How desperately new mothers need sleep. From 1 AM feedings of our precious newborns to consistent feedings every two hours, give or take. WOW! I know you ask yourself, “How does this little being eat this much?” A woman’s body is made to give life to a new baby, but our bodies are definitely not prepared for lack of sleep.

Now, fast forward almost 13 years later and the sleep deprived woman in front of you - that woman - is me. I need sleep; crave sleep; wish for sleep on a daily basis. With two busy kids, work that seems to go on 24/7, and school thrown in there, lack of sleep is my rude awakening at 2 AM, “Have I slept any YET?”

I have always been a night owl, preferring to clean at night. I have always done research and homework for school at night. This is my quiet time. Unfortunately, work has cramped my nightly routine. With deadlines looming over me with a new season on the horizon, the day does not give me enough time to complete tasks.

On top of the additional workload, my son has his own interpretations of what bedtime means. Meaning, he doesn’t think he needs to be in bed when mom is trying to sleep. Then as the storms roll through our little neck of the woods, every night, my youngest is in bed, with me, right smack-dab against me. Rolling over means I roll on her, or on the floor.

I can’t fall asleep laying in bed. If I do fall asleep it is for 10 to 30 minutes at a time and then I am up, wondering the house, listening for weird sounds in the darkness. Who knew the darkness could be so loud? I talked to my mom about the no sleep issue and her remark, “It’s a mom’s job to have no sleep.” Ahh… no. I don’t think so.

I’m mom. I have to be ready for whatever happens. I can’t be exhausted and run down. Insomnia is a terrible feeling. And no matter how exhausted I am, I can never sleep for extended periods of time. Once I am up from a 30 minute nap basically, it takes twice as long to fall back to sleep. Bet you I could name every infomercial between 1 AM and 6 AM!

I have dealt with Insomnia for months now, but never sought any type of treatment until job stress really became a concern. Then, after finding out I was a Type 2 Diabetic, my health became even more of a concern. Not wanting to take more drugs on top of what I was taking for my diabetes, I asked my Doc for some simple remedies to try at home first and then we could go from there.

So, my point of this long one-sided discussion - to give some sleep deprived moms some ideas to help relieve the stress of the daily grind and no sleep, hopefully leading you to the path of a good night’s sleep!

1. Leave stress at work. Basically my Doctor wants me to leave work at work and not bring it home. If I have to bring it home, make it one night per week and no more.

2. Check everything before going to bed - leave a sticky note. I sometimes forget to check doors, windows, and the garage. This causes me tension, being up often checking everything. I leave a sticky note on my wall next to my bedroom door - It’s checked!

3. No caffeine or sugar. Night time is my time, but because I do so much late at night, I would also have a soda, sweets or snacks late too extremely late. This rush is flowing through me and helps my body stay awake. So, I have none of this after a certain time at night.

4. No naps. Regardless of the exhaustion that my body and mind feels, I have never been able to fall asleep during the day - even if I really want it. Even though I can’t seem to take a nap, if you have insomnia, you shouldn’t let yourself nap during daytime hours. This interrupts your sleeping at night.

Now these of course are simple changes that I can make for myself to help with sleeping at night. Also, making sure my son stays in bed at night and keeping nightly visits from my daughter to a minimum will also help manage my sleeping. You can also find some additional home techniques here. My Doctor directed me to this Web site and it has given me some choices.

Now of course, always check with your Doctor as this is only for informational purposes.

Here is to a great nights sleep - soon!

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