If we were to ask if you would trade sleep for your child, the answer would a resounding ‘Yes’ for every parent, but that does not mean it is easy.
Though your little one may bring you overwhelming joy, you still need to navigate the challenges that include feeding, diaper changes and sleeping. Most may think this only happens during the first few years after birth, but for some who need to juggle jobs, their children and the home, it can leave parents tired and sleep-deprived.
But hear, hear!
If you want to have a good night’s sleep (no matter how short) to face what the day has for you, here are four solutions to help sleep depravity, especially for mothers.
Create a Good Sleep Environment
A good sleep environment for adults is a cool, dark and quiet room. If your newborn does not share the same room with you, ensure the same recommendations apply to your newborn’s bedroom too. Make sure the temperature is neither too cold nor too warm. Following a study on The Effects of High-Temperature Weather on Human Sleep Quality and Appetite, researchers found that warm temperatures at 36 °C and 38 °C affected sleep duration and caused shallow sleep. They found that sleep quality at 32 °C was the best, followed by 28 °C.
If you sleep with a partner with whom you share parenting duties, consider having one person be ‘on’, and the other be ‘off’. The one not on ‘duty’ can sleep with earplugs or even in a separate bedroom. It helps either parent to (hopefully) get a consolidated night of sleep. After all, it is not good for both parents to experience a lack of sleep.
Have a Bedtime Routine
If those without children are preaching about bedtime routines, you best believe that a bedtime routine for mothers is a must. These routines are essential for your brain to unwind, even if that time is with your baby. According to Sleep Foundation, bedtime routines for adults help reduce late-night stress and anxiety, curbing insomnia.
Therefore, instead of checking your phone, allow yourself to ease into a bedtime routine. Schedule time to take a good bath and do a face prep where you slather on much-needed hydration, retinol and face oil onto your face. Then, you can add a short bedtime stretch before coddling your baby in your arms or reading a bedtime story to your toddler.
When you make this a nightly habit, you are also communicating with your body, telling it that it is almost the time to sleep. So, when you hit the sack, you really hit the sack and zzz.
Watch What You Eat and Drink
What if your bedroom is a perfect sleep environment, and you are religious with your night-time routine but still find yourself unable to sleep even though you are so very tired?
Then it is probably another culprit—and we are pointing our fingers at what goes inside your body.
We all like our morning coffee, but when it becomes a high-fat evening venti mocha latté, passing it up is a better choice. Eating healthy food in fitting portions is essential for sleep health. In fact, according to research, having meals at the wrong times can affect the peripheral clocks of our organs, which will then influence the part of the brain that releases hormones. What happens next is the desynchrony of our body clock, which can shorten the duration of sleep, making you feel extra tired the next day. Fatty, high-sugar, caloric diets will also make you sleepy during the day and disrupt sleep at night.
If you need a drink, consider taking chamomile tea. If you are a little hungry, warm milk will do the trick.
Get a Good Mattress
If there is one furnishing in your home that you should not skimp on, it is the bed. Everyone, especially a mother, should have a good mattress to sleep on every night. The advantage of having a quality mattress to sleep on from a bad one is getting refreshing sleep, rest, or nap every time.
A good mattress should support your sleep and not make you feel more tired than before you slept. There is also a study on bedding systems and their effect on the body. What was found is new bedding systems increased sleep quality and reduced back discomfort. It also studied the longevity of the mattress in relation to comfort. It seems older mattresses (more than 9.5 years) do not provide as good a comfort as those that are newer, no matter the warranty.
Therefore, if you experience discomfort every night, have difficulty sleeping, or wake up with body pain, these may be signs that it’s time to buy a new mattress.
Sealy Looks After Your Body 24/7
Because comfort is essential, you need a mattress that will envelop you with the rest you need. Now, this is where Sealy mattresses come in!
Its creators have got it all figured out when it comes to fulfilling the needs of the body to achieving optimum rest. The centre third of the mattress is enhanced with the ComfortCore®, a layer of gel-infused memory foam to provide a better level of support to the lower back, where it’s needed most.
Then there is also a technology added to the mattress named SmarTex
In that same mattress is also the Ice-Touch
At the heart of the Sealy Posturepedic® mattress is also the SRxˡˡ® Titanium coils. These strong, resilient and durable coils provide the initial conforming support and the deep-down support your body needs. These springy things are arranged in alternating columns for maximum stability that ensures you a restful sleep.
Because of the technology integrated into one mattress, rest assured (literally) that it will live and perform throughout its 10-year guarantee.
Every Vibrant Mummy’s Secret
If you have not heard of Sealy, then introductions are in order!
Sealy originates from Texas, USA, and carries a legacy of comfort and support since 1881.
As bedmakers, they collaborate, conduct research and develop their mattresses with the Orthopedic Advisory Board (OAB) to further develop advancements in the science of sleep to meet your needs.
After all, no mother should ever sleep on a bed rated second-best, especially when you are giving your all for your child and family!
Isn’t bedtime the prime time to be pampered?
This is an invitation to get yourself a Sealy mattress. Head over to Sealy Sleep Boutiques, Harvey Norman, Isetan Lot 10 & The Gardens. Alternatively, click on www.shop.sealy.com.my to get yours.
Now, that is how you sleep, first-class!
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