Question
I have always been a very deep sleeper, and my wife and I
now have a 3 1/2 month old infant. For the most part, my
baby sleeps through the night, from about 7:30 to 5AM. But
he will wake up a few times at around 1-2AM, (giving him a
pacifier will usually put him right back to sleep).
The problem is, my wife is always the one who wakes up, and
I'll keep sleeping through my baby's crying because I'm
such a deep sleeper. She is not a deep sleeper, and if she
gets up too many times to put him back to sleep she'll have
trouble sleeping for the rest of the night, so she will
usually wake me up to put him back to sleep about half the
time. She does this by pushing and shoving me around a bit
until I wake up.
This has worked fine for us for the past few weeks,
although it'd obviously be better if she could get me up
easier, but last night was really bad as I apparently
pushed back and hit her when she was trying to wake me up.
I've never hit my wife before and I feel awful about what I
did.
So my question is, is there anything I could do to help
myself wake up better in the middle of the night when my
baby cries or my wife tries to wake me up?
Answer
Try staying away from caffeine 3 hours before sleep as that may make you awaken in a hyper way. Basically its a matter of getting to bed the same time each day and awakening the same time so that you get just the 8 hours of sleep. Go to sleepnet.com click on the forum and search the forums for other tips. feel free to email again. If this persists you might consult a sleep center for an evaluation for your sleep.Your local hospital can refer you karel
