Sleepyhead

M.C. Escher probably had trouble sleeping.

Sleeping is supposed to be easy. Maybe that’s the problem. Expectations often lead to disappointment. Imagine you went to sleep tonight without the expectation of a full night’s uninterrupted sleep. Imagine expecting to be woken up before your alarm. The seeds of doubt creep in. The sense of relaxation diminishes.

After becoming a parent, sleep becomes a form of currency. Drama around rest becomes a topic of every parental team. First it’s about feeding the baby. Then it’s about the toddler in their own room. Or..for people that don’t attempt to sleep separately from their babies or toddlers, it’s about the adults trying to sleep with the toddler nearby. Sometimes the adult people sleep separately. Sometimes the toddler goes back and forth between their bed and the adult bed, drawn like magnets back to their cozy parents.

For many people with children, sleep-deprivation just becomes part of the parenting routine. More coffee. Less focus. Zombies, sleep-walking through their days.

But sleep is hard for all of us, not just parents.

Many conditions impact our sleep. Ideally, we go to bed with:

• tired body that was in motion for at least part of the day (but not in motion for the last hour)
• full stomach (but not having eaten in the last two hours)
• feeling of safety (both…