Self-care, what’s that? As moms, we forget about our own self-care waaaaay more than we should, but I think engaging in self-care is easier than we typically think.
There are eight main things I repeat again and again to my clients that I think can help them feel more happy and healthy, and one of them is sleep. As moms, we don’t get near the amount or quality of sleep that we need, and when we don’t, it spawns a whole host of other physical and emotional ailments in our mind and body that makes us less than stellar individuals.
Depending on the age of your child really kind of depends on the amount of sleep you will get, but as my kids are now older (12 and 7), if there’s one then I would go back and tell my new-mom self, it would be to sleep more. Mainly because I’m a beast when I don’t get sleep, but also because I just function better overall. You already know that intuitively. Sleep isn’t just an elusive craving. It’s imperative to good functioning.
Sleep is your body’s natural way of sorting through the avalanche of input you receive in the course of a day. Think about how much information you take in throughout the day. It’s a massive amount of stuff! Consciously, you might be having lunch with a friend and she’s telling you about her son’s football wins or her sister’s dating woes. And, while you’re having that conversation, your brain is also aware that you have a deadline to meet for your boss, you have to pick up your kids early at school and drive them to an extra theater rehearsal, your chicken is a tad over-cooked and slightly dry, but you don’t have much time so you’ll eat it anyway, the table next to you was talking about the latest political investigation and you can’t help but take in parts of what they’re saying, your car’s inspection is expired and you have to find time to take that in, but not before you get that nail removed from your tire you found this morning.
When you’re at rest, your brain has this unique way of deciding what’s important and what’s not important. It gathers all the input you’ve taken in throughout the day, decides what it needs to keep and what it needs to throw out. What it keeps, it categorizes for you. If your body doesn’t get the sleep it needs, your body can’t recover—there isn’t the crucial restoration process that happens with some good shut-eye. Instead, the overwhelming amount of information you take in through the course of day remains a jumbled, anxious-inducing, chaotic mess…literally. Your insides feel jittery, weak, and scattered.
If you aren’t sleeping well, I implore you to find some ways to get your body the much-needed rest it craves. For short- and long-term health and well-being, you have to get some good, restorative sleep. Here are a few tips and tricks to set you up for sleep success:
- Overhaul your sleep routine. This just means be mindful of how you prepare for sleep. For example, don’t drink coffee after 3pm, don’t take naps longer than 30 minutes, be in the sunshine most of the day as opposed to a dark room while the sun is out (this confuses your natural sleep rhythm), and get enough physical and mental stimulation throughout the day.
- Be mindful of your sleep space. It’s worth it to buy a good mattress, so indulge in the best one your budget can buy. Make sure you have soft, comfy sheets; put all the animals that snore, move, or otherwise wake you out of the room; turn off all extraneous noises, including electronics; finally, use a sound machine to help drown out all the noise from outside and inside your head.
- Make sleep a priority. This can be hard when you have small children, but your sleep should be treated as a top priority among all of your mommy tasks. You absolutely aren’t going to be grounded, peaceful, and in good health if you don’t take this important self-care tip seriously. For your mental health (depression, anxiety, stress), emotional health (feeling peaceful, calm, grounded), and physical health, priority is essential, and you’re the only one that can make this a good-health habit.
Hey, I get it, sleep can be hard to come by for moms. But you owe it to yourself and those around you to close your eyes and sleep like a baby to thrive like a mother.
