4 Tips To Help Parents Sleep Better At Night

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By Luciana Oliveira

Being a parent is hard work, not least because your regular routine goes entirely out the window.

Those days when you can eat, sleep, and go out when you want are long gone.

Of course, after a while, you get used to it. Your body starts to adjust to how hectic everything is, and as your baby develops, they start to settle a little too.

Things begin to resemble some form of normality again, making it a lot easier for you to cope.

Just because you start to have a routine again, though, that doesn’t mean everything goes back to how it was.

Plenty of parents still struggle to sleep well at night, so accustomed to waking up in the night to tend to their crying baby.

If you currently find yourself in that position, you might find these tips helpful.

With any luck, they’ll make it easier to drift off, allowing you to have the good night’s sleep you deserve.

Ditch The Late-Night Screen Time

After getting your child off to bed, you might want to spend your evening watching TV or browsing your phone before hitting the hay yourself.

However, this night time routine could actually be detrimental to your sleeping pattern.

Looking at screens – particularly your phone screen – right before bed can make it harder to nod off for several reasons.

Perhaps the biggest issue of them all, though, is that the blue light phones emit inhibits melatonin production.

This is a hormone that’s vital for your circadian rhythm, aka your sleep-wake cycle. If this gets disturbed, it can cause a wealth of problems during the day.

The best thing to do is give yourself a minimum one hour away from screens every night before you go to sleep.

That way, you allow your eyes a chance to rest and don’t accidentally tell your brain to stay awake.

Buy A New Mattress

If you’re struggling to sleep well at night, your mattress could be partly to blame.

If you’ve owned yours for a long time now, it’s bound to have gotten worn down over the years, meaning it’s not doing the job it’s supposed to.

Investing in a new mattress is obviously an ideal solution to this, but you don’t want to buy just any old thing.

You want one that will do right by your body at night, so you can sleep easier for a long time to come.

Something that combines the bounce of pocket springs with the comfort of memory foam could be exactly what you need, and you’ll find that in a hybrid mattress.

The Simba is an excellent example of this, having been tested on around 10 million people to ensure it provides a satisfactory experience.

The Simba mattress review by themattressguide.co.uk shows that it offers a medium firmness that meets most sleepers’ needs.

What’s more, it’s available on a 200-night trial basis. So, if you don’t fall in love with the responsive and supportive design of the mattress, you can always get a different one.

Get Out And Exercise

It seems that working off that pregnancy weight isn’t the only reason why exercise is good after giving birth.

Doing physical activity during the day can actually help you to sleep better at night.

If you spend too much time at home getting minimal exercise, you’re bound to become restless.

That naturally proves problematic when it’s time to sleep because you still have too much energy to burn. Your body doesn’t want to rest as it feels like it’s been doing that all day.

Obviously, taking care of a baby can use up a lot of energy, but sometimes, this isn’t enough.

So, when you can, try to get out of the house and stretch those legs.

You don’t have to run a marathon or anything; maybe just take your kid out for a walk. The fresh air is bound to do you both some good.

Try Relaxation Techniques

It’s stressful being a parent, so it’s no wonder you’re having trouble sleeping.

All those childcare responsibilities mixed with the worry of doing things wrong or something happening to your baby can be terrible for your mental wellbeing.

That’s why it’s essential to try and incorporate various relaxation techniques into your day.

This might be something simple, like reading a book or taking a bath when you have the time.

It might also mean attempting things like yoga or meditation to try and actively ease your mind.

There’s a bunch of different relaxation techniques you can try, all of which are worthwhile.

On the same relaxation subject you could also try sleep hypnosis. There is a variety of amazing studies on this topic and great feedbacks on how it really improves sleep.

If you’re struggling to find the time for any of this, speak to your partner and see if they can handle childcare responsibilities for one night.

The two of you can alternate so that you both have an opportunity to relax and hopefully sleep better as a result.

Sacrificing sleep is something that every parent has to get used to. However, this doesn’t have to be the case every night, nor should it be.

Your mental and physical wellbeing requires that you get adequate rest, so if you’re currently struggling, hopefully these tips will help.

Nothing should be disturbing your sleep aside from when your child needs attention.

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Luciana joined our team as a mum blogger in 2020. A dedicated mum to a lively daughter and a dog, Luna, Luciana brings authenticity and passion to every post. Her expertise in parenting and lifestyle topics offers practical, relatable advice for real-life situations.

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