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Sleep secrets for sleepless moms
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Getting sleep as a parent is a challenge. With newborns and infants, the sleep deprivation is difficult, but expected. You often feel as if you are living in a fog the whole day and it takes months for the fog to be lifted. However, the sleep deprivation can continue at a different level for years and many say it occurs through your child’s adolescence.
There are a variety of reasons for sleep deprivation in moms. And it’s not to say that dads are not sleep deprived as well. But often moms bear the brunt of the sleep deprivation. Moms just can’t get done during the day what they need to and are often up late working, answering emails, straightening the house, filling out school papers, working on the family schedule and getting ready for the next day. Many moms stay up late just to enjoy some “free” time once everyone else in the house is asleep. Sleep experts say this is backfiring on us and making us crankier, less productive and less fulfilled parents. The National Sleep Foundation says that parents need to make sleep a priority in the household, not only for children, but also for adults.
Another reason for sleep deprivation may be that your kids just aren’t sleeping well. It could be that they don’t sleep through the night (and you are wondering at what age that will happen) or maybe you have multiple children and someone is always having a nightmare, wetting the bed or hearing a strange noise.
Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., associate director of the Sleep Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Sleep Deprived No More: From Pregnancy to Early Motherhood, gives moms eight sleep secrets.
- Lower your expectations.
- Have young children sleep by themselves.
- Toddlers and preschoolers should be in bed at 7:30.
- Preteens should be in bed by 8:30.
- Teens should be in bed at 9:00.
- Establish bedtime routines.
- Children should share in the housework.
- Get to bed by 11:00 pm.
It’s not easy, but moms need to turn off the “on-switch” that is ingrained in so many women today. Getting a good night sleep may help put everything else in perspective.
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