From the monthly archives:

November 2011

The Guilt of Popping Sleeping Pills Keeps Us Up At Night

by Trisha-and-Amy on November 7, 2011

So in today’s New York Times, there was an interesting article about the increasing number of moms taking sleep aids to get to sleep. Whether it’s Tylenol PM, Ambien (the #1 prescribed sleep med for moms), Xanax or Melatonin, it’s another one of our ‘dirty little secrets.’

And increasingly, it’s not brand new moms who are popping pills — it’s moms with school-aged kids who, in their quest to do everything and everything perfectly, have to do lists that stick to them like glue and literally keep them up at night.

Trish was in my kitchen this morning and in discussing the article, we both confessed to using some sort of sleep aid with increasing frequency, and talked about how guilty we feel about it. It’s just that…the fear of NOT sleeping is so real and tangible and unexpected at this stage in our lives. We never expected that, with our youngest child being 8 years old, we’d STILL be faced with a lack of sleep. We both suffer from the same affliction: Drift to sleep just fine, and then, at precisely 4 a.m., our eyes POP open and that’s it. There’s no going back. Many times I’ll just get up and start my day — and power through, with an even greater fear of sleep the next night.

So what to do? We know, meditation or something, right?

Thoughts?

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