Sleep Deprivation. It’s a KILLER. When we have a child, we all expect to some degree to suffer from a little bit of sleep deprivation. We’re told, repeatedly how we will “never sleep again” or to “make the most of the lie ins”, so when the baby arrives and you feel like an extra from the Walking Dead. you aren’t necessarily surprised. You stock up on coffee, you series link the box sets and you wear your “approach with caution” pin badge, but you get through it… because it’s short lived.
You do however expect that at some point, you will regain some of the time you spend with your pillow, slowly reducing the number of wake ups and night feeds, and gradually return back to some kind of normality, albeit waking perhaps a little earlier than you did before. But what if that doesn’t happen?
When I read the recent survey about sleep deprivation that was released last week from my local Warwick University, I actually laughed out loud. It stated that “Among more than 4,600 parents, mothers lost more than an hour of sleep in the three months after giving birth.”
An hour? AN HOUR?!?! Who ARE these parents, and where the hell did they find them!?
I have previously joked that my house is a little bit like a modern day version of Peace at Last. My eldest daughter generally sleeps very well bar the odd nightmare or feeling unwell, however my youngest DOES NOT. She is two and a half now, so definitely not a baby, but still wakes on average 4-5 times a night. Combine that with an active mind, occasional anxiety and a partner who has mastered all 5 types of bloody snoring, and the time I spend actually lying down between 10pm and 6am is pretty slim indeed.
On average I get around 5 hours sleep a night, and it is something I have GOT to try and change. It’s affecting my mental health, my wellbeing and physically I am exhausted to the point that some days everything feels like a struggle. Whilst I can cope with it in the short term, the longer it goes on, the harder it becomes to manage. Due to Neve’s eating difficulties, encouraging her to wake less during the night will be difficult, but there are things I can do to try and help myself.
As part of a new Sleep Series on Real Mum Reviews, I will be trying a variety of different methods to improve my sleep. Many of these have been suggested by sleep experts as tried and tested methods to enhance both the amount and the quality of your sleep. They include:
- Drinking more water
- Reduce tech time / phone use before bed
- Practicing Mindfullness techniques before bed
I will be trying out these and a number of other techniques to try and improve my sleep duration and quality, and monitoring any impact on my mood as a result.
But how bad is it really?
Am I exaggerating? How bad is it really? Tonight I will record my sleep and wake times and share with you the ugly truth. It a random Saturday night, and at the time of writing, I have no idea whether this will be a good, bad or non eventful night but it’s as good a night as any. I will use this as a yard stick and see where we go from here. For now, I have two girls asleep and all is quiet. See you on the other side.
Do you have problems sleeping in your house? Is it your children that keep you awake or something else? What do you do to get a better nights sleep?
