How to deal with insomnia during pregnancy 2020

The vast majority of expectant mothers experience sleep disturbances of various types, most pronounced in the first and third trimesters. Prolonged insomnia during pregnancy is a serious and painful condition that not only exhausts the woman, but also has a detrimental effect on the health and full development of the baby. That is why it is very important to understand the causes of this unpleasant phenomenon and eliminate them as early as possible, preventing the occurrence of possible complications.

What can you do about insomnia during pregnancy?

A couple of tips if you have trouble sleeping during pregnancy:

Get up. If you're awake after 20-30 minutes of trying to doze off, try getting up and doing a little housework. You may already be tired enough to get the rest you need.
Don't count the hours. Most people get the best sleep in about 8 hours, but some do just fine in less time, and some need more. So instead of aiming for a certain number, ask yourself how you feel when you sleep that much during pregnancy.

Medicines and traditional methods

Remember also that no medications for insomnia during pregnancy should be taken without a doctor’s prescription. They can be of the highest quality and natural, but still cause harm and even cause fetal malformations or miscarriage.

Even the use of traditional methods is best coordinated with specialists. Many of them are also contraindicated during pregnancy: you cannot take warm baths, do some types of massage, or use most essential oils.

Can I prevent insomnia during pregnancy?

You don't have to endure insomnia during pregnancy. Try these tips to help you sleep:

Clear your emotional background. If you have ongoing worries that are causing pregnancy insomnia, talk about them with a friend or your partner and try to sort them out during the daytime hours. You can also try meditation or write down your thoughts on paper.
Avoid caffeine and chocolate. Especially in the late afternoon or evening as they can keep you awake.
Take your time. Don't be greedy during your evening meal and take your time so that heartburn doesn't make you toss and turn.
Have a snack at night. A light snack before you go to bed will help tide you over until breakfast, but choose a healthy carbohydrate-protein meal to keep your blood sugar levels stable, such as a glass of warm milk or a cheese stick and some dried apricots.
Drink less at night. Fill your daily fluid needs throughout the day to reduce your trips to the bathroom after you go to bed.
Find something to do before bed. Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Good pre-bed activities include reading, listening to soothing music, gentle yoga poses or relaxation exercises, a warm bath, massage, and sex.
Wean yourself off the screen. Using your phone, tablet, TV, laptop or other electronic device before bed can make it difficult to fall asleep. Screen light suppresses levels of melatonin, a hormone that regulates your internal clock and plays a role in your sleep cycle. Experts say you should "power down" at least an hour before bed.
Get some fresh air. Is your bedroom too cold? What is this, a sauna? Make sure you use a mattress and pillows that provide maximum comfort. Open the window so that the room is not stuffy - you will definitely warm up at night.
Make yourself comfortable. There is no such thing as too many pillows during pregnancy.
Save your bed for sex and sleep. If you do your daily work in bed, you may unwittingly associate this part of your home with being awake—and with stress. Pay your bills in the kitchen and save the bed for its more traditional purposes - sex (if you and your partner are in the mood) and sleep.
Smell your way to sleep. A lavender-scented pillow will help you relax and fall asleep faster.

Types of asomnia

There are several types of problems:

Initial asomnia is characterized by difficulty falling asleep. Falling asleep is long and painful, often taking 2–3 hours or more. Its causes are often external irritants and unpleasant physiological symptoms in pregnant women.
Midline asomnia does not cause problems falling asleep, but causes a woman to wake up multiple times during the night.
Final asomnia or morning-type sleep disorder is expressed by waking up too early, after which it is no longer possible to fall asleep.

The middle and final type of disorder usually occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy, and the starting type in the third. Depending on the duration, there are several types of sleep disorders:

Transient asomnia occurs against the background of emotional outbursts of various types, lasts no more than one week and goes away on its own.
Short-term asomnia usually lasts from one week to one month. As a rule, it is associated with stress, exacerbation of chronic diseases or unpleasant physiological processes in pregnant women. This problem most often requires treatment, as it can cause significant harm to the health of the expectant mother and child.
Chronic sleep disorders can last for months and are caused by various physical and mental pathologies. This serious condition requires constant medical supervision and specific therapy.

Consequences for mother and child

Why is insomnia so dangerous during pregnancy? Constant lack of sleep of the expectant mother provokes the following phenomena:

hormonal imbalance;
blood pressure surges;
tachycardia;
disturbances in the blood supply to the brain and other vital organs;
weakening of concentration and coordination of movements, which is often the cause of injuries;
aggravation of many unpleasant physiological manifestations of pregnancy.

