Sleep is considered a luxury yet it is one of the important things you need daily, especially if working fulltime. While it is challenging you need 8 or more hours of quality sleep everyday. You can achieve this through creating a routine, planning, work-life balance, support system, reliable childcare, practicing self-care, and outsourcing services.
Is Sleeping 8 Hours or More Lazy?
Sleep cannot be considered laziness. It is very important as it allows your body and mind to reset, recharge and re-energize. Therefore you need adequate sleep for you to function normally every day.
Do not feel guilty or ashamed about having 8 hours or more of sleep. It is very healthy and something you should prioritize especially if you are working full-time.
Health experts have recommended that we all need at least 8 hours of sleep every day. Anything less is not good for you and puts you at risk since you need to rest and boast your energy every day.
Getting 8 Hours of Sleep for Mothers Working Fulltime
The issue of full-time working moms not getting enough sleep is very common. Most full-time working moms on a 9-5 work shift get less than 8 hours of sleep per day. Some even as few as 4 hours of sleep daily.
However it is very possible for working moms can get 8 hours of sleep or more daily. Despite the limited time, you can get adequate sleep through commitment, discipline and planning.
How Moms Working Full Time Can Get 8 Hours of Sleep
1. Set Up a Sleep Routine
When you create a routine, it easily becomes a habit and hard to break. Prioritize sleep and create a healthy habit for it, and it will become a thing that you regularly do.
Incorporate things that allows you to relax and fall sick easily when you get into bed. It can include taking dinner, taking a shower, reading a bedtime book/or listening to music as you settle into sleep. Use white noise if you need help falling asleep
Also going to bed early is crucial. Set a time say 10 pm and do not go to bed later than this if you can help it. Also set an automatic switch on your phone to bedtime mode. It goes to dark mode and puts you on do not disturb. You won’t get disturbed by calls or messages and hence you can sleep for longer.
Read: Tips on Getting Adequate Quality Sleep for Night Shift Moms
2. Have a Daily Task Plan
Planning your time every day is very important as a working mom. It will give you a great chance of having enough time to start your bedtime routine and have at least 8 hours of sleep every day.
Create a task list every day that outlines what you set out to do for the day. You just need to know what you will be doing, when, where, and how much you will use on each task. A plan allocates adequate time to effectively and efficiently accomplishes these tasks without rushing.
Importantly it does not steal into your evening time as you are not rushing on last-minute things or tasks that you had forgotten. As such you will have adequate time at the end of the day for enough sleep.
Read: Time Savings Tips for Working Moms
3. Balance Work and Personal Life
To ensure that you are sleeping for 8 or more hours daily, you need to balance your personal and work life. Don’t let work eat into your personal and family time and it negatively affects your sleep.
To achieve work life balance divide your time to cover three aspects of your work equally. Set aside 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for work, and 8 hours for other things every day.
Try not to exceed 8 hours of work per day. Run errands, meet with your friends, help with the kid’s homework, do house chores, complete personal projects, do hobbies, exercise, and study among others in 8 hours. All this will leave you with at least 8 hours of sleep every day.
Set firm boundaries that ensure that work issues do not spill over into your personal life. If your job eats so much of your time, find a mom or family-friendly career/ employer /job which do not leave you too exhausted.
4. Get a Support System
As a mom working 9-5, you need a strong support system such as your partner, your family members, and your friends on your side. These are the people who will come through for you when you are too overwhelmed, tired, and have so much to do and need to sleep.
These people will also help you by working on some tasks such as house chores when you are too tired. For instance get your partner to help with some of the tasks at home, such as house chores, and will be able to get the sleep you need.
5. Get Reliable Childcare
It is difficult for you to get adequate 8 hours of sleep when you have no help with childcare. If you have a reliable childcare provider, you can manage to get enough sleep per day.
A reliable nanny, babysitter, or daycare will ensure that you do not use too much time worrying or caring for your baby, which will eat into your time and deny you nap time. When you can rely on a childcare provider you can easily get adequate time to sleep when needed.
Read: How to Find Quality and Reliable Childcare
6. Practice Self-care to Sleep Better
Self-care is very important for moms working full-time. You need to be well relaxed when you lie down to sleep in order to have adequate and quality sleep.
- Ensure that you eat a well-balanced diet, exercise regularly, have a hobby, etc. Doing so ensures that your mind and body are in a relaxed state when you lie down to sleep.
- Invest in a good mattress and pillow and use an eye mask to block out light if needed.
- Avoid using your phone in bed. A phone will keep you on endless scrolling, which will eat up your sleep time. If you want to read a book, read a physical book instead.
Read: How to Create a Self-Care Routine
7. Outsource Services to Save Time
One of the major challenges for full-time moms is that they use their time away from the office working in the house or running errands. These errands and house chores are too overwhelming and leaves you will little or no time for yourself or sleep.
What you can do is to outsource these house chores and errands. Some of the services you can outsource are meal services, cleaning, childcare, yard work, laundry, and tutoring among others. Alternatively delegate the tasks to someone else within your support system.
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