Sleep, Now That You're a Parent: It Ain't Happening

What’s your standard response to the innocuous “How are you?”

I’m betting it’s “fine,” or “good,” or perhaps if we’re being honest, the more truthful “tired.” I’d also bet it’s probably never “amazingly well-rested and almost completely stress free!”

Last spring, YummyMummyClub.ca conducted a survey of over 1000 parents about sleep – the how’s, what’s, who’s, and why’s surrounding sleep now that we’re parents.

Not surprisingly, the overwhelming consensus is that we are a pretty tired crew. In fact, over a third of us are getting 6 hours or less sleep per night – well below the recommended 7-9 for most adults. The cumulative effect of diminished and poor sleep can wreak havoc on your health and well-being, and frankly, who the hell has time for havoc?

But the more surprising part came once we really started digging into your answers.

Over 54% identified as “extremely tried” and 5.4% said answered “bone crushingly exhausted.” In a phrase: not cool. 

When we looked at the reasons why we’re so tired, there were the responses we expected, like baby waking in night (12.6%), toddler won’t stay down (17.3%) and snoring partners (7.6%). But the bigger – and more upsetting number – came from this ultimate sleep stealer: STRESS. An incredible 27.3% or respondents report losing sleep to this joy-sucker.

It’s a vicious circle – you don’t sleep because you’re stressed, then you are less able to tolerate stress because you’re so tired.

I get it. My son (well out of the toddler years and still not a great sleeper) was a baby we affectionately nicknamed “Scream in a Diaper” solely for his sleep habits. He’s now 138 months old and I am still waiting for him to sleep through the night.

We know we can’t completely eradicate stress in our lives, and the truth is that some stress – the right kind – keeps us motivated and striving for better. But the bad stress – the kind we lose sleep over – well, it sucks. It sucks hard. For better or worse (mostly worse) stress is a by-product of the modern mom's condition.

We want to help.

And so YMC is launching #YMCSleeps, a new Sleep Project to help us all get some quality rest, and hopefully reduce some of our massive stress load while we’re at it. There are no easy answers, but YMC has a great team of experts: Moms who have been there, done (and still doing) that, medical professionals, sleep experts, organizational gurus, and humorists who, while they may not get you an extra hour of snoozing, can offer a laugh at our tired condition.

The #YMCSleeps project will tackle not only sleep issues as they relate to tired and stressed parents, but tired kids too – because quality sleep is not a once-and-done project; it’s an ongoing and ever-changing endeavor – and it’s one we can help you with.

Follow along on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, where we'll be sharing sleep stories and advice using the #YMCSleeps hashtag.

So here’s to more – and better– sleep!

Do you have a sleep story or question regarding sleep/stress you’d like our experts to tackle? I’d love to hear from you!

Email me at [email protected]