Are you struggling with sleep after having kids? Join the club! Let’s learn together how moms can improve their sleep.
When you first had a kid, you probably expected to take a serious hit in the sleep department. A hallmark of the newborn stage is interrupted sleep, after all. What you probably didn’t expect was that this lack of sleep would be hard to shake, long after the baby started sleeping through the night. You don’t want to give up your me-time after the kids go to bed, you want to spend quality time with your partner, and you worry that your kids will need you overnight (and sometimes they do!). It’s a lot to juggle with sleep.
Even though we all have competing priorities and stresses on our ability to sleep, it is absolutely imperative to your health that you reclaim your sleep. It’s also an essential ingredient to find yourself in motherhood.
But I know that it’s easier said than done to get more sleep. Over the last few years my struggle to get sleep has led me to try a whole lot of tactics to help me get the sleep I need. After all this trial and error, I can confidently say that I’m sleeping as well as I can be. I want to share my tips with you so you can get to the same place. Some of these are conventional tips that anyone can use, and some are specific to how moms can improve their sleep. They all add up to a much happier and well-rested mom!
How Moms Can Improve Their Sleep
Do your evening skincare
My evening skincare routine has become non-negotiable. Sure, my devotion to an evening skincare routine started off with vanity, but it has grown to be about so much more than that.
I use my evening skincare routine as a bit of a shift change from mom mode to me mode in the evenings. As soon as I get my kids down for the night, I immediately head to my bathroom to scrub the day off my face and have five minutes of undivided attention on myself. I’m not thinking about my kids, my husband, my work, or my chores during this time. This nightly ritual let’s me decompress for the day and tells my brain that it’s time to start winding down. It’s amazing how just one five minute skincare routine hours before I actually go to sleep can set the foundation for a good night’s sleep.
If you aren’t consistent with your evening skincare routine, I highly recommend that you make your skincare non-negotiable. A skincare routine after the kids go to bed is truly at the top of my list of recommendations for how moms can improve their sleep.
Read
When I added reading before bed back into my evening routine, it wasn’t really to help me sleep. I was just trying to read more, and the few minutes before I fell asleep at night was the only time I had. What I didn’t realize was that reading for a few minutes before bed would be such a great way to get higher quality sleep.
How is reading a way that moms can improve their sleep, you ask? If you read a physical book like I do, it’s a screen-free way to ease mom out of the hubbub of a chaotic day and into sleep. It doesn’t hurt that you can immerse yourself in someone else’s life (real or fictional) right before bed so you can turn your mind off to your worries and tasks that typically occupy your brainwaves.
I stick to reading physical books with my eyes before bed, but listening to an audiobook can accomplish the same goal of letting you fall to sleep more easily. Basically, whichever way you like to consume books, give it a go right before bed to help improve your sleep.
Fall asleep in bed
For me, falling asleep in bed is one of the hardest of my tips for how moms can improve their sleep to stick to. By the end of the day, I’m exhausted. If I sit down on the couch to watch a game or a show, the odds are about even that I’ll fall asleep. If the dog climbs on top of me to snuggle, those odds catapult to 100%. But if I fall asleep on the couch, I really struggle to get to sleep once I’m in my bed.
I’ve found that I get to sleep much more easily when I fall asleep for the first time actually in my bed. If you’re not sleeping well overnight and you’re falling asleep on the couch too, make a concerted effort to head to bed when you feel drowsy. Turn off the TV, head to bed, and crack open your book. You’ll reap the benefits.
Stick to a schedule
Now for one of the more conventional tips to help improve your sleep that works for moms and everyone else. As best you can, try to stick to a sleep schedule. Pick a time that generally works to go to bed and a time that generally works to wake up. Then consistently stick to this schedule. Yes, even on the weekend!
Why? Keeping to a consistent sleep schedule helps keep your body’s internal clock running on time. When your body’s internal clock is set, you fall asleep and wake up more easily, which helps improve your sleep and helps you have a better day while you’re awake. Just as babies sleep better when they’re on a schedule, moms can improve their sleep with a sleep schedule too!
