subject: Importance Of Getting Enough Sleep [print this page] Sleep is extremely important for those who have just delivered. Delivering is a difficult process that can really wear you out.
On top of it all, you have a new baby to care for and feed every two hours. This makes it difficult to get all of the rest that you need.
However, sleep is critical because it is when the body is allowed to relax and replenish itself. It provides mental and physical relief from the stresses of the day.
Lack of sleep not only results in fatigue and illness, but in weight gain many studies are showing. A Harvard study found that mothers who received less than five hours of sleep a night due to caring for a young child where three times more likely to have put on an extra eleven pounds by the time the child turned one.
The mothers who received at least seven hours were much less likely to put on those extra pounds. This is partly related to the fact that when you do not get enough sleep, your hormones change to make your appetite increase.
These hormones are known as Leptin and Grehlin and they are responsible for weight gain or loss and appetite size. Grehlin is the nasty monster that increases your appetite and hinders your ability to lose weight.
This hormone increases when you do not get enough sleep on a regular basis. In addition, the leptin levels decrease when you do regularly do not get enough sleep.
Most adults need to get seven or eight hours of sleep every day in order to meet the needs of their body. Even if you lay down for this long, it does not count unless you are actually sleeping.
There are several things you can do to make sure you get enough sleep. For example, you can go to sleep when your child does, get in the habit of going to be early at least one night a week, or take naps.
These may be difficult when there is so much demanding your time and attention, but it is very important that you take care of yourself. At first it can be very helpful to catch up on sleep by enlisting your mother to come and visit.
Then, have your mom feed the baby at night until you have recovered from delivery. Even if you normally breastfeed your baby, you can introduce a bottle once at night.
This will make the transition to a bottle later on much easier. After a stressful day, you may find it very difficult to fall asleep.
Some mothers find that they like to relax while watching a television show. However, the lights from the television or computer can stimulate your body so that you will stay up even longer.
Instead, try putting on some quiet and relaxing music to listen to while you fall asleep. If you are really tense, you may want to ask your husband for a massage.
Let your husband rub away everything that was frustrating throughout the day and let yourself fall into a peaceful slumber. A massage can reach the mental, emotional, and physical tensions you have an unravel them.
You may want to return the favor as doing an act of service can help you move outside yourself and let go of your own cares. When you wake up in the morning, do not depend on your cup of coffee to keep you awake.
This can disguise your need to sleep later in the day as well. You may also want to take a minute to pick up your room.
If the room is in desperate need of organization, it may be another stress on top of your pile of stress. Remove the reminders of stress by quickly taking care of those in your room at night.
It is also important to not let yourself get discouraged and begin thinking that the sleepless nights will never end. Another thing that can help you sleep better is exercise.
Whether you walk or run on a treadmill or outside, exercise will help you lose the weight you gained and it will help you sleep better. Even if you can only jump on the treadmill for ten minutes at a time a couple times throughout the day, it will help.
Try to exercise in the morning as it will wake you up and lend you energy for the day. If you exercise at night, it may keep you up instead of putting you to sleep.
