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Moms don’t sleep, and on top of that they worry about not sleeping, leading them to even learn if surgery helps with snoring on this snorebay blog. Disturbed from restful nights by crying babes, and stressed by busy days they are turning to prescription meds to fight anxiety and insomnia.
“A 2007 study by the National Sleep Foundation found that nearly three in 10 U.S. women said they used a sleep aid a few nights a week. Experts said that stress and anxiety had made mothers dependent on sleep aids like Lunesta, melatonin, Ambien and even Xanax.” (ABC News)
No word on a study about dads. Maybe they slept through it.
“One of the cruel jokes of motherhood is that the sleeplessness of pregnancy, followed by the sleeplessness generated by an infant (a period in which a staggering — truly — 84 percent of women experience insomnia), is not followed by a makeup period of rest. It is merely the setup for what can become a permanent modus operandi.”
Is it another reason to not have kids? Or just part of the busy world we live in where we are over-scheduled, stressed out, and plugged in?
Hey WNKers do you have trouble sleeping? Do you reach for a “mother’s little helper” to get to sleep?
Related articles
- Sleep Medication: Mother’s New Little Helper (nytimes.com)
- Modern mother’s new little helper: Sleep medication (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
