5 Tips For Fighting Pregnancy Insomnia To Obtain A Better Sleep

 

 

1. Skip the naps

Daytime sleepiness, particularly in the first trimester, encourages almost every pregnant woman to nap. But naps make it more difficult to sleep at night because they take away some of the sleep pressure that builds up over the day.
“It’s like snacking,” says Grace Pien, M.D., a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology. “Eating even a small amount of food before a meal can take away your appetite.”

2. Cancel the sleep debt

Most women sleep only 6 1/2 hours a night, so they head into pregnancy with a sleep debt. Fortunately, it’s possible to repay that debt and bring your body back into balance before pregnancy makes sleeping harder.
To avoid napping, try going to bed an hour earlier than usual on a regular basis. If 11 o’clock is your usual time, head into the bedroom at 10. So maybe you’ll miss your favorite TV show or that report you were working on just won’t get done. Just keep in mind the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), study that found that a woman who sleeps less than 6 hours a night quadruples her risk of a C-section and can add up to 10 hours to her labour. That’s a great incentive to end the day early.

3. Address anxiety and buffer stress

Both anxiety and stress have very real physiological components, says sleep researcher Kathryn Lee, Ph.D., the UCSF professor who uncovered the relationship between poor sleep and length and complications of labour. In fact, she’s betting that it was anxiety and stress that kept the women in her study from sleeping and, ultimately, led to increased labour and a complicated delivery.
“When you’re exhausted, your muscles are tired,” explains Dr. Lee. So if women are losing sleep because they’re worrying about the baby, or anxious about their new roles, or anxious about how they’re going to earn a living, or any one of the million and one things that run through an about-to-be mom’s head at 2 in the morning, it’s likely that the women were going into labour with tired muscles. “And if those muscles were tired, there’s a good chance they might not have been pushing as well as they needed to,” she says.

Talk to friends and family about any concerns that are keeping you up at night, or schedule a few quick visits to a therapist who can help you address the anxiety they may be generating. And learn how to use prayer, yoga, or meditation to connect with the calming stillness that lies at the very centre of each and every one of us. The fruits of your efforts may be a shorter and safer labour.

4. Buy lots of pillows

No matter how you lie, you’ll need lots of support to get comfortable by the third trimester. Start with a full-length body pillow, then add smaller pillows for extra support. Some women like pillows under their heads and under their arms; others also like them stuffed between baby belly and bed, wedged between knees, and snuggled into the small of their backs. Suit yourself.

5. Don’t sweat the dreams

One Canadian study recently revealed that 59 percent of pregnant women have horrific dreams that their baby is in some kind of danger. The dreams are normal, apparently part of a woman’s instinct to protect her child. If one wakes you up, don’t think it’s a premonition. Just roll over and go back to sleep.