Sleep, Such a hot topic with mums and there is no wonder. For the first few years of your children’s lives it’s the altering and changing of sleeping, patterns, naps and figuring out what works well for your child. Then there’s the teething, illness, regressions, development that throw a spanner in the works. And that’s just them, in amongst you’re trying your hardest to get some sleep yourself, oh and looking after them, partners, the house, work, maybe you’re own physical and mental health and have a bit of social life too!
It all sounds exhausting without even throwing in some sleep deprivation in there too. So what do you do if the amount of sleep you get is out of your hands? Nothing you try to get small ones to sleep better works?
I think it’s incredible how many mums survive and function doing all the above on such little sleep and sometimes you have no choice but to, which is the only thing that pushes us forward.
There are some thing you can do to help deal with functioning on little sleep that will make you feel a bit and give you more energy.
don’t be afraid to ask for help or except help when it’s offered.
Take the opportunity to sleep if you have it and if not rest - sleep is your bodies time to heal and recover and if this isn’t possible then sit/lie and do nothing.
Drink water - it’s really important to stay hydrated which has lots of health benefits and can also help energise you when feeling tired.
Eat enough to keep you fuelled and ensure you have plenty of protein. Tiredness leaves us craving energy and reaching out for high sugar foods to fulfil energy but try and ensure you eat protein first, in fact you need protein in every meal plus two protein rich snacks a day, along side that, make sure each meal contain veggies.
Exercise - yes of course I’m going to say exercise but this can really lift your mood and energise you plus work towards getting stronger to support you with all the mum tasks you do. If you can get workout in without the kids around this also gives you a bit of ‘you time’ which is much needed.
But when is too tired to work out? Now this is a tricky one and will probably vary from person to person and depend of how much sleep you have over the course of the week/monthly etc. For me, if I’ve managed a block of 4 hours sleep the night before I usually feel ok to workout but sometimes I’ll have to try it to see, if after my warm up I’m really struggling and it’s not feeling good then I’ll stop. I appreciate this can sometimes feel disheartening and in this instance I would go out for a walk instead. Don’t underestimate the power of a walk outside. This can get you moving, get the metabolism going and really lift your mood being outside.
If you feel like you want to workout but don’t know where to start you can join my group online programme which gives you 3-4 30min workouts to do a week, progressing from gentle core exercises to full body hit workouts. Sign up now until 16th Feb.
If you have any questions on sleep and working out then feel free to get in contact.
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