Hi guys. I’m Melissa, welcome back to CloudMom. Today’s question is coming in from a viewer
named Donna, and she basically is a mom of young kids, um, they’re all sleeping through
the night now. But she’s asking me, she’s having a lot of trouble sleeping, and she’s
asking if I have any advice on sleeping and what can help. And yes I do because I
have been through this a lot, and um, I actually had a really tough time with sleep especially
when I was filming a lot of the baby’s first year videos that you might see on the site.
Um, so here’s my advice and I hope it’s helpful and obviously talk to other friends
also and talk to your doctor. Number one, I would get off the computer and the iPhone
and the iPad and the TV at least an hour before bedtime, even more if you can. This is what
was really hurting me an I still fall into it sometimes. I’m working late or I’m
catching up on stuff with the kids or I’m answering emails, and then I try to go to
bed and my brain is racing. And from what I’ve read, the light from those devices
including the television, is basically convincing your brain that it’s daytime and that you
should be awake, so it’s very confusing. Really what you want to do is read with a
low light, and you know that can be super, super helpful. And I found myself if I’m
off all that stuff even like two hours before going to bed, its super helpful. Number two,
caffeine. Caffeine affects us all differently, my husband can have like a triple espresso at 11
o’clock at night and be fine, I cannot. I actually can’t have any caffeine after
12 o’clock pm. If I have a decaf coffee at 5pm, I’m not sleeping. Even, that decaf
has very little caffeine but I’m still not sleeping, I could never have it at night,
I cannot have a cup of tea after the morning. So what I do is I have a huge cup of coffee
at like 6am when I’m like getting going, getting my first one on the bus, all that.
And then at around like 11am, often if I’m able to go to yoga or whatever like mid morning,
I have like a big strong decaf coffee that still gives me a bit of a boost. But I don’t
have any caffeine after that first cup at 6am, and that’s been really helpful. And
tied in with that is chocolate, I love chocolate. I love chocolate bars, I love chocolate chip
cookies, I love chocolate cake, but guess what, I can’t have a huge piece of chocolate
cake at like 9 o’clock at night and get a good nights sleep. And here’s the next
thing, and isn’t it all just so much fun because as we get a little older some of the
things we were able to do when we were younger just don’t apply anymore, and here is what’s
been the most depressing to me as I’ve started my 40's. Wine. I actually have trouble sleeping
when I have more than like one glass of wine, especially late. Like if I’m like "oh I
had such a hard day I’m just going to unwind, have a glass of wine with my book before I
go to bed,” often I wake up in the middle of the night, I’m like, bing! And I think
it’s the sugar from the wine, its sort of acting as a stimulant and making it hard for
me to sleep. This obviously affects people in different ways, I would consider if you
like to have a glass of wine, push it up earlier, ok? And here’s my two more pieces of advice.
I get in a constant fight with Marc, my beloved husband, because he’s always stressed about
work and he checks email all during the night and sends himself email messages. And what
I try to tell him to do is write this stuff down on a piece of paper, because obviously
that’s better not getting the light from the phone and all that, he hasn’t done it
yet. But, further to that, I think what’s important is to try to find a way to slow
your reign down. If you’re worried about a million things that you have to do, definitely
make a list, look at your calendar for the next day, figure out when you’ll get them
done, and that will make you feel more calm. That will help you sleep. Reading also will
help your sleep. But of all of these tips, the number one thing that has dramatically
helped my sleep was eating an earlier dinner. And what I do is I eat with the kids now.
I used to eat with Marc at 8 or 9 at night, now I eat with the kids at 5 or 6, I try to
get it all in. My meal, my salad, my fruit, everything, my cup of tea. And then I do my
stuff, hopefully I see Marc, we like watch a little bit of TV, not too late, do all that
and then by 10 o’clock I try to go to bed when we don’t have to be out. This has been
amazingly helpful, and actually studies show that when you eat a good three hours before
your bedtime it can really, really help you sleep. So anyway, those are some tips on how
to get a better night’s sleep, I hope they’re helpful. Oh and go to bed as early as you
can! Um, please weigh in if there are other things that have worked for you. It’s a
big issue for us moms because we have to be taking care of so much during the day, and
thank you guys all so much for watching CloudMom.