Are Your Suffering From Parenting Sleep Deprivation as a Parent?

Are you suffering from parenting sleep deprivation?

The power of sleep

Parenting is always a rush with little time for good quality sleep

We are all in a rush. We rush to work. We rush to get our kids to school. We rush to social outings. We are in a rush to grow up and so on. Life seems to be spent in a perpetual hurry. We have loads of things on our to-do lists daily and in order to fit it all in, the one thing we usually sacrifice is sleep. 

We are all guilty of it from time to time. Sleep can feel like the easiest part of our lives to give up, in order to get through our daily checklists and feel as though we are succeeding in our pursuit of good parenting. But, of course this is at a huge cost to our mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.

There is a difference emotionally between deciding to reduce your sleep and someone else (e.g. a snoring partner, a wakeful child, a noisy animal that wants to be fed at 5am every day) making that decision for you. When you are in control, there is less anger and bitterness associated with the sleep debt. Even a waking baby can drive parents to distraction – despite understanding that the baby is of course not deliberately trying to deprive you of sleep. Your ability to cope with sleep deprivation is also dependent on how well you are able to catch up on sleep and on you total sleep debt.

So how much sleep is enough?

On average, adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. However, you may function well on as little as 6 hours sleep, or may require 10 hours of sleep to be at the top of your game. Most people have a sense of how much sleep they need in order to feel alert and functioning at their best – the average being 8 hours of sleep per night.

Sings of Sleep Deprivation

According to WebMD too little sleep may cause/influence:

• Memory problems 
• Lowered reaction time
• Depression (e.g. postnatal depression) 
• A weakening of your immune system, increasing your chance of becoming sick 
• The perception of pain 

The accumulation of repeated sleep deprivation results in a sleep debt which is only temporarily masked by coffee. When you are really tired, that coffee hit won’t do the trick – you need to repay the sleep debt in order to be able to function at a suitable and safe level again. If you continue to push through your sleep deprivation, you can end up with depression, so it’s important to catch up on your sleep at the next available opportunity. 

Do whatever you can to regain your sleep. For example:

• take a quick nap with your child 
• eat dinner an hour earlier to allow your food to digest & give you a better night’s sleep 
• give yourself permission to have the night off & go to bed earlier 
• ask someone to give you a hand so you can have a rest 
• ask for an extension on a work project or class project so you can catch up on sleep 
• speak to your doctor about a herbal sleep aid
• drink a sleep tea before bed
• listen to some relaxing music to help you fall asleep soundly

Plan to make sleep a priority

You know yourself better than anyone, so if you really are sleep deprived, make a commitment to clear your sleep debt and see how much more positive, clear and vibrant your life becomes.

Lizzie O'Halloran, BBSc, MASR, NLP Prac

Author, Counsellor

Creator of the Positive Parenting Online Course

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