Create an optimal sleep environment
Here’s another typical sleep tip that helps moms just as much as it helps every other member of society get better sleep: create an optimal sleep environment. What is an optimal sleep environment, you ask?
Dark
Make sure your sleeping space has as little ambient light as possible while you’re sleeping. I live in a very quiet and dark neighborhood, so this is pretty easily achievable for me. If you live in a place that’s a little more happening, do yourself a favor and buy yourself some blackout curtains. In addition to making sure light isn’t streaming through your windows, it is also worth checking any electronic devices that live in your room like a fan or a humidifier. If these devices don’t have a sleep mode, a little piece of electrical tape works wonders!
Cool
You can’t get quality sleep if you’re too hot or too cold. Aim for pleasantly cool. I’ve seen anywhere from 60°F to 67°F. A fan can help tremendously to get your room to this optimal temperature. If this temperature range sounds frigid to you, make sure you have a nice cozy blanket available. If you sleep with a partner, I highly recommend that you each have your own blanket. It could save your marriage!
Comfortable
Don’t skimp on the comfort level of your bed! If you’re uncomfortable, you’ll never get your sleep where it needs to be.
The first step in ensuring your comfort at night is to make sure you have a quality mattress. We absolutely love our Original Mattress Factory mattress, but you need to find the one that works best for you. Next, you need to find breathable, comfortable sheets. I like traditional cotton percale sheets, which are getting hard to find. I typically go on a hunt at my local Home Goods when I’m in need of a new set of sheets. Finally, you need to get yourself a quality pillow. I’m still on the hunt for the perfect pillow. I’d love your recommendations for pillow you love!
Abstain from caffeine after noon
Don’t be scared, you can do this! I need caffeine to function like a normal person, so I’m certainly not asking you to do anything extreme. Just to strategically use caffeine in the morning only. I’ve found that any time I drink a caffeinated beverage after about noon, I struggle to sleep. Sometimes it’s that I can’t fall asleep at my self-imposed bedtime. Sometimes it’s that I wake up throughout the night. Either way, my sleep takes a hit. If you’re pumping yourself with caffeinated beverages all day long, you might want to try to limit them to the morning hours. Moms can improve their sleep and still enjoy coffee or tea.
If you’re feeling sluggish after noon and you feel like you need a pick-me-up, consider a decaf coffee or tea or even a fizzy beverage like my kids’ favorite fruit waters (sparkling flavored water). Sometimes it’s just the ritual of a special drink that carries the life-giving magic.
Exercise during the day
When I was a new mom, I did not make space to exercise every day. Or even every few days. My only exercise was chasing a kid or squatting to pick up the never-ending toys from the floor. When that really started to take a toll on my overall well-being, I resolved to move more. I started out slowly, but have now made it my practice to intentionally move my body every day. Some days this is just taking the dog for a walk or following along to a 20-minute yoga YouTube video, but it’s something.
Although I incorporated exercise into my daily routine to feel better, I never dreamed how much it would help me sleep (get it?). Now at the end of the day, I’m physically tired as well as mentally tired, so I fall asleep faster and get into a deeper sleep. Moms can improve their sleep by making themselves more tired – who would have thought moms needed help in that arena?
Reduce monitor volume
If you are a mom with little kids, you probably sleep with a monitor next to your bed. And although I’m sure it gives you peace of mind, it can also be disrupting your sleep. How? If you have the volume turned up on the monitor, you hear every little babble or snore or cough coming from your kids. These little sounds wake you up and immediately put you into panic mode until you realize that your sweet angel was only talking to himself and is safely sound asleep in his bed. But you spend the next 2 hours trying to convince yourself to go back to sleep. Then you wake up tired and cranky and no one is happy.
A quick fix for this sleep problem that is unique to moms is to lower the monitor volume. That’s it! Don’t turn it off. Then you’ll be awake wondering if the kids are OK. Just turn the volume down so you only wake up when your kids truly need you.
Other posts
Want more mom-specific tips? You might want to check out these posts:
I sure hope these tips help you sleep better. I know I’m a whole new woman now that I’m getting better sleep. Do you have any additional tips for how moms can improve their sleep? Pop them down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.