How much sleep do you get a night? I ask because lately I have noticed that I receive emails from women at odd times of the night (really late) or in the morning (really early). I like to average 8 hours a night, and I’m starting to feel like a lazy sloth.
That said, it seems that these women are not awake because they want to be but because they have issues sleeping. I know it’s not a mom specific issue, but it does seem that most of my mom friends share this problem. I myself have had issues over the years and have tried all kinds of remedies. I used melatonin for a long time when I had problems falling asleep, and it seemed to help. Later, when I would wake in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep, I started taking vitamin D, magnesium and calcium before bed. Those seemed to help too.
Although it seems that some people use their late nights or early mornings productively, my guess is that they’d rather be sleeping! Especially because we all agree that when we are awake at night, we’re mostly obsessing over things that don’t otherwise cause us anxiety during the day.
“Do I drink enough water?”
“Should I call my parents more often?”
“What appetizer should I make for the party on Saturday?”
“I should smile more at my kids. They’re going to grow up thinking I hate them.”
Don’t tell me you haven’t experienced this. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to help you sleep (I even read about breathing specifically out of your left nostril). But the one thing that always seems to work for me is to recognize that I’m stressing over the small stuff and acknowledge that it’s insignificant. If it were important, I would worry about it during waking hours, right? So rather than stewing about whether my kids should be eating more vitamin K, I started daydreaming about happy things.
As long as the following ideas won’t stress you out, try thinking about where you want to spend your next vacation, and then picture yourself there. Think about something fun you can do with your kids this weekend. Come up with something creative for you and your husband to do on your next date night. Keep your thoughts light and happy and hopefully you will find yourself relaxing and drifting off in no time.
Comment below – what’s the craziest thing that you’ve obsessed over in the middle of the night?
*Talk to your doctor before taking supplements to help you sleep
