Read the rest of the challenges here. 
The quality of my sleep for the past five or so years has been pretty crappy, as I’m sure you can relate. I put the kids to bed around 7:30, they call out for me around 8 complaining of thirst, I get them to go to sleep, then I settle down to work. I get into a rhythm, I get a snack, I knock out a bunch of work. But then my eyes can no longer stay open and I see the clock is inching close to 1 a.m. I sigh and shut down the computer and pass out in the bed.
Inevitably, one of my kids will awake, screaming, at 1 a.m., because they’re hot/too tired/scared/thirsty/have to pee. My husband doesn’t hear them (uh-huh, sure) so I stumble into their room to see what’s wrong. I pass out again. Then wake up at 6.
I am exhausted 99% of the time.
And I don’t know if I can do so much about it, being the mother of two young kids and all. My sleep quality is probably going to average between a C- and an F+ for the next few years. My goal, quite honestly, is to wake up and not immediately want to go back to sleep. I’ve set the bar low. So let’s get on to the challenge:
Day #5 – Sleep like a baby
And by this, obviously I don’t mean wake up every three hours and eat. Although that would be awesome.
Instead, I want us to think about how we put our kids to bed when they are little. Most baby books and pediatricians and wise elders (lol) will tell you to come up with a bedtime routine, something along the lines of a bath, baby massage, breast or bottle, and rocking them to sleep. They’ll come to understand that bedtime is coming and the hope is they will go down without a fight.
But I realize that I am so far from having a bedtime routine that’s laughable. My current routine is to stumble up the stairs and collapse face first on the bed. And I wonder why I’m groggy in the morning.
My new bedtime routine involves:
- Spending 30 minutes to transition from work to bed. No more falling asleep with the laptop on my lap in bed.
- Taking a hot shower before slipping into my PJs.
- Warming up my lotion to give myself a quasi-massage after I get out the shower.
- Keep a good book or magazine on the side table (no textbooks!) to give myself some time to leisurely read.
- When’s the last time you bought new pillows? Been longer than a year? Go get new ones.
- Check out some of these aromatherapy pillow mists. My friend gave me a milk & honey version and it smells heavenly.
- You set an alarm to get up, so why not set an alarm to tell you it’s bedtime? Look at what time you need to get up to be on time in the morning and count back eight hours from that. Set the alarm and try your best to obey it!
Any other suggestions for getting better sleep?
Jersey knit sheets! They come in bold basic colors (Target has the cheapest, yet best quality ones), and they keep a warm bed warm or a cool bed cool. In the summer I put the fan on and curl up with a jersey flat sheet as a blanket.
Make your bed somewhere you want to be.
I recently started shutting down shop earlier and I’ve been feeling a lot better. Sleep really does a body and mind good, especially when you’re a mom and wife. You’re better able to deal with the kids and your spouse if you’re not cranky from lack of sleep.
I just reacently read somewhere ( I have to look it up) that in order for our bodies to not be so tired everyday that we ourselves need to wake up at the same time every morning no matter what time we go to sleep. It explained that every day is different for moms ,some easier than others and as a result we may not be as tired, but because we try to make up for it by sleeping in ect it somehow throws off our biological clock. So basically if you wake up at the same time every morning ( including weekends) you should be able to have a more productive day because it will be like your bodies own alarm clock . I probably did a terrible job explaining but I will look for the article and send you the link.
Just found your website today and about to start the Self-Care Challenge today (doing 5 days in one so I can catch up). Became a mother at 20 and now have 3 boys age range from 6 to 11 and married for 11 years also. Things can become so overwhelming and I get stressed a lot. I am a student and I volunteer work at my church when not at school or at the children school volunteering. This will be a great change for me to feel better about myself because when things go wrong all I can do is blame myself, feeling like a bad mother or a failure. From what I have read so far this is an awsome website.
So glad you found us! We’ll be doing the challenge for one more week!
In love with these challenges, God knows I need them.