Sleep, glorious sleep!

‘Sleep like a baby’ or ‘sleep like the dead.’ Both quite weird sayings when you really think about it, but I’d take either at this stage!

I love sleep, I mean LOVE it! I’m one of those people that used to get excited crawling into bed at night where I would average 10 hours or more. Ironic really given I have one parent that’s an insomniac and one that was narcoleptic (where the person falls asleep sporadically), yet I could hibernate for hours at a time.

My first experience with sleep deprivation came when I had my daughter. During pregnancy I only wanted to know the basics of what lay ahead, so I read a total of 3 books:

1) The idiots guide to giving birth (I relied on my specialist and the nurses to guide me)

2) Up the Duff by Kaz Cooke- light hearted and informative

3) Save our Sleep by Tizzie Hall - a structured sleep and feeding schedule

The last one is somewhat controversial amongst parents but for me I wanted any knowledge I could get to save MY sleep during early parenthood (it worked by the way).

Fast forward to 2024 and I again find my sleep threatened, only this time by perimenopause, so I turned to my brains trust. One particular friend of mine spent 6 months last year barely sleeping, and in her quest to find a solution tried a variety of herbal treatments along with getting her hormones checked. Obviously finding out if your hormones are out of whack is key, but where to from there? She arrived at my house with a variety of herbal support options to try - meno blends, hormonal balance varieties, Ashwagandha and L-Theanine.

So many options, so here I go on my own quest. Any suggestions? I’d love to hear about anything that worked for you… PLEASE!