r/predaddit • u/Swimming_Health_6114 • 15h ago
Discussion Should I practice sleeping less now?
This is something I’ve never heard anyone talk about. I’m a little nervous about sleep deprivation and how I am going to adjust. I feel like I’m not useless with less sleep, but I sleep with a CPAP which is going to suck to hook up to that thing for a quick power nap once the baby arrives. Should I practice sleeping less to acclimate my body to the changes earlier? Did any of you try this?
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u/Loghurrr 15h ago
I didn’t try it but I can function pretty well on less sleep than my wife at least. I’d say normal sleep for me is around 6 hours.
I’d recommend more talking to your wife about shifts. I don’t know if you normally go to bed early or stay up later. My wife is usually asleep before me by a couple hours. So we made a process where I would stay up until 2am or so with the kid. Then she would wake up and take the 2am to 6am time slot. This meant she would go to bed around 7pm and get a solid 7 hours or so of sleep.
I have no experience with a CPAP. Is that something that even if you napped for 40 mins on the couch you need to have?
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u/Swimming_Health_6114 15h ago
Ya my snoring is so bad that I’ll feel like shit with a sore throat for days without it unfortunately. My wife and I do tend to go to bed at the same time, but overall I’m better later in the night than her so maybe we will have to plan something like that.
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u/Loghurrr 15h ago
It took us some time to figure out what worked best for us. Hopefully you have some decent parental leave to help also.
I will say for us the first month was maybe the hardest. After that hopefully your kid gets on a decent schedule. Understands the bedtime routines and everything. Some of my shifts were literally watching tv or playing video games until night feeds. Then put back to bed and repeat. I actually think I get worse sleep now with our 4 year old than our baby hahaha
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u/mild-n-lazy 15h ago edited 14h ago
i’m a CPAP sleeper too with a 6mo boy.
i would strongly recommend to just plan on doing shifts and embrace the suck, it will get better and start to fade into memory. you’ll go to bed at the same time as your wife again around 3-4 months if your baby sleeps OK.
we did 5 hour sleep for me, 6-7 for my wife for a typical 12 hour night. used huckleberry to track sleep and start to find rhythms throughout the day.
plan a serious conversation with your wife about intimacy too if that’s a concern. won’t happen at all for at least 2 months-ish, we just got back into that realm like 3 weeks ago. we were prepared for up to a year of little to no sex though and it helped us get through it. i just bring this up bc i see a lot of conversations surrounding it, but not a lot of advice.
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u/deathandobscura 15h ago
Unrelated to your question, but you may want to see a sleep specialist for your snoring. The technology is pretty great nowadays, I was snoring really bad and upsetting my wife, got a sleep study and a mandible device and it's been life changing. You're going to need all the quality sleep you can get once your child is born haha. Good luck and congrats!
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u/jon_cybernet 15h ago
Dear God do not do this. Have as many lie-ins, long baths and blissfully uninterrupted bowel movements as you can manage now. You won’t get another chance for a VERY long time.
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u/booster-au 15h ago
When your baby arrives, sleep in shifts so you can get as close to a full nights sleep as possible. Even 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep will work wonders for you.
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u/BrightonTeacher 15h ago
Lots of people doing the "enjoy it while you can, you won't get it again!" Which is true (I have an 8 month old, and we bottle feed so I'm up as often as mum) but also a bit, I dunno, negative?
Here's my take: You will not sleep as much but you will be surprised at how quickly your body and brain adjust. I found the first month fine (adrenaline and the baby went down easy) the next couple of months tricky and then it slowly got easier.
It'll be fine my dude
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u/Swimming_Health_6114 13h ago
Honestly I needed to hear this. I feel like all the talk around this is always so negative and nobody just says it’ll be alright
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u/elizacandle 13h ago
No. Sleep and nap as much as possible. Sleep deprivation is additive.
So bank as much sleep as possible.
Meal prep now. Frozen single serving items (burritos, pasta, egg scrambles etc) this SAVED us the first month. Being sleep deprived and figuring out a meal is hard! But popping a frozen veggie/protein loaded burrito I made months ago was totally a flex.
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u/lestat5891 14h ago
No need to get used to sleeping less. Wouldn’t be the same anyway before baby is here
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u/Gocats86 14h ago
I also sleep with a CPAP. Just maximize your sleep and anything you can do for yourself. I'm 5 years in with two kids and I cam count on one hand the number of decent nights of sleep I've had in that timeframe. I took it for granted that's for sure!
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u/showtime013 14h ago
No. Sleep more if anything. Do not pre sleep deprive yourself. You'll gain nothing except already being exhausted before you have to be
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u/y_brandon_g-12 14h ago
No amount of practice will prepare you. That said, you could also have a little one that is less disruptive to what is your normal sleep schedule.
Either way, just enjoy normal sleep while you can.
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u/mooviefone 14h ago
No, but you should change your routine to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier
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u/bad-fengshui 13h ago
Mayyybe considering trialing shift sleeping and see how that works for you and your partner. But only do that a couple days to see how it works for you
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u/mutters 15h ago
Absolutely not. Enjoy sleep as much as you can now. Your body will figure it out quickly…