What happens when you are too tired, drained, and burnt out to work on sleep?

When you are too exhausted to give any energy to improving sleep?

When you can’t see where your next opening will come to improve things, so you just keep your head down and keep going…

It’s a bit of a paradox. Inertia can be a powerful force, trapping us in exhausting patterns that don’t serve us, and yet we don’t have the energy or knowledge to change them.

All the big, heavy events around us are happening in and around the normal stresses of parenting littles. Babies continue to wake. Parents continue to be stressed. Sleep continues to suffer.

So, you just keep doing what needs to be done. You keep pushing forward because that’s what you are supposed to do. Maybe you are hoping time will slowly improve things, and truthfully eventually it will. But it can be a long, lonely journey.

What I have to offer the world right now is the information, support, and guidance to transform the way you nurture sleep for your family.

Our culture teaches us to improve sleep through big changes. Most of the sleep messages focus on independence and sleeping through the night as the only way for everyone to get more rest. Even better if those big sleep changes can happen fast. But that’s not really how supporting healthy sleep works, even in normal times. Big changes take time and effort. Independence and sleeping through are long term goals that have their own unique timelines from child to child.

When you don’t have the emotional bandwidth for larger sleep work, what do you do? You can focus on small shifts that cumulatively can make a huge difference.

1. Deepen your understanding of your child’s sleep norms, needs, and experience. Understanding the why behind the behavior can change how you react to it. It can open up new ways to support your little one and yourself. It can help you figure out how to work with normal biology rather than fight against it.

2. Shift your mindset to lessen suffering. Identifying, labeling, and understanding your thoughts and emotions can be a powerful tool. While we can’t change how hard current circumstances are, we can add or remove layers of suffering through working on mindset shifts. We know that your beliefs and attitude about your sleep affects how well you sleep and how well you cope with the sleep you get. Cultivating the right mindset around sleep will improve sleep quality and energy levels. This is hard work and is often an on-going process.

3. Set up rituals and factors to support sleep rather than undermine it. Our culture doesn’t support sleep well in normal times, and current events exacerbate this even more. Setting up routines and environments that support the whole families sleep is an essential step to moving towards a place of better sleep. This may mean doing things differently than your friends. This may mean thinking outside the box. While there are certainly sleep hygiene factors that all families can benefit from, there are also aspects that will be unique to your family situation and needs.

You don’t have to tackle this all alone. I can walk with you on this journey, providing information, support, and accountability. Schedule a free family sleep intro call for us to talk about how I can help.

https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/getting-started

Warmly,

Kim