"Then there are so many people commenting on posts like that, saying they would kill for five hours of broken sleep because they only get two or three! They say things like, "I am tired in my bones," "I don't know how I function," "I look haggard ALL the time," and, "No one told me motherhood was so lonely, doing it alone in the wee hours of the morning.""
"If those feelings came and went, I would totally get that, but this idea of a permanent state of exhaustion is really scaring me away from ever having kids. I feel like if that happened to me, I would get some sort of disease and just die. I'm having trouble determining if these are people calling out from rock bottom for help just before big, needed changes are made-or if this is really the very basic nonnegotiable foundation of being a parent."
Many parents report extremely limited, fragmented sleep for years, expressing pervasive exhaustion with phrases such as 'I am tired in my bones' and 'I look haggard ALL the time.' Those experiences provoke fear that chronic sleep loss could cause serious health decline. One caregiver notes that her pattern included napping when infants napped and leaving at day's end, contrasting with parents who cannot sleep when their children sleep. The caregiver questions whether perpetual nighttime waking is a temporary crisis or the fundamental reality of parenting. A lifelong insomniac recounts failing to adjust to infant awakenings and emphasizes that being roused by a child differs from personal sleeplessness.
Read at Slate Magazine
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