Does light sleep exist?

[emzy32]

Hi all

Over the last few mornings my DH wakes up complaining he's extremely tired as "he's had a light sleep". He claims that he did sleep but it was light and not Deep sleep so therefore he's knackered.

After I've been up all night with the baby.. trust me I have no sympathy and do not believe in this light sleep thing. I wish I slept all night having a light sleep 😂

AIBU? Had enough of his complaints about his quality of sleep 😂 or is it a thing and I should feel sorry for him?

Just to add he does help lots in the mornings especially if I've been up with the baby. He gets up with both kids getting them breakfast/ dressed etc. (so I can't complain about that) it's just that he always mentions this light sleep and I'm starting to feel bad. Maybe he deserves a lay-in 😅

Yes it is a thing. There are four stages of sleep, the first lasting about 90 minutes and it quite light. Stage two is deeper but it's three and four when you are in a deep sleep - if you wake during these stages you feel groggy. These last two stages are when children are most likely to wet the bed or sleepwalk. Then there's REM sleep and gradually sleep lightens til you wake up. If your alarm goes off while in deep sleep it takes a while to be fully functional.
Your husband probably gets a lot more sleep than he thinks. But if he is continually waking during stage one and two he might not get into the restorative other stages and not feel rested when he wakes up. Or he could be waking up when in a deep sleep and therefore still feels tired.
It's not so much more sleep he needs, just better.

Some phones track this and make people worried. Chuck it in the bin

Well it might be a thing yeah as explained above, but doesn’t mean he has to harp on about it when the other person is up all night with the baby!

DH does this too, I’ll be genuinely awake and come 6 or so when it’s time to get up for the baby/I have to get ready to go work, he’ll say ‘I didn’t really sleep since 4’ and I’ll think yes you bloody did unless you spent 2 hours playing the role of an asleep person for shits and giggles.

I've been through the baby (well up to 3 years!) twice, waking up at night and working FT.

I can say that I didn't struggle then half as bad as I do now with the menopause suffering from poor sleep quality and feeling that I only get light sleep. I never feel rested, feel jetlag most mornings and struggle to concentrate, focus and motivate myself most days.

Although night waking with babies were hard, I still felt I had more energy during the day.