Are You A Tired Mum?

Despite the long bank holiday and having an extra pair of hands around the house to help, I have woken up today feeling completely exhausted to the point that I can barely type. Why? Well apart from the fact my two year old is refusing to sleep through the night, I think since having kids I have a sleep deficit that’s probably about 12 months long. So it doesn’t surprise me to hear that a new study has found 85% of mums that they  “frequently feel tired”, and 59 percent of these “feel tired all the time”. Only 25 per cent regularly get seven or eight hours sleep a night, while 75 per cent were “lucky if they get six hours” – 40 per cent of these usually sleep less than six hours a night. As a result 70% of mums feel stressed on a weekly basis! Doctors warn all this lack of sleep is bad for our health but as yet I haven’t heard any solutions on what you’re supposed to do to solve it. My husband currently has a good one – ignore wailing child and fall asleep. On paper this looks good in reality I can’t ignore it enough to close my eyes and sleep. My GP says sleep when they sleep. Well my two year old doesn’t want to sleep in the day and there’s no way I’m going to bed at 7pm (9.30 pm often feels sad enough). My solution (and I’m not recommending this by the way) is lots of caffeine, making myself carry on even though I have aged 100 years, ignoring all comments that I look tired and basically telling myself I’m over the worst. But what are your tips for exhausted tired-all-the-time mums? Please tell as I’d really like to know.