When our son was born we were overwhelmed by sleep deprivation, as are all new parents. As time went on things became a little easier and we became used to having less sleep, to the extend that I can now feel “normal” and function properly on very little sleep compared to what I thought I needed pre-children.
The question that springs to my mind is, “do our bodies become “addicted” to a certain amount of sleep, and if we don’t manage to have that same length of “fix” every night are we causing long term damage to our bodies??”
I know my memory has suffered since I gave birth but not sure if that’s down to motherhood in general (baby brain) or old age (elderly primi) or due to lack of sleep?
How much sleep do you think you need every night??
Ooh, I say I need the full whack of 8 hours, but only ever get a maximum of 5 at a time!
ReplyDeleteIn our house, a full night's sleep hasn't happened yet (a full year in), but I am looking forward to it!
I definitely think that you get used to a certain amount of sleep, and your body craves it.
Then comes the baby and everything (sanity included) goes out of the window!
We're getting on average about 6 hours of sleep a night, and like Rizzo, I was used to roughly 8 hours every night.
ReplyDeleteOver a week that adds up to a loss of 14 hours, and over a year it's a staggering loss of 728 hours of sleep!! (Wish I hadn't calculated that)
We can only hope that things will improve over time ...