Desperate for Sleep

If you are desperate for sleep and are not getting enough sleep because you have been recently blessed with an infant whom you have to nurse throughout the night. Try these steps to get your hands on some sleep.

• Check on your diet:

A delicious heavy dinner, with a big chunk of chocolate cake might seem hard to resist, but it is best to avoid heavy meals at night. Consume light snacks and try adding more calcium to your dinner. These shall help in promoting your sleep.

• Relax your body:

Relaxation is beneficial for everyone, and specially for you being the mother of an infant. Try some relaxation techniques like deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation, to relax and calm your mind along with preparing yourself for sleep.

• Keep the noise level down:

If there is too much noise inside or outside the room, neither you nor your baby would be able to sleep peacefully. If you can't control the outside noise try masking it with soft music, fan or any other white noise.

• Keep your room dark during sleep hours.

Turn off all the lights when you go to bed, even the dim lights and especially those from TV or computers. Try using heavy shades to block light from the windows. This could grant you and your infant a sound sleep.

• Keep the baby's kit on your bedside.

Baby's nappies, tissues or anything you might need during the night should be on your bedside so you don't have to get out of your bed to fetch them. Thereby not interrupting your sleep enormously.

Mothers – especially of infants have a problem going back to bed once they have woken up. Try the following, to get back to sleep, despite being out of bed for over half an hour.

Relaxation: the key to get back to bed again is to motivate your body to sleep. Try visualization or meditation while you lay down in your bed. A repetitive and non – stimulating brain exercise could help you wind down.

It might be hard but its not impossible. Try not to be stressed about your sleepless nights due to your infant. Stress and anxiety could prevent the brain from relaxing thus encouraging the body to relax.

If you're drowsy, it's hard to look and feel your best. Schedule "sleep" as an item on your agenda to help you stay creative and healthy.