Pregnancy can be an overwhelming experience. It brings a whole lot of emotions and responsibilities along and is not at all ‘easy’. It has its own set of troubles that can give any expecting mother a hard time. Talking about common issues faced by women during pregnancy, insomnia is something that must be addressed. More than often, expecting mothers can be seen struggling to catch a nice sleep at night. This sleeplessness has its reasons and can be avoided with some easy tricks.
Here we have listed the top five tips and tricks that can help you feel and sleep better during your pregnancy –
Avoid too much of spices before bedtime
Who doesn’t love spicy food items? Women tend to enjoy it all the more during pregnancy. However, a lesser known fact is that excessive consumption of spicy food items before bedtime is also one of the main reasons behind insomnia during pregnancy.
Whatever we consume has direct results on our sleeping patterns as well. Eating spicy food items increases the chances of heartburn at night and disturbs the overall sleeping pattern leading to quite a restless and uncomfortable situation. Not just that, eating food that is too heavy to digest at night also makes the body work extra thus not allowing it to repair or prepare itself for the activities scheduled for the next day.
A light snack such as a banana or a small bowl of cereal works fine before bedtime in case you feel like eating something. Drinking water before bedtime also helps sleep better. However, make sure that you do not drink an excess of it as it can disrupt your sleep with late night trips to the bathroom. Apart from that, expecting mothers should focus more on consuming carbohydrates like bread as they help promote sleep. Snacks high in protein are also something that must not be missed.
Use a body pillow for pregnancy
Sleeping well during pregnancy requires a bit of an extra effort at times. Invest in stuff like body pillow for pregnancy and observe the changes yourself! These pillows are specially designed for pregnant ladies and can help you a lot getting comfortable during the night. Not just that, these special pillows can even help you get rid of that excruciating back pain.
All you have to do is to lay on your left side with hips and knees bent and place the body pillow in between your knees, under your abdomen, behind your back or where you feel discomfort. You can use the pillow to support your tummy as well. A body pillow placed in between the legs provides immense support to the lower back and helps the expecting mother sleep on her side easily.
It is essential to shop for the best pregnancy pillow to get the desired results. With a lot of variants being available in the market these days, the choice can be overwhelming at times. Wedge-shaped pillow and the full-length body pillow for pregnancy are two popular choices among the ladies these days.
Regular exercising
Pregnancy is no excuse for being a couch potato. Regularly catching up on exercise helps you sleep better rather than sitting on the couch all day long doing absolutely nothing!
Even if you feel uncomfortable exercising, you must at least go for a light stroll as it helps improve the blood circulation and makes sure that your muscles are doing what they are design to do. It also helps drastically reduce nighttime leg cramps thus promoting better sleep. However, it is important to note that you must not work out or exercise when you are about to hit the bed as increased levels of adrenaline can keep you awake thus defeating the whole purpose. You should work out at least two or three hours before bedtime.
De-stress
Another aspect to sleep better is to figure out why exactly can’t you sleep! Stress and anxiety are the two main reasons why a lot of expecting mothers feel it difficult to doze off at night. Worrying unnecessarily about stuff won’t take you anywhere. You should talk about your problems with your husband or other family members. This will make you feel assured and comfortable.
You can even share whatever is going on in your head with a professional who listens and seek help if there is anything serious like depression. You can listen to yourself if nobody is present! You can maintain a diary and write about unresolved issues in it regularly. This will also help you create something you can have with yourself all your life and can even share with your child one beautiful day.
Leave the bed
Another trick for sleeping better during pregnancy is not to force yourself to the bed every night! If you have been lying there for over an hour continually staring at the ceiling, it is better to get out of bed and have a light stroll or drink water. Hit the bed again after 15-20 minutes and see if you are ready to sleep now. Strategic napping is an integral part of sleeping well during pregnancy. You can even try short naps during the day to make up for your lost sleep, if it helps.
Thus, these were the top five tips to sleep better during pregnancy. We sincerely hope that these tips help you and fetch you positive results. However, if you are still facing severe sleeping issues even after following all of these tips, you can be suffering from a severe underlying problem. In these cases, you need to talk to the doctor as to why you can’t doze off. You can even go for counseling and resolve your emotional conflicts.
In case you are suffering from an issue like restless leg syndrome, you may have iron or fol ate deficiency. Another reason for sleeplessness among expecting mothers is sleep apnea. If you are suffering from it, you will need additional tests and case study. In any case, insomnia during pregnancy is something that must not be ignored. After all, sleeping well is as essential as your monthly visits to the gynecologist!
