It's a cruel cycle, your little one is finally starting to sleep for longer stretches, but there you are, wide awake in the middle of the night - finding yourself more and more frustrated as the hours tick by. Sound familiar? I'll admit, I've never been a great sleeper but postpartum insomnia hit me hard.
Nothing can quite prepare you for the exhaustion felt in the the newborn days, but despite this, so many women find themselves wide awake most of the night, just waiting for the next cry or nappy change, and watching the hours tick by.
There's no one size fits all cure for this (and of course with extreme postpartum insomnia, it's always best to speak to a professional, or see your GP), but there are a few things you can do to try and help break this cycle, and finally get some well needed sleep.
Meditation
Often the reason we can't sleep is due to stress, and heightened cortisol levels.
Meditation is a fantastic way to help regulate our nervous system, lowering the heart rate, breaking free from negative thoughts and drawing us away from our fight and flight response into our parasympathetic nervous system.
It doesn't matter whether it's for 5 minutes or 30, a guided meditation of self practice, you will benefit from it however you manage to fit it into your day.
You can join me here for a free guided meditation.
Winding Down With Some Self Care
Allowing yourself time to wind down at the end of the day can make such a huge difference.
This may be through a nice long bath, or pampering yourself with some beautiful smelling products (always making sure you check products first if you are breastfeeding).
These are my top 5 go to's, when I need a bit of added self care:
This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Talk Kit - not only does it smell amazing but it really does help you relax and unwind at the end of the day.
Spacemasks Self Heating Eye Mask - there is something so luxurious about these, put on a meditation or just focus on your breath whilst you lie in bed and let these gorgeous and soothing eye masks melt away any tension.
Kalms Night - this herbal medicine can really help promote a good nights sleep.
CBD Bath Salts - firstly, they smell incredible, and have the power to transform your bath into a full spa experience, secondly with the added help of CBD these bath salts are a great way to promote a good nights sleep.
Delicious Smelling Candles - making your bedroom smell like a spa, and helping you ease into your evening.
Exercise
This doesn't have to be vigorous, low impact exercise such as yoga/pilates/barre or even getting outside and going for a walk, can really help your sleep, by creating more of a divide between day and night. Causing you to be more awake in the day time, therefore more sleepy at night.
The Pre and Postnatal Yoga Library is a great at home way of including regular movement and meditation in your day.
Avoiding Caffeine/Alcohol
This is rich coming from me as my morning coffee is probably my favourite part of the day, but limiting or fully taking caffeine out of your diet can have such a positive impact on your sleep.
Alcohol also really affects the quality of our sleep, by prohibiting the amount of time spent in full REM sleep.
Good news is, there are some great alternatives available now though from Relaxing Herbal Teas, Mushroom Tea, Alcohol Free Spirits to health boosting Adaptogens (always being careful to check ingredients if still breastfeeding).
Limiting Screen Time
I know, it's so tempting to just sit in bed and scroll through Instagram, but limiting screen time is a great way to help combat postpartum insomnia.
Electronic devices such as our phones and laptops emit blue light, which can suppress our melatonin production and have a very negative impact on our circadian rhythm, causing disrupted sleep.
Why not try popping your phone onto airplane mode an hour or so before going to sleep and putting it away in a drawer to avoid that temptation.