I’m a New Father and Suddenly Sleep Deprived
On Monday, June 27th my wife was admitted to the hospital to have our little baby girl. My daughter ended up coming into the world two days later on June 29. That’s when my sleep deprivation began.
The months leading up to baby girl’s birthday, I had everyone who was already a parent tell me how little sleep I was going to get. They would all say, “are you ready??” Then proceed to tell me how I’ll be up every night and never get sleep again.
For some reason, I never totally believed any of them. I thought, my girl will be different. Sure, she’ll keep us up once in a while, but I’ll be fine. Well, I was wrong. I haven’t slept a solid night through since that day. But I’m not complaining — I just want to document all the other side effects that come with lack of sleep.
After her first night in this world, her mother and I have seen every hour of the night — constantly interrupted from deep slumber every two to four hours. Before that day, I used to really try and get a great night’s sleep every night. I experimented with the proper temperature, mattress, pillows, time going to bed, what I did before bed, how much caffeine I drank, the list goes on… And I used to sleep pretty darn good. Now, I can no longer experiment — I am at the mercy of my daughter and her schedule.
The Sleep Cycle
A sleep cycle is something everyone goes through overnight. Roughly every 90 minutes your body goes from light sleep to deep sleep to REM sleep. REM sleep is where you do most of your dreaming. Since becoming a father, I haven’t really had many complete sleep cycles and don’t reach REM sleep very often. Therefore I have far fewer dreams than I used to. My sleep cycles now have an extra component to them — every 2–4 hours I wake up and stay awake for anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.
The Interesting Side Effects
This lack of sleep has done a few things to my day that I never quite anticipated. A new kind of headache has emerged for me — the area behind my eyes starts to ache. It’s a strange aching that instantly makes me realize how little sleep I got the previous night. It instantly makes me realize that I could just lay down and take a nap right there.
And speaking of naps — naps are now AWESOME. I want to take them ever so frequently.
I do Crossfit pretty often — since becoming a father I’ve only been twice. Those two classes were HARD. The lack of sleep has taken a toll on my body and doesn’t allow me to perform at my best. I now know to take it easy when I haven’t had much sleep.
Coffee! I’ve always been a coffee lover, but ever since my sleep schedule has fallen apart, coffee seems to taste even better. Maybe it’s because I actually feel the effects of caffeine a little more when I’m tired. I’m usually a one cup per morning kind of guy but now I find myself crushing a Grande and wanting another Tall.
Focus sometimes wanes. I usually can focus all throughout the day with no problems. Of course I take breaks to help refocus and regroup for the task at hand, but I now finding myself really needing to step away from something before I can come back to it and actually focus on it. This is something all the experts claim that lack of sleep will crush — your ability to focus. Well, they are correct.
The Conclusion
It’s all worth it in the end, right? I’ve got a gorgeous baby girl and I’m a proud Dad. Oh and they all tell me now, “it won’t last forever”. I’ll choose to believe them this time :)
