Pregnancy insomnia!

[Hannah27]

I'm 13 weeks today and I am so so tired. I've had to have time off work as I can barely stay awake, but I'm waking up between 2-4am for a couple of hours. I'm a nurse and work 12hour shifts on my feet with little opportunity to sit down and taking extra breaks is impossible. We get a 10min tea break then two 30 minutes breaks during the 12 hours, which is a lot better than some other wards I've worked on. I'm probably going to have to phone in sick again today but I don't know what to do to sort my sleep out, as when I wake up I am still yawning and very tired. I've cut out caffeine completely and am not drinking any alcohol and don't smoke. I'm avoiding sugary food in the evenings too, even just fruit etc.

Does anyone have any advice ? I don't get paid when I go off sick and am desperate to be back at work.

Thanks in advance! Xxx

[roxannacar]

What do you do when you wake up? If you cant get back to sleep within 10-15 mins, better to get out have a snack or glass of water, maybe read something. Avoid using your phone or watching screens as blue light is not good to sleep.

Dont forget tea coke chocolate also contain caffeine. Hopefully will get better. My sleep was not great with both pregnancies but after the first trimester my energy levels were much improved. So here's to hoping.

[Hannah27 in reply to roxannacar]

Hello! Thanks so much for your reply, I have zero caffeine in my diet and already do the whole getting out of bed thing but nothing is working. Thanks for your message, trying to think outside the box on this one. My sleep gets bad sometimes but my usual tricks aren't helping 😐

[R4chyB4]

Hi Hannah! Sorry to hear your suffering with fatigue and sleeplessness. I am also waking most mornings at 4am ! Are you getting more than 7 hours sleep before you wake up? You may need to move your bed time a little later? If you are waking up with worries... perhaps a notepad at your bed to jot down your thoughts to offload would help? I have been doing meditation before bed and sometimes when I wake up this helps me drift off as takes my mind off things...!!

Good luck xx

[Hidden]

Hi - I have the same problem at 15 weeks +4.

Sometimes in the evening I am trying to stay awake and even go for an evening walk with my OH to try to stop myself from dozing, to help myself sleep better when I go to bed.

It is really hard though as usually I am totally out of it and exhausted by 9pm!

Hope someone else can give some better advice than me - but you are not alone. I thought the tiredness would stop after 12 weeks....

xxx