The effects of a lack of sleep, or broken sleep, quickly take their toll on our physiological, cognitive, and emotional functioning. And the answer to prevent all of this is? You guessed it, sleep!
The facts behind sleep and parenthood
They say the average mother loses 700 hours of sleep in the first year of parenthood. That’s a lot of hours! Add a child or two and you are trekking through the sleep desert for years at a time.
A study published by Oxford University Press found that for both Mums and Dads (hmm), sleep still hadn’t returned to pre-pregnancy levels SIX years after having their first child. And I totally believe it.
Research has shown that nearly half of all parents with children six months or younger get just one to three hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. And only a teeny tiny 5% of new parents piece together the golden number of 8 hours a night.
How to get enough sleep when you have a baby
I used to growl at the cliché “sleep when the baby sleeps”, but now with my third bub, the big boys are at school - so I am lapping up this luxury.
I've trained myself to become a professional power napper, 20 minutes is all that's needed to recharge the brain and get me through to bedtime.
It's important to recognise when you are running on empty, ask for help when you need a nap, and resist Netflix, the phone or ‘one quick email’ at night time whenever you can and hit the hay.
Winding down in the evenings with a herbal tea (I love Support for nervous system support or Vitality to calm digestion) or our Sweet Dreams mushroom and herb elixir is a heart warming way to strengthen the nervous system, help improve sleep quality and evoke a sense of rejuvenation.
Replacing that second coffee with an adaptogenic Magic Cacao (your adrenals will be loving the benefits from the powerful tonic herbs Ashwaganda, Reishi and Cordycepts) can also make a huge difference. Caffeine, for the average adult, will have a half-life of five to six hours.
What that means is that after about five to six hours 50 percent of that caffeine that you had is still circulating in your system.
Caffeine also blocks our sleep neurotransmitters and disrupts our deep restorative REM sleep.
You are not alone in this
When you are rocking the empty trolley at check out with your top on inside out, know you are not alone.
Whether you are a new parent or a seasoned mother, know that there are other going through a similar situation.
I don’t have the answers yet, but third time round I’ve gotten much better at the whole self-care mantra.
One thing is for sure, I love my zzzzzz’s.
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S&TS super boost powders enter code
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