How to Sleep Better Pregnant

Well-meaning friends tell you should get as much sleep as you can while you’re pregnant because once baby arrives you’ll be waking up all night to feed the little cutie pie, right?  But what if you’re so uncomfortable you just can’t get any sleep?

Are you pregnant and struggling to get a good night’s rest?  Not to worry, help is at hand.

So grateful to Renee Downes of Pregnancy Pillows for this AWESOME infographic and accompanying post.

Four Easy Tricks To Sleep Well While You’re Pregnant

It’s no secret that babies keep you up at night. You’re probably expecting your newborn’s nighttime nagging to interrupt your sleep for several weeks after your baby is born. But what about while you’re pregnant? As your body carries a healthy fetus to term, it undergoes some pretty drastic changes. Many of these changes have unpleasant side effects that make it difficult to fall asleep in the evening.

Luckily, we’ve had lots of time to figure out the normal progression of curveballs that pregnancy will throw your way. Here are four easy things you can do in order to improve the quality of your sleep while you’re expecting.

1. No Naps Or Caffeine After Noon

These rules aren’t going to surprise anyone, but you might be shocked to learn how easy they are to break during pregnancy. When you’re pregnant, you never know when a sudden bout of fatigue is going to come crashing down on you. If you suddenly get tired in the middle of the day, you’ll be tempted to grab a cup of coffee or lie down for a nap. Experts recommend that you don’t do either of these things after 2 PM or so. This gives you a bit of wriggle room from “noon,’ but you’ll still want to make sure you limit your morning joe and catnaps to before lunch.

2. Engage In Relaxing Activities

It’s easy to get caught up in all the excitement that surrounds your baby’s imminent birth. It’s even easier to get swamped by the difficulties of maintaining your everyday life while you’re pregnant. Both of these factors can cause lots of stress to accumulate. In order to release some of this stress, be sure to partake in a favorite hobby, meditate, or even make love to your partner. You’ll feel a lot better and you’ll have less anxiety when your head hits the pillow.

3. Exercise

Making time to take care of your body can be hard, but it’s especially important while you’re pregnant. Engaging in some appropriate exercises several times a week will keep your heart healthy so it can beat for two. When you’re ready to hit the sack, you’ll fall asleep much more easily. While this trick is nearly foolproof, it’s also somewhat time-consuming, since you’ll have to devote a couple hours a week to pregnancy-appropriate exercise.

4. Get A Pregnancy Pillow

One incredibly simple solution is to purchase a pregnancy pillow. While pregnancy disrupts sleep in many ways, one of the things that’s hardest to deal with is the size and shape of your baby itself. It’s difficult to sleep on your back without the baby’s weight pressing down on your trunk, and you can’t exactly sleep on your front, either. Pregnancy pillows help support your growing belly in a comfortable, stable position that takes the strain off of your back, shoulders, and hips. They help you feel cozy and safe, too, meaning they can help you deal with anxiety, stress, or even bad dreams.

The Four Easiest Tricks To Sleep While You’re Pregnant

If you’re worried about getting enough rest while you’re expecting, you’re not alone. About 80% of mothers indicate that they had difficulty getting to bed, too. By using the four tricks above, you’ll be able to deal with the challenges your pregnancy presents and get plenty of good rest in order to stay awake and healthy.

If you’d like to know more details, be sure to check out the attached infographic for even more specifics about when symptoms occur and what you can do about them.

Moms, what tricks did you use to get better sleep when you were pregnant?  Or didn’t you sleep much at all? Would love to hear your pregnancy sleep stories.