How many hours do you sleep on a weekday/weekend night?

[Atticas]

5 hours on a weekday for me. 7 hours ish on a weekend. Soon to change once baby arrives in November! How many hours do you sleep per night and how do you cope with lack of sleep?

My one year old is currently waking me up every hour.. but prior to this current horror, she was sleeping through. I got about 7 hours sleep every day of the week. You don’t get weekend lie ins anymore with a young child! They don’t realise it’s Saturday/Sunday.. it’s just morning & time to get up! My litlie goes to bed at 6.30pm & wakes around 6am. It’s doable if you go to bed at say 10pm, even 11pm.

You really do learn to cope with a lack of sleep. It’s rough at first but you adapt. You start to see 3 hours as a decent chunk. Then maybe you get two lots of 3 hours over a night time. You learn to nap in the daytime. You learn to go to bed earlier. You have super lovely parents who babysit overnight so you get a catch up. Or you have a brilliant OH who gets up with the baba & gives you a lie in at the weekend etc!

I’ve gone back to work recently & despite horribly interrupted sleep, it’s been surprisingly OK! I thought I’d really struggle but I’m coping. Yes I’m tired but a coffee does the job!

Good luck, it is exhausting but totally worth it

5 hours is about what I'm getting at the moment and I'm finding it's nowhere near enough. Do you feel ok on 5 OP?

@Lifebeginner I feel like a zombie 100% of the time but I work such long hours and don't sleep properly. 5 hours of broken sleep is nowhere near enough but I manage.

@Bol87 thank you! Really helpful and lovely comment.

“You start to see 3 hours as a decent chunk” yeah that’s about my life right now!! In fact three hours would be bliss!! I had a three hour chunk last night and I think I might have developed actual super powers as a result

Get 5 hours in a row if I’m lucky. Ds doesn’t sleep and wakes every single night. I’m like a walking zombie!!

Broken sleep is the worst and after 15 months of it I feel ill.

8/9 hours a night. Occasionally I will go to bed when the children do at 7:30 and sleep right through until 7am.

Same amount as you OP. I am utterly exhausted, but am currently seriously bereaved and struggling to get my life back under control so working all hours and distracting myself with rubbish TV.
It's exhausting isn't it? And I'm not having a baby either!

I need about 9~10 hours to feel well. 7~8 hours over a year send me over the edge and I got really unwell (that was when I was a student so a long time ago).
My solution when the dcs were little was to involve H so he did half of the getting up at night. Yes also included when I was in ML.

I also went to bed super early whilst he was doing the late night shift at 11.00pm and then got up during the night when I was being dc2 (and clearly he couldn’t do half of the getting up ).

And slept in the afternoon during the weekend and H was around.

Lack of sleep is a form of torture. You need to find out how much sleep you actually need to be able to function. And then work around that rathervthan assume you should be able to do all the night wakings for example.

I'd say 7-8 hours during the week and maybe a bit more at the weekend. I wouldn't be functional on 5 hours a night! My kids are a bit older now so sleepless nights are long in the past (I tend to wake them up nowadays).

Thanks all! Really feel for you all with little ones. It'll be me soon so this thread is helping me to prepare!

@PinkBuffalo sorry to hear that. I have severe anxiety and can't sleep without noise in the background. I am alone with my thoughts otherwise and don't sleep at all. I hope you manage do find peace and find yourself on track soon. Be gentle with yourself

I'm so envious of all of you who sleep for 6 hours of more! I try, but just can't.

7ish hours of interrupted poor quality sleep all nights
2yo, husband who has night terrors and my own health condition that gives me pain at night - I've been knackered for years now

Around 7-8 hours, we have 2 dc (4.5 and 2.10). I sleep better now than at any other time in my adult life. I had insomnia for years, then worked loads, then had kids.

@wonkylegs you poor thing. Sounds awful. My DP snores and farts all night. The smell actually wakes me up sometimes.

I can't imagine being in pain all the time however. Sending

About 7.5 hours of broken sleep on weekdays (menopausal symptoms really disturb sleep)
Weekends prob about 9, again not great quality due to menopause.

That said, it is nowhere near the torment of when the dc were small. Dd didn't sleep through til she was 4 or 5 I think and ds used to get up and wander into us as soon as he could walk and I was too knackered to put him back.

So, any sleep tips for when baby arrives? Sleep when baby sleeps?

DD is nearly 10 months now and our sleep has gone like this.

Pre-baby: 8-10 hours a night
Pregnant 1st & 2nd trimester: 10-12 hours a night
3rd trimester: 3-6 hours a night
Newborn: 6 hours, broken up into 1-2 hour chunks
3-6m: 5-7 hours, in two 3 hour-ish chunks
6-8m: 5-8 hours
9m+: she is finally sleeping through so I'm getting a good 7-8 hours a night now, every night. Last night she slept 7.30pm through til 8.30 this morning! best sleep ever.

Sleep is VERY dependant on how your baby sleeps, to be honest, and how helpful your partner is. My DP has only ever done 1 night feed so when she was newborn I was getting about 6 hours a night, but that was over about a 14 hour period. I would go to bed at 8pm and not get up until 10am, but only have had 6 hours total sleep and felt like shit.

Don't know how you live off 5 hours on a weekday I'd be knackered on that!

As for sleep tips: if you're Bfing, co-sleeping was the only way I slept. I found sitting up to feed her in a chair 6 times a night just meant I was wired and couldn't fall asleep for half an hour after, then was up to feed her an hour later.

Nap when baby naps, if you can. Spend lots of time in bed or on the sofa when they're tiny, you need it. Lots of snacks helped.

Don't worry about it.. expect disturbed sleep but there's nothing you can do to prepare. Sleep or rest when baby sleeps, accept lots of help from others with cleaning and meal prep.

Slept 3 hours last night so know exactly how I'm likely to feel in a few months! thanks all

@redpandamama I have a 5.5month old and your post has pretty much summed up my sleep thus far! It gives me hope that things may get better!

OP congratulations on your pregnancy. I found in the last trimester I slept rubbish anyway so it was almost like my body was getting ready.

Little babies often like to be held to sleep so take turns holding/sleeping with your OH. Have snacks and water close by when you get stuck under a baby. Try to stay off your phone during night feeds to make it easier to go back to sleep. When you go to bed, put your phone on silent so you aren’t woken by texts and phone calls. Use relaxing sounds/white noise if it helps (babies like it too!) Eye masks and a couple of drops of essential oil on your pillow might be good too.

However you will adapt to your new routine. It’s not ideal and having an intelligent conversation is a distant memory but you will manage!

I get about 6 hours sleep a night, I wish I could sleep longer but can't for some reason - nothing to do with children - I now have a teenager who sleeps for hours and doesn't disturb me apart from needing lifts. Makes no difference whether it is a weekday or weekend.

You may find ou have a good sleeper, honestly not everyone has babies who don't sleep - it's probably because those parents write/comment about it more.

My DS was an excellent sleeper - 7am-7pm from day 1 with one very quick night feed, and two long naps a day. But I did follow a GF routine which I know is frowned on here on Mumsnet - but it could have been I just had a good sleeper. .

‘My DS was an excellent sleeper - 7am-7pm from day 1 with one very quick night feed, and two long naps a day.’

Oh god what’s your secret? I’m so jealous!!

Or what was your secret rather

I just assumed (rightly or wrongly ) that you put your baby in his/her own cot at bedtime, leave the room and baby would fall asleep.

I never got into the feeding/cuddling to sleep - I also followed the Gina Ford routine (hated on Mumsnet). I was probably just very lucky in that I had a very 'easy, laid back' baby.