Dealing with insomnia: Why it happens and what you can do
When falling pregnant, you often hear about the lack of sleep that’s to be expected when your newborn arrives. What isn't spoken about as often are the sleep problems that come with pregnancy. With as many as 94% of women reporting sleep disturbances during their pregnancy, it's important to understand why it happens and what can be done to improve your quality of sleep.
When pregnant, the body experiences increased physical and emotional demands. These symptoms are most often a result of a change in hormone levels that fluctuate naturally throughout pregnancy. While many of the physical changes that accompany pregnancy are out of our control, it's important to take control of what you can. Here are our five top tips to help reduce pregnancy insomnia.
1. Create a comfortable sleep environment
Creating a comfortable sleep environment is one of the first steps we recommend for anyone dealing with insomnia, but when pregnant, this is more important than ever. For general tips on optimising your sleep environment, we recommend reading our suggestions here.
On top of these tips, a pregnancy pillow is a great addition to the bedroom. When pregnant, the increase in body weight can lead to ligament, back and hip aches, making it hard to get a good night’s rest. Pregnancy pillows are built specifically to address the discomforts associated with pregnancy, providing support for your body by keeping you in a comfortable position on your side and alleviating the pressure on your hips, back and legs. Sleeping on your side can also help with blood circulation, promoting healthy blood flow for both the baby and the mother.
2. Reduce fluid intake before bedtime
Studies show that a reduction in fluid intake in the lead up to bedtime results in fewer sleep disturbances as a result of frequent urination. Urinary sleep disruptions can be significantly lessened but can't be alleviated entirely. The reason being that frequent urination during pregnancy occurs when the unborn baby puts pressure on the pelvic floor muscles, bladder, and urethra, something outside of a mother's control. Forming a habit of going to the toilet right before bed will also help empty the bladder. Remember to hydrate when waking in the morning to replace the fluids lost during sleep.
3. Cut out caffeine after lunchtime
Experts recommend that throughout pregnancy, expectant mothers consume no more than 200mg of caffeine per day. That’s the equivalent of about two to three cups of instant coffee or six cups of green tea. We suggest using the Caffeine Informer Database to calculate how much caffeine is present in your chosen food and beverages.
Caffeine also has an effect on sleep. In addition to creating excess energy in the body, caffeine is a diuretic, which means it’s likely to increase the number of bathroom trips you’ll need to make throughout the night. Cutting out caffeine later in the day can help reduce bladder-induced sleep disturbances.
Try consuming your caffeinated beverages strictly in the morning, to avoid pregnancy insomnia. Struggling with energy when cutting out caffeine? Our tip is to try eating small healthy snacks more frequently. This will stop blood sugar levels from dipping and keep energy levels consistent.
4. Remain active
Though it may be the last thing you feel like doing, staying active can significantly help with sleep during pregnancy. The benefits of exercise during pregnancy include: improved sleep and management of insomnia, stress relief, increased energy and a decrease in anxiety and depression.
Better Health reports that women should aim for an average of 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days throughout their pregnancy. However, it’s important to note that this is a guide only. Don’t take up strenuous exercise if it’s not something your body is accustomed to. The duration and intensity of your exercise routine should be tailored specifically to your individual circumstances and body under the guidance of your doctor or other health practitioner.
If suitable, we suggest incorporating pregnancy-safe exercise into your daily routine. During pregnancy, cardiac, circulation, joint and hormonal changes can occur, putting you at higher risk of injury. So it’s important to be careful of this when choosing an exercise. Swimming and water aerobics are fantastic options because they take the weight off your hips and back, while walking, yoga and prenatal classes are other great low-impact choices.
Certain exercises can also aid in the strengthening and maintenance of pelvic floor and back muscles, which in turn can help support your body as it grows throughout pregnancy, reducing muscular pain that otherwise might interfere with your sleep.
5. Meditation and Aromatherapy
During pregnancy, it's not uncommon to feel like there's a million things on your plate and a million thoughts running through your head at one time. Whether it's all the little things that need to be done before the big arrival, anxiety about the birth, or the general forgetfulness that comes with ‘baby brain’, pregnancy can weigh heavy on the mind. We recommend writing things down on a to-do-list to help break down jobs into smaller tasks that are more manageable and less overwhelming.
In addition to heightened stress, there’s a significant correlation between mood-related disorders and poor sleep quality. Studies show that poor sleep quality may be a risk factor for developing depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Mood disorders such as anxiety can also cause insomnia. What’s more, mood and sleep disorders can exacerbate each other, so it’s important to address both to break the cycle. When dealing with anxiety and depression-induced insomnia, adding mediation into your nighttime routine can be effective.
We recommend first creating a comfortable sleep setting to meditate - for more information on this, have a read of our blog on creating the ideal sleeping environment.
We also recommend downloading an app like Headspace. Headspace incorporates thousands of guided meditations for beginner to advanced learners. It’s a simple way to incorporate meditation into your nighttime routine.
Other studies show the effectiveness of aromatherapy in improving mothers' sleep quality. The benefits include: minimisation of nausea and upset stomachs, relief of aching muscles (back pain is a very common issue in pregnancy and can interfere with sleep), a decrease in anxiety and stress and improved sleep. Try incorporating aromatherapy into your meditation practice. We recommend investing in an oil diffuser. Lavender oil has calming properties and studies have shown that it even reduces labour pain, so is a great place to start.
A final word of advice...
It’s important to be kind to yourself as your body is going through a major transformative period. Once habits are formed, sleep time should get easier, lessening the strain of pregnancy on your body. Remember, despite what you see on social media, not everyone has an Instagram-perfect pregnancy. Every pregnancy comes with its fair share of wonders and hardships. But it's important to know that you are not alone.
There are many people and organisations out there to help you before, during and after your pregnancy. Pregnancy Birth and Baby is just one organisation that we recommend. The support network is full of tools, advice and even a maternal child healthcare nurse hotline for new, existing and expecting mothers.
The most important thing you can do throughout pregnancy is to listen to and trust your body. Your magnificent body is transforming itself into a baby-making machine, all while growing a little human inside of it. So if it tells you that you’re tired, run down or just need to go to bed that little bit earlier tonight, it's important to give yourself that guilt-free downtime to rest and recuperate.
If you’re experiencing persistent disruptions to your sleep, or have any other concerns related to your pregnancy, please consult with your trusted health care professional to discuss possible solutions.
Any advice provided in this content is of a general nature and does not take into account your objectives, health or needs. The information in this post is not intended to substitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be exclusively relied on to diagnose or manage a medical condition. You need to consider the appropriateness of any information or general advice we give you, having regard to your personal situation, before acting on our advice or purchasing any over-the-counter sleep product.