Do you suddenly become a light sleeper when you are a parent?

[Scattybrain89]

I'm 28 and newly TTC but I have a big concern. I want kids but I sleep REALLY deeply.

It's really frustrating, I never used to be like this. When I was younger I used to sleep so lightly and be easily woken, and I'd wake up without an alarm at 7 or 8, maybe 9, even on a weekend. I was always a bit of an insomniac.

But since my early twenties, I sleep SO deeply. I still often struggle to fall asleep and am regularly awake til 3am or later, but I could then easily sleep for 9 hours straight or even more. My DP has to make sure I'm up on weekdays because if left to my own devices I do not wake. If I wake without an alarm, I feel legitimately proud because usually it takes 3 or more alarms to wake me, and it's a good hour after getting up before I start to feel awake.

I'm so concerned that if I have a baby I won't wake up to them when they need me. DP is a light sleeper but I know I'll need to be able to wake up to feed baby etc. My DP is the main earner so I'd be on mat leave and potentially a SAHM.

I need to become a light sleeper again! Does it just happen because your body knows you need to for your babies survival?

when dd was a baby, yeah much lighter sleeper that just came to me and i could sleep through a fire alarm before her
As she got older, my sleep got deeper again

@screamingchild

Women do. Men don't.

How ironic.

Dd (4) was stirring half an hour ago so I put her on the toilet then settled her. Dw is fast asleep.

Maybe I'm a unicorn then.

OP I strongly recommend you speak to your doctor about sleep hygiene. It might not be that you are a heavy sleeper it might be that you currently have a bad sleep cycle.

What you described is very typical. Up till 2am (on phone?) and then sporadic bouts of exhaustion with those 10 hour sleeps.

And I agree with pp you'll probably be fine when baby arrives but if you're anxious there are steps you can take to keep baby safe. Cot instead of co sleeping, mixed feeding or pump so partner can feed baby when you're tired (to avoid BF while you're tired).

Yes I was a deep sleeper and now am an extremely light sleeper

Sleeping Mothers can hear a newborn crying from 3 houses away.

Yeah I'm a deep sleeper and can sleep through all sorts of noises but a single squeak from my children and I'm wide awake!

My son coughed about an hour ago, I’m still wide awake. If my partner had coughed I wouldn’t have heard it .

God I'm so jealous of you! I've always been a shit sleeper and the little buggers have made me so much worse. Ive got two really good sleeping kids who sleep all night (one is 12 weeks old) but I'm up most of the night while they're asleep!

I slept through all the fireworks around us last night but never sleep through my kids. Just wake to what’s important I guess

I was a heavy sleeper then slept very lightly when DS was a baby. Was just thinking the other day i seem to have gone back to sleeping very soundly now DS is 6.

In fact it’s now always my husband who gets up if DS needs is in the night. Yes I am aware that it can’t be a coincidence that I seemed to wake up first when it was several times a night but it’s DH now it’s once a month or so. 🤔

Yes it does happen. I was a light sleeper like you as a child - always awake before my mum at the crack of dawn, would be awake for what felt like hours before it was time to get up. Then in my teens I trained myself to sleep longer (particularly once old enough to drink when I was going on nights out etc and would sleep all day)...once I had my ds in early twenties it was straight back to being a light sleeper.

Now my 2 children are 10 and 7, and the light sleeping hasn’t gone away at all. Sometimes 1 of them could sniff too loudly and I’d be awake.

There’s no way anyone could have slept through my DD crying as a baby! 😂

Yes, you wake at the slightest wimper.

@firstimemamma

The thing that gets me isn't my sleep habits it's my toddler's. He can sleep through some very loud noises e.g loud music and screaming and swearing wars from next door that ended up in the police coming... but the sound of me trying to creep out of his room? That wakes him! Children sometimes have magic powers.

Yes to this. Huge amount of fireworks last night? Slept through. I get up to go to the bathroom at 4am? "Muuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyy"

Last night I slept through the cacophony of fireworks but woke up as soon as my LO woke up and grumbled haha

When Ds was little, and even now really and he’s 4, I would wake up just before he woke up. I don’t know how or why, and it was much more frequent when he was a baby, but it happened.

Yes, you will hear your baby.

Yes you do.

But if you worry about not waking you can get a movement sensor for the baby's cot.. the alarm on those is bloody loud!