Any of these symptoms can lead to such serious consequences as increased uterine tone, fetal hypoxia, threat of miscarriage or premature birth. Moreover, it is no secret that a woman’s condition and mood are directly transmitted to the child, which in the future can cause serious neurological problems, increased anxiety and even delayed development of the baby.

Increased fatigue, tearfulness and irritability poison the life of the expectant mother and deprive her of the joy of waiting for the baby, and in some cases becomes one of the causes of postpartum depression.

What is safe to take for insomnia during pregnancy?

Some sleep aids are often considered safe for use during pregnancy. However, you should not take any sleeping pills or other medications during pregnancy (prescription, over-the-counter or herbal) unless prescribed or approved by your doctor.

Doctors sometimes recommend taking a magnesium supplement to combat constipation or leg cramps. It makes sense to take it before bed, as magnesium naturally helps relax muscles and may help you sleep.

Causes of insomnia in pregnant women

For many women, insomnia begins already in the first trimester of pregnancy; some doctors even tend to consider sleep disturbances as one of the signs of pregnancy. In the second trimester, sleep usually returns to normal, but in the last three months before childbirth, insomnia turns out to be one of the most common and serious complications of pregnancy. Doctors, discussing the nature of sleep, usually say that insomnia is not a disease, but a symptom, an external manifestation of some processes occurring in our body. To overcome insomnia, you need to try to find out what these processes are and how you can neutralize their inevitable side effects.

Hormonal hormones can lead to insomnia in the very early stages.

changes in a woman’s body: for example, during pregnancy the level of progesterone and a number of other hormones increases. By mobilizing strength to carry a pregnancy to term, they at the same time put the body in a state of “combat readiness” and sometimes simply do not allow one to relax.

As pregnancy progresses, there are more and more reasons for insomnia. The causes of sleep disturbances in pregnant women may be physiological

difficulties in finding a comfortable position (increased weight and a larger belly make this process very difficult);
back and lower back pain;
fetal movement;
frequent urge to urinate at night (the enlarged uterus puts pressure on the bladder, now it needs to be emptied much more often);
heartburn (disorders of the gastrointestinal tract are generally characteristic of pregnancy);
cramps (pregnant women especially often complain of leg cramps);
itching in the abdominal area due to stretching of the skin;
shortness of breath (increased body weight makes breathing difficult, in addition, the uterus puts pressure on the lungs);

and psychological
:

chronic fatigue;
nervous tension, stress (fear of upcoming changes, anxiety for the child, fear of childbirth);
nightmares.

Any of these reasons is quite enough to deprive a woman of sleep, and most often they are also combined! Select from this list what is relevant specifically for you, and let's move on to the next section of the article - tips on how to deal with insomnia. I want to warn you right away: you should not even try to follow the entire rather large list of tips that are given in it! Try to choose only what suits your case and what you personally like. If one recommendation doesn't help, try another one. Each situation is individual, each woman needs to choose her own method, her own combination of techniques. Take these recommendations not as medical instructions (“Do only this, and nothing else!”), but as friendly advice (“Why don’t you try this too? If this doesn’t help, we’ll come up with something else!”) .

Features of sleep in late pregnancy

Insomnia is observed mainly at 32-39 weeks of pregnancy. The woman suffers from shortness of breath, gets tired quickly, and her growing belly makes it difficult to rest in bed. The enlarged uterus puts pressure on the bladder, which is why you have to get up frequently at night to go to the toilet. Also, in the last weeks of pregnancy, heartburn, caused by the pressure of the fetus on the organs of the digestive system, often prevents you from falling asleep.

Some women like to rest on their stomach. But in the last months of pregnancy, resting in this position is impossible. Pregnant women have to lie on their back or side.

Medical experts recommend that patients sleep on their back in the first months of pregnancy, and on their side in the last months. Before giving birth, it is undesirable to rest on your back, since the enlarged uterus can compress the inferior vena cava, which will negatively affect the condition of the embryo.

Exercise stress

An excellent way to prevent insomnia and provide physical and psychological relief is special yoga for pregnant women. Such classes can now be found in almost any city, and in extreme cases, you can download a gymnastics complex from the Internet. Combined with breathing practice, simple exercises relieve muscle spasms, stretch the spine, promote rapid relaxation and provide mother and child with an additional portion of oxygen.

Another great way to get rid of insomnia during pregnancy and prepare for childbirth is water aerobics. Exercises performed in water allow you to relax all the muscles of the body and give a wonderful rest to the spine.

But it is better for pregnant women to refrain from swimming in open waters due to difficult environmental conditions everywhere. Before starting any exercise, be sure to consult your doctor and make sure there are no contraindications.

Author: Anna Alexandrova