Earlier this week, Will and I both downloaded an app on each of our phones that tracks your sleep cycle, letting you know how much sleep you are really getting and also waking you up, in theory, when you are in a REM cycle. The idea being that you will have an easier time waking up. It's been an interesting couple of days.
First, I'm not sure it really works to have to people using the app at the same time, or even two people in the same bed when the app is tracking. How does my phone, which, as directed, starts the nigh face don next to me but ends up somewhere near my knees by the time I wake up, know that that's me tossing and turning and not Will. I mean, I know it's me, because Will sleeps like a log, but how does the phone know?
Also, Will's sleep cycle alarm doesn't wake Will up (almost nothing does short of pushing him off the bed) it wakes me up, and not necessarily when I'm in my "light sleep stage". So one or both of us is going to have to chuck the thing I suspect.
But it has confirmed something that I've long suspected. I suck at sleep. Which is ironic, because Will, who just seems to need less sleep than me, can zonk out with no problem and neither crying children nor fire alarms will disturb his rest. In fact, it's probably the reason that he needs less sleep, his sleeping hours are just more efficient than mine. Let's take last night.
I climbed into my bed at the unusually early hour of 10:00 last night and climbed out at 7:00 this morning, feeling pretty much not rested at all. Will finished his work at 3:00 (yes, am) and got up at about 7:40, rested and refreshed. His sleep cycles graph showed 4 hours and 15 minutes of good, solid, even sleep. My graph, however, showed that I had just under four hours of sleep time total, and it looks like a drunk drew the bar graph, whole lotta REM and awake time, wee bit of deep sleep. So somehow, despite the fact that I went to bed FIVE HOURS EARLIER than Will, I slept less.
I'm sure I wasn't always such a sucky sleeper, and I'm equally sure that this is a post kids issue, but one would think that now that my children sleep though the night, their mother would as well, but no dice.
I doubt I'm alone here. My doctor once told me that she suspects that far more women than men suffer from sleep disorders, especially sleep apnea, which she thinks I have, but we just chalk it up to motherhood, waking babies and stress.
But I'm curious, do you sleep well? If your kids, like mine, are past the three am feeding stage, do you still wake up over and over during the night? Besides cutting out caffeine at night (which I've done) what do you do to get some decent sleep?
