Go the f*ck to sleep for Mommies

Your little one is finally sleeping through the night! Whether that's at 6 months or three years, you're exhausted and looking forward to again catching your daily 8 hours of zzzzzzzzz. Now that your little one is sleeping soundly, you'd think you would too. Wrong! Now you're the one taking an hour to fall asleep, waking up several times a night unable to fall asleep again, and getting up before the sunrise.

So what gives? Turns out there is such as thing as postnatal insomnia and it's often linked with postpartum depression. I had both. I was constantly sick, grumpy, and lethargic. I lay staring at the ceiling every night and early morning, feeling more and more agitated and worried about how I would get through the next day. My mood, my work, my health, and my relationships suffered. I wan't enjoying much of anything, I was just surviving.

Here are some of the ways (many crunchy) I was able to improve.  I'm not going to give you the laundry list of things you can find elsewhere on the internet. But do look up insomnia, delayed sleep phase disorder, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome and talk with your provider about what may be causing your symptoms.

Here was has helped me. I will start off saying that I already limited caffeine, alcohol, sugar, dairy, and gluten - all things that can impact sleep. So can poor gut health. So first off, fix your gut issues (SIBO, candida etc..) if you have them.

Detoxing my brain (and my gut too)- I was recommended a book called One Spirit Medicine by a trusted health guru Jane Gee. It's written by a medical anthropologist who faced with his own mortality, devised a way to heal his mind and body through diet, supplements, and shamanic healing practices. Now I'm pretty crunchy I guess some would say, but the shaman stuff was a bit over my head. I did however stick with the diet and supplement portion of his protocol and I think it made a big difference. I did it two separate weeks. I experienced a healing crisis of sorts, with lots of acne and a cold, but that only reinforced to me that it did something. Shortly after, I felt better than I had in a long time, I could think clearly and was sleeping again. If I slip at all, I follow the diet for just a few days and it often rights me again.

Limit night time calories - I started eating dinner and quit snacking at least three hours before bed. I'll have a light snack now and again an hour or so before bed, but find that having an empty stomach before I go to bed means a better night's rest. I also don't wake up hungry.  I stick to a low carb diet, and have found that holding my carbohydrates to dinnertime improves sleep. If you need that bedtime snack, pick something easily digestible with a bit of carbs. I like a slice of gluten-free toast with coconut butter or half cup of rice cereal and plant milk.

Supplements - First, when I was so overtired I couldn't fall asleep, valerian root tincture or tea helped me fall asleep quickly. When I awoke several hours later, I used passionflower tincture to help put me back to sleep. I also find that when I'm training a lot (running, spinning, etc...) that I get leg cramps at night that wake me up. Magnesium helps tremendously to relax my muscles and help me sleep and sleep longer. Tart cherry juice is said to help with sleep too. I mixed it in to my magnesium drink and the combo seemed to be more powerful than each on its own. Reishi mushroom is also a great sleep aid. Check out Four Sigmatic's yummy Reishi powered hot cocoa!

Getting some shuteye. This one is like....duh. And of course the hardest to come by. But sleep really does beget sleep. When I've had a few bad nights, if I can get just 2-3 nights of good sleep, the cycle breaks and more restful nights  follow.

Stop stressing the f*uck out about not sleeping. After complaining on a Facebook  group for mommies about my lack of sleep one day, I got a ton of suggestions and took solace in the fact that I was very much not alone in this. I happened to be getting on a plane the next day and took the opportunity to read the book Say Goodbye to Insomnia, recommended by someone on the thread. It outlines a whole six-week process for getting better sleep. It only took me a four hour plane ride to read the whole thing. I didn't follow the plan, but did internalize some of the messages and try out a few of the techniques the next several nights. Really the big take away for me was....you don't need as much sleep as you think you need, so stop stressing. Once you stop stressing, you'll sleep better.

Sleep tight everyone!