Check Your Sleep Pattern

Moms, do you find that your sleep is not as peaceful as it used to be? This could be your body’s response to the stress in your life. Find out if the way you sleep indicates that there is too much stress in your life.

If you ask most moms, they would say that they got more sleep before they were moms. Looking after our kids comes with a certain degree of sleep deprivation. But if this sleep deprivation continues to occur, our bodies will find a way to get the rest it needs even if that means being under the weather to do it.

Sleeplessness is not always caused by stress. Certain illnesses can cause sleeplessness. Sleep apnea is a state of being not quite sleep and not quite awake. The person suffering from this condition has periods when their airways are blocked and they are not breathing. If your spouse snores, that can cause sleeplessness on a regular basis.

Checking your sleep patterns will determine if the sleep problems are due to an illness or a stress response. First, some people have trouble falling asleep. They lie in bed and stare at the ceiling, or so they think. Their minds are moving at lightning speed trying to process the events of the day — what they did and/or what they should have done.

It’s hard to sleep if your mind is not relaxed. This can be a stress response. Try going in your room (or even the bathroom if that is the only place where you can be alone) and give your mind a chance to process all of the day’s activities. It may take fifteen minutes or half an hour. The point is to give your mind time to wind down so that your body can do the same.

Some people fall asleep okay but can’t maintain a sleeping state. They wake up several times during the night and it’s not because they drank too much water. They try to go back to sleep but it takes far too long. This could be stress. Take a warm bath before you go to bed. Lavender salts and lotions aid in restful sleep. The combination of warm water and lavender smells soothes the body.

You may fall asleep and stay that way for five or six hours, but when you wake it is just as if you never went to sleep. You are just as sleepy and lethargic. This can lead to crankiness, irritability, and an inability to handle even the simplest situations.

When you sleep but don’t achieve deep sleep, the body is not getting the rest it needs to function. Each stage of sleep has to be achieved for the rest to rejuvenate the body. Once again, a busy schedule or a stressful one is most likely to blame.

The average person needs at least seven hours of sleep. As moms we often work into the night finishing projects for kids, cleaning, and other odds and ends in preparation for the next day. Unfortunately, we work into the next day just to prepare for it.

Without proper sleep, moms can’t be the best moms that they want to be. The stress will build up and can eventually make us sick. Whatever you need to do, it can wait until the next morning. Get some rest!