daily, last for weeks, or feel completely involuntary suggest a cause worth investigating with a healthcare provider, whether that turns out to be hormonal, neurological, psychiatric, or pharmacological.