Sleep Tips and Fast Facts for Women

category: Dafé’s Café - Daily Dose of Medical News,MyDocHub
by Dafé,

Mothers with young children rival shift workers for the inability to get regular sleep.

Some suggested tips:

Get out of bed at the same time each morning; that means strive to go to bed at the same time.
Make your bedroom cool and comfortable.
Don’t stay in bed and try to sleep. If, in 10-15 minutes, you are struggling to fall asleep, get up and move to another room and do something distracting but not stimulating. Read or perhaps listen to soft music.
Use the bedroom for sleep and sex. Don’t pay bills, watch TV or eat.
Don’t clock-watch.
Avoid alcohol near bedtime and avoid caffeine after noon.
Relax before bed. This means you allow yourself time to unwind. Just as you nurture little ones to help them unwind, you need time for this yourself.

The following are statistics and facts published by the National Sleep Foundation. The NSF’s Sleep America Poll asked questions of women 18 to 64 years old.

60 percent of American women say they only get a good night’s sleep a few nights per week or less.
67 percent say they frequently experience a sleep problem.
Additionally, 43 percent say that daytime sleepiness interferes with their daily activities.
Women’s lack of sleep causes them to be late for work, stressed out, too tired for sex and leaves them little time for their friends.
72 percent of working mothers and 68 percent of single women are more likely to experience symptoms of sleep problems such as insomnia.
74 percent of stay-at-home mothers report a high level of overall sleep problems; 59 percent saying they frequently wake up feeling unrefreshed.
80 percent of women say that when they experience sleepiness during the day they just accept it and keep going.

Symptoms of sleep problems

Talk to your doctor about more serious symptoms, but these should lead you to question your condition.

Daytime fatigue.
Dozing at your desk, or worse, at a steering wheel.
Memory problems.
Frequent colds.
Depression.
Using alcohol or over-the-counter drugs to sleep.

Source: Gannett News Service

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