10 Tips for Sleepless Parents

Nothing is more exhausting than trying to get your kids to go to sleep and stay asleep the whole night through.  While there's endless sleep advice aimed at babies and toddlers, too often it is parents who need the support and help to get through this exhausting chapter of a child's life.   Here are ten tried-and-true tips for sleep deprived parents who are worn out from the challenges of night-time parenting:

• Sleep when your baby sleeps.  That's right--forget about the house, the laundry, all of it.  You'll be much more productive later if you can catch up even a little bit on your rest first.  So the next time junior snoozes--whether it's eight in the morning or four in the afternoon, crawl right back into bed and catch a little shut-eye.  This method kept me extremely well-rested during the first two years of my daughter's life.
  
• Rest your eyes.  If napping isn't a possibility for you, take any and every opportunity to sit very still and close your eyes.  Imagine yourself sinking into a cloudlike pillow of calm.  Take one deep breath after another and let all your muscles relax.  Resting can be as revitalizing as sleeping when you are on the edge.  A perfect substitute for sleeping when your baby is down for the count.
  
• Pass the baby.  After a thirty hour labor and many sleepless nights with my firstborn, my family decided a sleep intervention was in order.  My mother came over for a 24 hour period where I stayed in bed.  The only time I was disturbed was when the baby needed to nurse or I needed to eat.  I slept around the clock for one whole day and felt like a new woman afterwards.   Consider who might have mercy on your sleepless state and offer a similar act of kindness.
  
• Vacate the premises.  Once during a particularly bad spell of sleepless nights with one kid or the other up needing something, a kind neighbor offered to let me nap at her house in the afternoon while she took care of the kids.  It had been so long since I had had any uninterrupted sleep that I slept for five straight hours before I knew what had happened.  That nap gave me the energy to keep going in the days and weeks to come.
• Hide out.  When we moved into our current home, I made one room in the finished attic a special sleep hideaway for those nights when I needed to be off-duty.   I found I slept much more deeply when I had the sense of being "away".  Often my children did not need me at all on those nights of my escape, but psychologically, I needed enough distance to disconnect from their nighttime needs.
• Take turns.  No matter how well your children sleep through the night, there are always times when your presence will be required.  Night-time parenting--whether someone had a nightmare, wet the bed, got sick or simply cannot go back to sleep--is a reality for every family.   If you are feeling really sleep deprived, make a plan with your partner so you can be "off duty" certain nights of the week.  Sleep in your hideout or some other corner of the house and let your partner be the one to answer when duty calls.
  
• Turn down the volume.  I know one mother of school-aged children who swears by a good set of earplugs.   Years of listening for babies in the night had conditioned her to sleep all too lightly; now years later the earplugs help her turn down the noise and get the REM sleep she'd been missing.  Her kids know to go to dad if they need something in the night.  Now mom's the one who's sleeping like a baby.
  
• Turn in early.  Never mind that it's seven-thirty.  If your wee one is turned in for (some portion of) the night, you can, too.  Avoid the trap of TV and online surfing--simply unplug and turn out the lights.  Even one or two extra hours before baby calls will do wonders to pay back your sleep deficit.
• Sleep in.   See if your partner will be willing to do the morning routine with baby and company, so you can catch an extra hour of shut-eye.  This option is especially helpful if you are not a natural morning person.  Even one morning a week to sleep until your body tells you it's time to rise and shine will make a big difference.
• Keep it simple.   Sometimes the best strategy during sleepless times is to conserve your energy and keep outside activities to a minimum.  By keeping your output to the bare essentials you give your body a chance to rest and recover, even if sleep isn't in the picture just yet. 
  

Don't be afraid to ask for help when you are too tired to see straight.  It's okay to let someone keep watch while you give your body and mind the chance to recharge.  While it's humbling to admit we can't do it all, there's no greater reward for taking that risk than the chance to actually sleep and feel like yourself once again!  What works at your house when there's too little sleep?