Studies by national sleep foundation reveal that one in three women suffer from sleep deficiency or insomnia. Women need more sleep than men do. But, the bitter truth is most women do not get even the bare minimum level of sleep they need. Women who are deprived of sleep suffer from type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, and stress.
Most women’s morning routine goes like this, cooking, getting the kids ready for school, sending the husband to the office and planning to sleep after all this. But that sleep hardly happens, just the moment when they try to get some sleep there is someone at the door hitting the calling bell to disturb it. After this, the next course of work continues. Then they will totally forget about sleep. Worse is the case with women who get to work.
Let us have a look into what are the problems that can happen due to sleep deficiency in women and ways to prevent it.
Problems that arises due to sleep deficiency
Not just now… sleep deficiency has been a problem for most women from hundreds of years in the past. Many women have the habit of not sleeping and eating till their husband arrives. Due to these habits, women have reduced their sleeping hours.
Nearly 70% women are not aware of the fact that they are deprived of sleep. Present lifestyle doesn’t allow many women have enough sleeping hours even if they wish to. Considering the fact both husband and wife get to work every day, women are loaded with work for the whole day.
It’s an undeniable fact that women do most works at home even if husband shares a part of it. Delaying the food intake due to work and getting to sleep immediately after food is bad for health.
Doing night shifts at work is totally unacceptable from health standpoint. Working during the daytime and sleeping at night is the natural and healthy way to work. Altering this cycle to work during the night and sleeping in the day will not be acceptable to body and mind. Melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleep well is secreted during the night. This hormone secretion is less during the daytime. One of the main reasons we can work energetically during the day.
When you change this cycle, it will lead to many health problems. Particularly in women, when they are deprived of sleep, it can reflect badly on their physical and mental health. They will get angry for no reason. This anger can lead to dullness, depression, stress and anxiety. They will start to magnify even very small problems and lose their mental peace in the process.
Sleep deprivation can lead to problems like burning sensation in eyes, headache, and migraine. When this continues it can reflect on their period cycles. This can act as a first step for bigger problems such as infertility. If left unattended, this can lead to problems like blood pressure, heart diseases, stroke and diabetes in few years time.
Usually, men consult a Doctor immediately if they are deprived of sleep. But women doesn’t care about it at all. Women who confess to Doctor about frequent headaches for the prolonged time period and are taking regular tablets for it are most likely deprived of sleep. Realizing that sleeplessness can lead to big problems, it’s better to consult a Doctor immediately for it.
For the Attention of Mothers
Women who are past 20 years of age must have a minimum of 6 hours to a maximum of 8 hours of sleep a day. Night sleep is a must. But, it’s not possible for a Mother with a newly born baby. It’s better to follow western lifestyle to handle this problem.
In western countries, babies are not made to lie down or sleep near its Mom. They will make the baby sleep first and the mother will sleep separately. They follow “Express Milk” process, in which they save the breast milk separately and feed it to their babies when they need it.
Many women in the Asian countries do not like this practice of storing breast milk and feeding it to their babies separately. But there is nothing wrong with altering our practices a bit to make ourselves more comfortable.
Normally women who gave birth to a baby will undergo Post pregnancy trauma. Mom’s in Asian countries sleep beside their babies, so most Mom’s have the fear that could hurt their baby while they are asleep. This thought leads to sleep deprivation.
Most newly born babies have the habit of sleeping in morning and noon times. Though many Doctor’s do not advise adults to sleep during noon, there is nothing wrong with sleeping in the noon during these times.
Some easy ways to get deep sleep
1. Irrespective of the workload, make it a habit to have the dinner between 8 to 9 pm in the night. There must be at least an hour interval between your dinner and sleep.
2. Make it a habit to have a little chat with your family members or reading a book or listening to music after dinner. This helps to relax and free your mind.
3. Going for a brisk walk in the morning will make you have a good sleep during the night. If you have no time in the morning, you can go for a walk after work in the evening.
4. Some people have the habit of exercising during night, this is a bad practice. It’s one of the main reasons for going sleepless at night. There must be a minimum interval of minimum four hours between exercise and sleep.