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Post by Catherine on Dec 12, 2003 13:55:38 GMT
Since contracting PND I have done alot of reading around the subject and have tried to work out what was going on at the time I literally fell down into this depression. What figures more than anything else preceding my 'breakdown' is that its the only time in my life that I have gone so long without regular solid sleep!!! What do others think??? Do you think that sleep deprivation is the culprit for PND and that therefore regaining good solid and regular sleep could actually be the cure???
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Post by louise on Dec 12, 2003 23:15:05 GMT
Hi there, well more sleep couldn't hurt could it - after all sleep deprivation is used as a means of torture to break 'tough' SAS-type men! ;D. I havn't had a block of more than 3 consecutive hours sleep for 9 months and for the last 3 months (due to teething and general illnesses of the littl'un) we've been down to 1-2hrs with up to 1 hr to settle him again. I know I am far worse at everything, even when emotionally well, when tired and we are all probably exhausted. i don't think i'm even lively enough to qualify for zombie status at the moment. so if santa is listening, what i would like for christmas is sleep please!!!! i wish some for you too... good luck, louise  |
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Post by Catherine on Dec 13, 2003 10:01:48 GMT
hi Louise,
Ive also heard that sleep deprivation or constant sleep disturbance is a form of torture and from what Ive read about it, it can cause amnesia, visual disturbance, irritability, forgetfulness and pretty much all the symptoms of PND. I m really sorry to hear you are getting so little sleep, Im convinced that if you could find some time during the day to sleep or sleep with your baby next to you,you would feel better. I have improved since my son has been sleeping more and I feel good/normal the day after a good nights sleep. You must be an extrememly caring mother to sacrifice so much sleep, I think women with PND seem to be the most conscientious mothers, because we care enough to sacrifice our own wellbeing, but I believe that it is important to look after ourselves in order to have the stamina necessary for child rearing, so if there is anyway you can arrange it, focus on how YOU are going to get some REST and make it a priority!!!!
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Post by Anna on Jan 18, 2004 3:58:01 GMT
This is a very good question. After a major physical effort and lifestyle change, anyone benefits from rest to recuperate and re charge. But when the effort and change is childbirth, that's the one thing you don't get. Ironically, the more conscientious the woman, the more likely she is to "try" and be good and brave - with the result that she is less likely to put her own needs as priority, which sets her up for problems. A "good" mother is often the very person who ends up with PND, guilt and the chain of grief.
We3 need sleep to destress and detox ourselves in readiness for the next day. Dreams are an importnat part of sleep, helping us to resolve conflicts and adjust to change. I believe too that we only reach the deepest most ceasing cdeep skleep after we've resolved anxieties from dreaming - so the most healing part of sleep doesn't come until quites some time after you've dozed off and dreamt - sometimes hours. BUt when you are a mum, who gets the luxury of hours of sleep ?
My twins were on different body clocks and fior three years I didn't sleep more than two or three hours at a stretch. The image of normality I'd managed to maintain over the years - by sheer herculean effort as I had no support or family - finally shattered. I was literally screaming for help but no one gave a darn. "Too late for PND". No, delayed PND, made worse because I'd managed somehow to keep afloat. Another twin mum whom I'd helped had seen me coping and organised and smiling and wished bad luck on me - only to feel guilty when i did crash in a sobbing heap, months later. She felt so awful, but of course it wasn't her fault.
Now I realise that if I hadn't been so damned determined to cope in the early months, and tried so hard to be "good" and loving and available I might not have set myself up for the really bad collapse thatb happened later. For which I got no sympathy, whatsoever, when i really needed help. It took me years to get over this delayed PND - part of the cure was sleeping. As soon as the children went to nursery I'd sleep. When they started school, I was still anxious and unstable so I slept from 9.30 to 3.00. Gradually I wqas able to cut back (in order to prevent disrupting night sleep patterns). To this day my children still have opposite sleep patterns and there's rarely an hour when both are down together, buit they are old enough now to manage on their own.
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Post by Dana on Jan 26, 2004 15:47:27 GMT
If you have a baby with sleeping problems, people don't actually understand what it means and they all tell you 'oh, babies never sleep', But if you have one of those, you know you have a problem. This became the central issue of my PND. My baby wouldn't sleep until he was 8 months old. And I mean - didn't sleep. Nothing would calm him doen - not a bottle, not rocking, being picked up, being sung to, being danced with etc...I think sleep deprivation is a huge factor in not being able to shift out of PND. absolutely huge. Now he's one year old and sleeping well thanks to controlled crying...But I still can't sleep.
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