I smiled to myself as I turned the page back and realised that it was only one page back that I had started to read the chapter on Restorative Rest, in the book called Replenish, by Lisa Grace Byrne. How deeply refreshing it is to hear a new perspective on sleep deprivation, where she highlights how “why giving ourselves even a little care in this area produces the greatest amount of positive impact.”
Restorative Rest, which Lisa calls one of the core essentials for moms, is one that moms feel that they have the least control over if they are in the midst of nights of interrupted sleep. When she came to the understanding herself that instead of squandering the little that she could do for herself in this area, and valued the few hours that she had between feeding her baby and being up to a toddler, things never got better.
Lisa talks about her experiences of being a ‘depleted mum’ and how she put her time of despondency in this area to create a new realm of replenishment for mums based on her core essentials. She explains how even giving a little care in an area like Restorative Rest can produce a great amount of impact.
So instead of surfing the internet between feeds and giving up good quality sleep between interruptions for even one or two hours, see if you can start to reinvest into your sleep bank and deposit some zzzz’s.
We often feel we need to have a large amount of sleep to improve the situation of being sleep deprived, but small solutions can help. We may not always have the perfect solution but taking one step of investment into our self care can nourish a part of you, and produce a positive impact.
What one small step can you take for yourself today?