I have a fantastic baby. He's not colicky--I mean he cries, but not for hours and rarely during the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. Carter is, however, a non-napper...so he's up all day long and into the late night. But I'll tell you what, even with a happy baby and 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, I am totally exhausted. In fact, this week (week #9 of being a mommy) has been my most exhausting week ever. I will chalk this unfortunateness up to everything catching up to me...mommy-hood is not new and shiny anymore...it's great...but there is a lot of monotony to it, plus the holidays just ended and I'm starting work tomorrow. SOooooooooo, in all of that, this morning, I was squeezing myself into my pre-pregnancy jeans which now button, but not without muffin topping all of my lovely loose skin out everywhere. While looking in the mirror with disgust, I was reminded of the importance of sleep on weight loss and how we, as new moms, are almost destined to failure as we put our child's needs ahead of our own getting-back-into-prepregnancy-jeans-and-looking-good-in-them needs. Check out this staggering stat:
According to National Geographic when compared to the person who gets the average recommended amount of sleep (7-8 hours per night), the risk of obesity increases 23% when a person gets just 6 hours of sleep up to a whopping 73% when a person only gets 4 hours of sleep per night.
So what can a person do if they have problems falling asleep or staying asleep like some 50 to 70 million Americans do? Incorporating a few simple changes into your life (especially around bed time) can make a big difference in how easily you fall asleep and stay asleep.
So what's a girl to do? Get as much sleep as possible, plus eat healthy and get her butt moving! I'm off to take a nap!
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