Sleeping Tips for the Weary Parent
I don’t know about you, but I can generally fall asleep without any difficulty, it’s staying asleep that I have a hard time with. I will wake up somewhere around 2 a.m and then I begin to run the day over in my mind and sleep is pretty much shot after that. I really need a shut-off switch on my brain, but seeing that there is no such thing, I found another little trick that seems to work.
I used to have one of those noise machines… babbling brooks, waves hitting the shores, birds chirping, but that simply made me think about babbling brooks, waves hitting the shores and birds chirping. It certainly didn’t help me fall back to sleep. But there is such a thing as white noise and that just might work. It would certainly be easier than what I’m doing presently!
I begin and 100 and start counting backward. You can only think of one thing at a time, so there is no chance of thoughts of what you are going to make for dinner is going to take over or what Britt has planned for the weekend. But it is still a struggle. Most of the time I get all the way to one, but I guess that I’m so exhausted, that I immediately drift off to sleep. But I’m strongly thinking about that white noise machine. It would be a whole lot less work!
If you find yourself thinking about the laundry, or what the kids are going to wear to school the next morning, give yourself a break and find a way to let it all go. You deserve a good night’s sleep. We’re weary!
I have so been there. there are times it is so hard to just shut my brain off and go to sleep.
You know, SP, I think you are my real psychic friend. I wrote this post this morning about adventures in teething
http://www.babylune.com/the-long-dark-night/
and then went to check out all the other Family & Relationships blogs. I clicked on Weary Parent first and had to edit to link to this post. Definite synchronicity. I think we should do an F&R theme day on sleep.
The only good side of this is when you have had one bad night’s sleep, you tend to sleep like a log the next… out of sheer exhaustion. Last night I slept straight through and it was wonderful lol!