worried about sleep deprivation

SophiaAlbert · October 2015

I always read about pregnant women who nap and sleep 12 hoursa night. Since week 1 I haven't slept more than 5 hours because I just won't fall asleep after I get up to pee. 5 hrs is good for me, tonight it has been 3 hours and yesterday 4.Besides the obvious horrors of working fulltime with very little sleep and looking like crap, I am starting to worry about the baby. This can't ve healthy can it? Anybody else like me?

Kurrant · October 2015

Sometimes I have a hard time getting back to sleep but I find i'm so exhausted that if I lay there silently long enough I eventually fall asleep. With midday naps I tried setting an alarm so I would nap the same time everyday but it didn't work. I found it best to just sleep or nap the moment I felt tired.

AMPowell0403 · October 2015

@SophiaAlbert I am going through the same thing. 10 weeks here. I sleep 4 hours a night. It leaves me exhausted for work. When I come home, all I want to do is eat dinner and go to bed. I fall asleep in front of the TV but the minute I wake up to use the bathroom, I'm ip the rest of the night.

dshannah · October 2015

I do not know why this works, but it has never not worked for me, even when my freakouts/panics are turned up to 11.

Breathe in to the count of 4, out to the count of 4, in to the count of 8, and out to the count of 8, in to the count of 9, and out to the count of 9. Repeat as needed.

I have never lasted more than 4 cycles before falling asleep.

I have no idea why it works: I found it on LifeHacker last year and have been using it to fall asleep ever since.

emilyj77 · October 2015

In my 3rd trimester with DD I did not sleep well at all. It sucked, but it really prepared me for functioning on very little sleep with a newborn and infant. Especially when I went back to work. This time around, the sleeplessness has started in the 1st trimester. While I don't think my body needs the training quite yet, here I am not sleeping very well. Hopefully this will end in the 2nd trimester after all the scans, ultrasounds are done and I'm feeling reassured. Also I think it will help to tell people.

Thanks for the breathing idea dshannah!

saladflambe · October 2015

insomnia is a pretty common pregnancy symptom. Get what you can. The baby will be ok. You can try taking benadryl and/or unisom (doxylamine) if you want.

katykatykaty · October 2015

I asked my doctor about this since I'm still waking up multiple times at night with my kids. He said it's fine and won't hurt the baby. I also take Benadryl to help me fall asleep more quickly after wakeups.

jdrdnr · October 2015

I still wake up several times a night to nurse my 1 year old and pro get about 5-6 total hours of sleep a night. Exhausted yes but I make sure to stay hydrated and rest when I can.