How is sleep deprivation affecting your health?

[weedoll]

My ds2 has just turned 1 and is a poor sleeper. On the nights he does well Ds1 jumps at his opportunity for night time attention and gets up too. I haven't slept more than 4 hours in a year and my 'baby brain' is verging on early stage Alzheimer's. Please someone reassure me that this memory loss is normal/will return and come and have a moan about how lack of sleep is affecting your health.

Hi Doll, I'm in the same boat. 17 months of 2 hours unbroken sleep on average. We've had the 'wake for boob every 45 mins' phase, the 'awake and happy for 2 hours in the middle of the night' phase, and the 'teething and screaming for 2 hours in the middle of the night' phase. Oh, not forgetting the 'hey everyone it's time to get up' at 5am phase.
I haven't had a full nights sleep, or even more than 4 hours sleep, in so long that I think my brain has turned to mush. DS has never slept through. Not bloody once.
DP failed a job interview because his mind went blank through lack of sleep. I'm starting a new job in a fortnight. Fuck knows how I'll survive.
I'll stop moaning now, but god it's hard. He should be sleeping better by now. Everyone else's kid seems to be.
Sigh.

our dd is 2 and I've just taken a month's unpaid leave as I am so so exhausted and unable to do my job

she just will not sleep, her current trick is to wake 3+ times and then get up at 5am

we are beyond tired

11 months of sleep deprivation, I've had to give up work as I just can't function and I wrote off my car. Currently going through wake for 2 hours in the middle of the night and the day starting at 4-5am phases together.

It makes me resent doing anything with DS during the day which is not right either.

I'm at 5 months of no sleep with dd2 and you are scaring me!

Isn't controlled crying etc better than losing jobs though??

Just to reassure you that it does get better DD1 was a terrible sleeper and at 2 had only slept through a handful of times. At points I thought the sleep deprivation would kill me. I also wrote my car off, was constantly leaving the front door open and making mistakes at work but at 2.2 ish she did start sleeping through and pretty much does so every night now so it will get better, have faith. Not sure if the brain ever goes back to normal though and I've just started again with DC2 so there is no hope for me!

It has made us take the decision to not have a third child.

DD is 5 yo and only started to go to sleep by 9.30pm once in school. DS is 2 yo and has only just started to sleep through, but only goes down after 10pm. We have no time alone as my DH is so tired that he frequently falls asleep during story time and DD wakes him up to tell him that she has finished her book, would he like to hear another!

They both used to sleep heavily during the day though, so at least I could have a bit of downtime then...

DH gets up at 5.30am to go to work, I am an extremely light sleeper, so my day starts too...

DD has not slept for 12 hours a night more than 5 times in 5 years, many times only having less than 8 hours to go to school on... Yet she is lively and bright.

DS gets very grumpy before he falls asleep but is always cheerful on waking.

These positives make up for my absentminded ness, my tendency to shoutiness in stressful situations (trying to get them to leave the house on time for school etc.) and the feeling that I have aged 10 years in 5 and am now haggard and hollow eyed with tiredness, rather than looking young for my age (which made me preen, secretly).

I'm enjoying the time before school starts again as there is no enforced routine around school run times, so can recharge my batteries. I'm feeling less like a zombie and the physical feeling of brain fog is lifting.

Hope all the other posters had a restful sleep last night and feel more positive today...

it's amazing really, that we can all carry on with so little sleep

Credentials: no more than 4 hours uninterrupted in 2 years.

Symptoms:

? Left car unlocked in driveway overnight countless times
? Left car unlocked in driveway with keys in ignitions twice
? Left front door unlocked while went out twice
? Came into house with supermarket shopping and forgot about babies in car (for about -0 mind ) once
? Use wrong words in the middle of sentences ALL THE TIME. They're nearly the right words - about the right length and start with the right letter, but not the right word at all
? Have no recollection of conversations that other people promise me did happen

There must be others, but I can't think of them.

To the poster who was worried about a new job - don't be :) I found going back to work a complete sanity saver (because you don't add a job on top of what you're doing now, you swap some of what you're doing now for the job) and then a job change a few months later gave me the clean sheet and new challenge feeling to make it more bearable to leave my babies each morning.

I shall be tired mummy spotting in my way to work this morning - if I smile ruefully at you though red-rimmed eyes, please smile back

Just to clarify, that's 10 minutes I forgot the babies for (locked in a cool car on a private rural driveway) ...

DS2 is 2.4 and never slept through, DS1 was 2 and I had an overlap of both waking so it's been 4 years of sleep deprivation so far......

I frequently forget words, forget shopping, lose my keys/wallet, shout too much, let then watch too much TV, don't have the energy to go to as many groups as I should...... I've also put on loads of weight as the only thing that helps is snacking on crap! I am slowly getting out of bad food habits though but it's hard.

I sympathise, wish I had a magic answer but unfortunately nothing has worked for us so far. I'm hoping when DS2 starts pre-school next Easter he'll tire more and maybe sleep better, I can dream!!