View Single Post
  #58  
Old March 15th 08, 04:07 PM posted to misc.kids,misc.kids.pregnancy,misc.kids.breastfeeding
Rosalie B.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 984
Default How to stop the night wakings?

cjra wrote:

On Mar 14, 5:29*pm, Rosalie B. wrote:

Wanting a specific mattress, not wanting white noise, and not being
able to sleep where there is talking or the like means problem sleeper
to me and cjra also mentioned that her parents laughed hysterically
when she complains which means to me that they probably had the same
problems with her or at any rate SOME problems.


I never suggested otherwise about myself.


What I wrote above was in response to "Jamie Clark"
wrote:

*It sounds to me like she has a family of light sleepers, not problem
*sleepers.


What I wrote was meant at least partly in jest (there was a g in
there which she cut out.

Yes, I have a problem
sleeping. Same as when I was a kid. That's why my parents laugh, they
say it's karma. But I wasn't discussing *my* sleep issues. I was
discussing my daughter's.

As for DH, yeah, he has some specific needs, but he doesn't have a
problem sleeping usually. He can wake up and fall back to sleep
easily. The mattress is an issue because he has a bad back, and his
mattress (which he had shipped to the US from Europe when he moved
here) works for him. He claims mine does not. His white noise (or lack
thereof) are just his issues.

All that said, I'm not sure why any of that matters, except that maybe
DD inherited my sleep problems.

I don't think this is heavy vs light. *It is what the person has
trained themselves to do. *I was a sound sleeper until I had children.
Then I had to train myself to wake up and go back to sleep again


My dad can sleep like a log, but say one word and he's up in a second.
My sister who's an MD is the same way - which is fortunate for her as
she often had to take advantage of short intervals for sleep. One
brother is also like that. My mom too. No one trained themselves,
that's just how they are. I don't know about the rest of my siblings,
but I've always had issues with insomnia.

Have you ever heard of someone who did not 'pass' their internship
because they had insomnia? Yes they are frequently sleep deprived,
but I think anyone who does long shifts at the hospital, MUST learn to
take advantage of short sleep intervals.

Sleep problems are not something I'd choose, and I don't think they're
very simple to overcome. My parents treated/trained me sleep-wise the
same as my 6 older siblings. I still had problem sleeping as a kid.


I developed my attitude toward sleeping during a long train trip we
made when I was about 5 to see my Colorado grandparents. It was too
expensive for us to see them very often. I know I was taken when I
was about 9 months although I don't remember that trip at all. And we
drove out again when I was 10. But the trip(s) (there may have been
more than one) in the middle was/were by train. My mother told me
that she was absolutely frantic because I would not use the toilet on
the train. I don't remember that and it may have been a trip when I
was 3.

In the trip I remember, my dad was sitting reading some technical
journal, and my sister (who was probably about 3) asked him to read
her a story. He told her he would do that after he finished his
article. So she tried valiantly to stay awake for the story. And she
couldn't do it.

The lesson I learned from this was that if you try to stay awake, you
will go to sleep. I always did this when I was a kid - I tried to
stay awake by telling myself stories (in my mind - not out loud). I
nearly always fell asleep before I finished the story, and if not, it
was at least entertaining.

I used my dad's technique later with my own kids - my dd#2 was very
active and didn't need or want a nap when her older sister was still
needing and taking a nap. So I would tell her that if she lay on the
bed quietly for 15 minutes (we had an analog clock for her to watch),
that she could then get up and play quietly. And about half the time,
she'd go to sleep. If she didn't, she'd get up and play quietly.

I also found with myself that the only times I had trouble getting to
sleep was when I was anxious or worried about something so that I
couldn't keep my mind from circling the track. Like if my son was out
at his work I'd find it hard to get to sleep, or if I was in the
middle of an argument with someone, or if I had to get up especially
early to make it to some work site before 6 am. I'd have a very
troubled sleep in those cases because my mind wouldn't stay on the
calming things but would keep snapping back to whatever I was worried
about. So I also evolved a relaxation system (like they do in yoga)
which helped. Sometimes anyway.

But I don't blame the environment for making it hard to sleep. I
blame myself for not being strong minded enough to will myself to
sleep in SPITE of the environment.