There are the restless nights when your sizeable bump prevents you from sleeping. Then the ensuing sleepless weeks following the birth of a baby. But what about all the months afterwards?
For many of us, so says the New York Times, insomnia becomes "a permanent modus operandi" leading us to turn to sleeping pills to get some much-needed shut eye.
“Most of the time I get stuck mulling over the logistics of how everything’s going to get done — my brain really digs down the minutiae,” said 45-year-old mom Cheryl Downs McCoy, who admits to consulting a sleep therapist and trying every prescription and over-the-counter soporific, from Ambien to low-dose anti-depressants, to get some Zs.
Whether it's Lunesta or melatonin or even Xanax, as many as 3 in 10 American moms are popping pills a few times a week to quell all the worries and thoughts that keep them lying awake at night according to “Women and Sleep,” a 2007 National Sleep Foundation study.
Chris Baldwin, a 43-year-old mom of two, claims she even gets a "hangover" after weaning herself off of Tylenol PM. Apparently women suffer from insomnia more than men. Why is that?
In the above study, 80 per cent of women reported being "just too stressed or worried to turn out the proverbial lights."
It's the hamster in the wheel syndrome. Women find it hard to wind down, because there is always so much to do and so little time in which to do it all.
Some moms actually use the early morning wakings to get creative or brainstorm about tackling the day ahead. For others, the insomnia is a blessing in disguise.
“I’m pretty sure I wake up at 3 because subconsciously, I know I’ll have this time to myself,” claims McCoy. “It’s the only time in a 24-hour period when no one needs me or wants me or expects me to do something. Despite the inconvenience, it’s a time that’s blissfully mine.”
How do you unwind and put a lid on worries at the end of the day? Do you ever take anything to help you fall asleep?
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