How to survive on less? and other queries.......

[Solo2]

Single mum, running own business f/t singlehandedly, with 10 yr old twins and a new puppy dog...

I need to train myself to require less sleep. I currently get about 5.5hrs a night and maximum would be 7.5hrs. By 1.00pm , I am fighting sleep, even whilst standing up. How can I train my body not to need more sleep? Not enough hrs in the day to fit in all I need to do. Don't want to resort to too much caffeine! Maggie Thatcher apparently thrived on 5 hrs a night. How dod she do it???

DS2 (with Asperger's traits) however, needs to learn how to sleep more - currently sleeping from about 9.00pm till 4.00am. Likes to read from 4am till 6am when he gets up but I can hear him every morning waking up in his room. I'm sure he should be getting more sleep.

DS1 can't seem to survive on less than 11 hrs but we can't fit this in to a busy life and all need to leave the house at 7.30am for school run. So he sleeps from about 9pm till 6.30am. Every single morning he wakes tired but he finds it hard to get off to sleep at night or has disturbed sleep till aroung 11pm - with nightmares etc.

Fitting in a puppy dog's needs in addition to the differring needs of DCs, means that I'm left with v little time actually to sleep at all and never ever ever on top of anything. If - as is frequent - either DS or the pup is ill, I can easily end up with no sleep at all for a few nights and days.

All this is infinitely easier than my DCs earliest yrs when they never slept longer than about 20 mins at different times day and night. But I'd hoped that now they're 10, all would be better!

Bumping my own thread but wondering if this section is really just for sleep related stuff in infants?

Why can't you go to bed at 11? 11-6= 7 hours of sleep which is enough. That way you still have 2 hours after kids go to bed. I don't think you can train yourself to need less sleep- of course it's doable and most parents have a year or so of broken sleep after dc's birth, but in the long run it's very bad for your body (and mind).

What do you need to do after 9pm that you can't do before?(I guess except walking the dog)

Thanks for your reply, winnybella. On a good night, I can sleep from about 11pm till about 4.30am but always hear DS2 waking around 4.30am and by the time I get back to sleep, I need to get up anyway for 5.30am.

However, usually lots of times a week, there'll be a few more disturbed nights - as DS1 will have migraine/ nightmares/ vomiting (v prone to this all his life) - or, like the other night, the puppy had diarrhoea ALL night - so was up in the garden with him, the entire night or he'll bark an hour after I go to sleep....or DS2 will wake - like last night - at midnight and check the time and all his moving around then reawakens me...

So I rarely get a 'good' night and a good night gives me only 5.5hrs.