Tiredness does funny things to you. You think after years of a combination of late nights and interrupted sleep, you would adapt. You don’t. Well, I don’t. At the moment, I am tired. So tired in fact that my words keep getting muddled (much the amusement of my children), I keep driving to completely the wrong place and things keep appearing in the wrong place (kettle in the fridge and that sort of thing). Tiredness does not a happy mummy make. So I am on a mission to find out what I can do to get a good night’s sleep.
Get rid of the children
That does sound promising. Not permanently, you understand. Just for one little old night. One night of unbroken sleep. One night when I can go to bed at seven o’ clock if I want without being regarded as some sort of madwoman by my hardy children who think 7 pm is the afternoon. One night where I am not forced to hang off the edge of one of my children’s beds, shivering as I have an inch of duvet. One night where I am not awoken by my seemingly insomniac son hovering at the end of the bed. I think a sleepover at Granny’s house is definitely on the cards.
Buy a good bed
I was so excited when we bought a new bed in the summer. The prospect of a new mattress with some life in it, that didn’t sag and dig its springs into my back or smell like mouldy milk was a promising one. Except for the insignificant detail that I couldn’t sleep on it. Lesson well and truly learnt. When buying a bed it is worth shopping around, go and try them out and make sure that you choose a reputable bed company with a good range of mattresses to suit all needs. When you consider how much time you spend in your bed, it really is worth investing more money in finding a bed and a mattress that is going to work for you. If it helps you find that holy grail we call sleep, then it is a worthy investment.
Find a partner who doesn’t snore
Another important factor in getting a good night’s sleep is making sure that your sleep environment is right; no noise, no light and not too hot. We fail on two of those. There is always a light on in the night as the insomniac child needs to be able to see where he is wandering and my husband is a snorer. His snoring varies, but it is pretty much constant and depending on how bad it is, I use the well-known method of punching him in the back to make it stop. I can’t use earplugs because of the children, so if it is really bad, I take to the sofa in a huff just to try to get a few hours sleep. It could be worse, my father in law snores so loudly, it sounds like there is a wild animal in the house. I seriously hope that my husband doesn’t develop into that as he gets older.
Take time to wind down before bed
This is something I am completely rubbish at; she says madly typing this blog post before she goes to bed. Generally, there are not enough hours in the day and so I am still desperately trying to fill every waking hour with stuff and the result is that I will usually be found on the computer until five minutes before bed. I will have also have caffeine pulsing through my veins with the twelve cups of tea I have drunk in the past two hours. Physically I am exhausted, mentally I am dancing on the ceiling. I really must improve my routine and try to take some time to unwind before I settle. With so many natural sleep aids that can really help too, there really is no excuse for not winding down and getting that oh so elusive good night’s sleep.
If all else fails, count a few sheep?
The process of unwinding before you go to sleep is so important on many levels; it clears your mind of those few million things that are buzzing around and it relaxes your body. But what if you still can’t sleep? My mum always told me to count sheep when I was little and I would lie there wondering which sheep she wanted me to count. We didn’t live near a farm and the nearest sheep were several miles away. I would then lie there worrying about where I would find some sheep and on it would go. When I discovered that you had to count them in your head, it made matters worse as I would lie there for hours creating a collection of brightly coloured sheep with different coloured hats on. This did not help matters.
I was quite relieved last year to read this post in the Huffington Post about the origins of counting sheep and that it was, in fact, an old wives tale which derived from early sheepherders who couldn’t sleep because they were worried about their sheep. So it would seem that counting sheep might help your numeracy skills immensely but won’t bring on snoozing any time soon.
Drink your milk
Finally, people always say that drinking milk will help you sleep and apparently this one is true. Dairy products contain the amino acid called tryptophan which stimulates the production of sleep-inducing brain chemicals. The only problem with that for me is that I love drinking milk, so I drink too much and then wake up needing to go to the toilet.
So I will be sending the children and my snoring husband away for the weekend with the sheep and you will find me in a comfortable bed with a small glass of milk and no computers. Bliss. Zzzzzzz.
How about you, what do you do to help you get to sleep?
Agh! I really don’t know how you cope. I’ve been waking earlier than usual this week and have also had two 4am interruptions from a poorly child and I feel so grumpy and tearful!
I’ve been very lucky that my new mattress is way better than my old one, so when I wake at 4.30 or 5 I can often get back to sleep, which I couldn’t do before.
I don’t often struggle to get to sleep, but when I do I find that counting (without the sheep!) does help. It’s sufficiently active to shut other thoughts out, but sufficiently mundane not to over-stimulate the brain!
Sarah MumofThree World recently posted…The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson