Shhh! Mommy needs a nap

After a certain point, I just got used to my current level of exhaustion. When my son was born, night feedings were just part of life, and sleeping through the night meant five hours of continuous sleep (and oh, was it wonderful). As my son has gotten older, I am still woken up by his sweet voice asking me questions in the middle of the night. (See yesterday's post.)

It turns out that I am not getting enough sleep. I am not alone in this - most of us aren't getting enough sleep and we know that already. What I didn't know is that Moms need more sleep than Dads do. A study at Duke University found that men didn't suffer from the same ailments that women do when they are sleep deprived. According to the study, women suffer from worse depression, anger and hostility.

I believe at this point, I should apologize to my mother for all those late nights and early mornings she went through with me. Sorry, Mom!

Also at this point, I would like to point out that I am the morning person in my family, so I would like to believe that this doesn't really apply to me. I am generally in a good mood in the morning, but know to tone it down for my husband and son who don't want to talk to me (or anyone else) until they are fully awake.

If, however, you find that you are in need of more sleep, another study suggests that you fake it. This Smithsonian article outlines some research done on placebo sleep - basically saying that believing you had great sleep helps your brain function better.

I'll try to keep this in mind when I wake my son in the morning. Maybe I should stop asking him how he slept and start saying to him that he had a nice long sleep.

Two sleep posts in one week? Maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something. Leave me a comment about the thing that interrupts your sleep the most often.