How can you improve your sleep?
Sleep is such a contentious issue for parents, in most cases for mothers. I wrote about my experience with sleep deprivation (click here if you want to read it ) so I know how hard it can be to told that you need more sleep. To hear that sleep will be the answer to all your problems when you are battling with here a baby or child who just will not sleep is frustrating at best and soul destroying at worst. I found myself being increasingly stressed out about the impacts of sleep deprivation which just made everything so much worse. I found myself either highly stressed or giving up. This is why I wanted to focus on sleep for this week and approach it from the point of view of someone who has been there.
How do you move forward if you are not in control of your sleep? How do you help your children sleep better so you can get a better nights sleep? These are the reasons why I brought in my friend Jen from The Bear Hub to help you out with these problems. Jen is a wonderful sleep consultant for your little ones and she shared all her best tips on my instagram. Check it out here. I also recorded a podcast with Jen chatting about good bedtime routines and some of things you can do to help you.
Now whether you have managed to get your little one to sleep through the night or not there are some steps you can take to help you get a better nights sleep. Not all of these steps will be doable, for various reasons, so I would like you to not look at these as another task you are adding to your ever growing to do list but as a way to add to your life, as a way to make that never ending to do list that little bit more manageable.
There is no denying that sleep is really important for your health and wellbeing and should be prioritised as much as possible. Your sleep is never going to be perfect as there are so many factors that will impact it such environment, stress, nutrition, stimulants, light, temperature and many more. If something you are doing works for you in your life that don’t feel the pressure to change it. These tips are here to help if something is a problem, you might find one thing works for you and another doesn’t, that is ok. Life is a delicate balance and no one routine works for everyone or even works for you all of the time. We have different seasons in our lives and like so many areas of our lives (like our bodies) things will look different during those times.
SLEEP TIPS
Things to do around bedtime
Get a Bedtime routine for the whole family (you all don’t have to share the same routine). Like your children, this sends a signal to your brain that it should prepare for sleep.
Limit your phone use before bed - try not to keep it near you when you are sleeping. I found this hard as I used my phone to fill the lonely nights when I was feeding through the night but it set me up for some bad habits and I think maybe I stayed awake longer because of it.
Make sure your room isn’t too warm.
Keep the lights low as you prepare for bed
Maybe read a book before bed instead of watching tv
Have a set bedtime
Limit your alcohol and caffeine - alcohol affects how deep a sleep you get and you should drink no more than 3 cups of tea or coffee, no more than 3 hours before bed.
Exercise will help you get a restful sleep but it can matter what time of day you exercise. Rigorous exercise is best in the morning and early afternoon, yoga for the evening. This isn’t always possible so assess how you feel when you exercise late in the day. Do you have a more restful or restless sleep. Think about the intensity at which you exercise. I could not exercise at the same intensity I did before my last baby was born, I found it made me feel much worse (took me a while to work that out)
Try to avoid a big meal before bed or going to bed hungry.
Only use bed for sleep and sex.
Reduce your stress during the day - assess what you can do. Are you putting too much pressure on yourself? Do you exercise? Are you getting outside? What do you to relax? Do you need to ask for support from loved ones or a medical professional?
If you find yourself lying in bed staring at ceiling trying to get to sleep then this could be making it harder to get to sleep. Don’t lie in bed for longer than 15 mins. Get out of bed and go to a different room. Try to keep the lights low and do a boring activity until you feel sleepy. Things like reading something you find boring, colouring in, and even staring in to space will help you feel sleepy again. Head back to bed and hopefully you should fall asleep.
Writing your worries or to do list and leaving that in another room has been found to help with reducing rumination and help get you to sleep.
I hope all of these tips have been helpful and some work for you. If you want to join in the sleep challenge I am running from Friday then come to my facebook or Instagram page and get involved.
