- Shusch the hair. Shusch it.
Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you
my top 10 sleep hacks for parents.
Now we all know that we should really get
between six to eight hours of sleep a night
to function properly but seven years
and three kids into parenthood,
I cannot remember the last time I had eight hours
of sleep in a row and I have become used to functioning
on quite a little bit of sleep.
I aim to get six hours but if someone's ill
or if someone's teething, it can be very difficult.
So I really hope that my hacks help you.
I have hacks to cope when you've had very little sleep
and also a few hacks to actually help you fall asleep.
If you like this video please let me know
by giving it a big thumbs up and if you're new
to my channel, I would love for you to subscribe
and stick around and of course share this video
with any new parents that you know
that need some help coping with sleep deprivation.
So without further ado, let's get into it.
My first hack for helping you cope with sleep deprivation
is to have a good breakfast.
Research shows that you should eat breakfast
within the first hour of waking up
and you should have something with low GI.
So what that means is you want to be having grains,
fruit, protein, so something like oatmeal,
protein pancakes or eggs on toast, something like that,
and that is actually gonna give you energy
and help boost your mood for the first half of the day.
You really want to avoid sugary foods
because although this will give you a little bit
of a spike in energy, it will then make you crash
and actually make you feel more sleepy.
My next hack involves a parent's best friend
and that is coffee.
You definitely want to have a coffee at breakfast
but did you know that it can take between 20 and 30 minutes
for coffee to actually start taking an effect.
So one really cool hack that you can do is have
a coffee power nap so if you ever have 20 minutes
where you can actually sleep if your baby's asleep
is drink a coffee and then have that power nap
and by the time you wake up you'll feel much more refreshed.
You'll want to drink the coffee quite quickly.
Don't sip it cuz that will also take up time.
So you almost wanna make the coffee, let it cool,
drink it and then go to sleep.
And this is also something that is recommended
if you're ever drowsy while you're driving,
you should pull over, drink a coffee,
and have a 20 minute nap in your car
and that way it will make you more alert.
One little thing to know about coffee,
if you are breastfeeding, don't have more than four cups
of coffee a day.
You're allowed to have four five ounce cups of coffee
and what I like to do is not have any coffee
after 3 p.m. and that way I can go to bed better.
My next hack is something that my mother told me to do
and I never did it and that is to sleep
when your baby sleeps.
I regret not doing this so much.
As soon as I had my second baby,
I realized that those days were kind of over
but even just half an hour, I know you have so much to do,
but postpone things, forget about the housework
and try to get a little bit of rest in.
Even just a half an hour or hour of sleep
will really make a massive difference to getting you
through the day.
My next hack is to get outside.
It has been proven that sunshine and fresh air
can not only make you feel better but more alert.
So go for a walk with the buggy or even just play
in the garden.
It can make you feel so much better.
In line with that, make sure you get ready every morning.
I mean, not in the early days when you have a newborn.
Enjoy being in your pajamas and just chilling out.
But when your baby's a little bit older,
even if you're on maternity leave
and you don't have anywhere that you have to be,
make an effort to get ready.
Having a shower, getting dressed, and putting on
a little bit of makeup can make a world of difference.
My next hack is to eat well and have plenty of fluids
and now we spoke about breakfast
but make sure you have snacks throughout the day as well.
That is going to release energy over time and when it comes
to lunch, it's much better for you to have a protein
and veggie type of lunch than a lunch that is full of carbs
which is basically the only thing you can get in a soft pie
so be careful.
But carbs can actually make you feel more tired
and again, sugary foods will make you feel more tired
and make sure you're hydrated.
You really need to look after yourself.
I know as a mom, I tend to forget to eat
or just eat the kids scraps but try and avoid that
and you will feel better.
My next hack is to be productive first.
Did you know that you are actually at your most productive
within the first three hours of the day?
So if you have an important call to make
or an important meeting to go to
that you will actually require your brain cells for,
make sure you do it early on in the day.
My next tip is to wind down at night.
There is nothing worse than getting into bed
and trying to go to sleep and you just cannot relax.
One reason that this happens to so many people
is that, if you're like me, you will check your laptop
or your phone in bed before you go to sleep,
but the blue light that is actually given off
by the screens goes into your eyes and creates adrenaline
which then makes you feel more awake.
So what you really need to do is make sure
that your phone is on the night mode.
And that goes for kid's tablets as well.
Make sure that it's on the night mode
if you let them have them before bed.
And also, it's really good if you can avoid it altogether.
If you can get into bed and read a book
or do some journaling, those are really good ways
to wind down.
My next tip is to write a list.
One of the reason that I can't get to sleep at night
is because I have a million thoughts running through my head
so I have found that writing a list
right before I go to bed is really helpful
to just get everything out of my brain.
Once I've written it on paper, all the things I need to do,
things I need to do for the kids and what's on my mind,
I feel so much better and then I know
in the morning I can just look at that list
and get on with it.
So try it, it's really effective.
There are a few other things that I do to help me wind down
that might also work for you so it's worth a shot.
One of those things sounds really silly but it is so simple
and it's just put some socks on.
If you are a naturally cold person,
go to bed with something on your feet
and honestly, it makes a massive difference to me.
Also, if you are struggling to sleep,
have some milk and honey or even just a spoonful
of honey.
This is something my mum always used to do
but I just looked it up and what honey actually does,
is it raises you insulin a little bit
and then it actually lets a compound
called tryptophan create and that is famous
for making you sleepy.
So you an put some honey in some herbal tea
or into some warm milk or you can just have a spoonful
of honey, and it will actually make you drowsy.
And another thing that I do a lot.
I would say it's meditation but I don't think it really is.
I just lay there and I imagine from my toes to my head
that parts of my body are becoming very very heavy.
So I will start at my feet and I will just think,
my feet are very heavy now and then I'll do my shins
and my knees and my thighs and by the time I reach my head,
I'm normally asleep.
And my final tip is to go to bed early
when you have a very young baby.
I don't know why, but all of my babies
they seem to sleep quite well between 8 p.m. and midnight.
It was those early hours of the morning
that they would be quite restless and awake and fussy.
So if you can go to bed when they go to bed
just for the first few weeks,
I think it will make a massive difference to you.
But yes, thank you so much for watching this video.
I really hope you enjoyed it and I would love to know
your ways of falling to sleep and to cope with no sleep
in the comments below.
Thank you so much for watching and I will see you very soon.
Bye guys.