Tips To Help New Mother Get Proper Sleep

Meena, a new mother in my neighboring apartment complained changes in sleep patterns and lack of sleep that always kept her tired and stressed.  This made me emphasize to her the importance of sleep and how to sleep in the first few weeks after childbirth.

Here are tips that would help a new mother get proper sleep:

 

a) Rest should be a priority for new mums to not only lessen the effects of sleep deprivation, but also improve the quality of sleep at night. Take a 5 to 10 minutes break from childcare with drinking a glass of water, eating a piece of fruit, stretching or just closing your eyes to feel renewed physically and mentally. 

b) Just abandon all attempts to sleep if you can’t; just tell yourself you are just going to relax. Alternatively you could get up to do something relaxing like reading a book, having a cup of hot milk or chamomile tea or doing some activity that would tire you. You would soon feel sleepy and fall asleep.

c) If you wake up during the night and find it difficult to fall off to sleep again, just try out a few tricks. Prepared everything in hand for a quick feed or a nappy change, use a low bedside lamp in the place of a light and do not check on the time. This will help you to soon get back to sleep and stop worrying about the little sleep you’ll get.

d) Some new mothers are hyper-sensitivity to noises of the baby and otherwise; it would help to use some white noise from white noise machines to block out the sounds or use a fan to create background sound.

e) Caffeine and alcohol are stimulants remain in the body for a considerable time and should be minimized; instead drink more water, herbal teas and dilute fruit juices. Also alcohol does not  induce sleep and is not relaxing; to the contrary it stops your getting good, deep sleep and would make you feel physically tired and mentally fuzzy on the next day. Your doctor could suggest an alternative.

f) Set up a good bedtime routine that indicates to your brain that it is time to rest; some activities could be reading a book, listening to relaxing music, sipping a milky caffeine free drink or having a 10 minute bath with essential oils like lavender. Avoid stimulating activities like sending emails, surfing the internet or watching a stimulating TV show; instead watch funny, inspiring and up-lifting TV shows. Wind up by making ‘to do’ lists to get things out of your head and into paper. Spending 20 minutes each day would help you feel rejuvenated.

g) Create a proper sleep environment by keeping the bed free of clutter and baby’s toys, and keeping the room slightly cool by turning on the fan in the room and keeping the windows open; it would be advisable to keep a cup of hot water in which lavender has been added on the windowsill about 20 minutes before bedtime. In addition avoiding mobiles and computers in the bedroom would help make your bedroom look and feel like a sanctuary and induce good sleep.

h) Every new mother needs to learn how to power nap; this short effective sleeping for 5 to 15 minutes without falling asleep, uses visualization techniques like relaxing scenes. If you are exhausted, it would help to use a stopwatch or alarm clock to stop you falling into a deep sleep; practice could soon make this technique highly rejuvenating.

i) Finding the time and inclination to exercise can be difficult for new mums, however an exercise like a 20 minute brisk walk helps to boost the production of endorphins, reduces levels of adrenaline and other stress hormones and boosts the production of hormones that contributes to healthy immune system and overall health leading to relieving of stress and more effective sleep.

j) The sleep requirement of each mum varies; however the challenge lies more in the quality of sleep than a norm of 8 hours sleep. Even  5 to 6 hours of efficient sleep is better than 7 to 8 hours of shallow, restless sleep.

k) Certain nutrition and supplements like vitamin B6 and tryptophan bring about a good balance of naturally produced sleep-inducing hormones serotonin and melatonin in our system. They are found in chicken, cheese, tofu, tuna, eggs, nuts, seeds and milk. It is best to cultivate certain habits like drinking a glass of milk at bedtime and not skipping breakfast as they not only stabilize blood sugar levels, but also aid production of melatonin.

As a conclusive note it is best to avoid sleeping aids; however valerian in the form of tincture, tablets and tea or Passion flower can be used as a last resort to induce sleep.  

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