Sleep During Pregnancy: How to Sleep Well During the Sweet Wait
Introduction
Many of the concerns and doubts of future mothers revolve around sleep during pregnancy and advice for sleeping well during the sweet wait.
The fear of being too tired is more than understandable.
Considering the fact that, on average, an adult and a non-pregnant woman need 8 hours of sleep to regenerate, when we ask ourselves how many hours a pregnant woman sleeps it is obviously necessary to consider more ( even ten a night or more ).
The topic of sleep during pregnancy is really popular, which is why I chose to dedicate specific content to it (as you can see, I also included an index to allow you to delve deeper into the various facets of the topic by clicking on the titles of the paragraphs that interest you most).
By reading it you will be able to discover, for example, why it can be normal to be very sleepy during pregnancy and, above all, how to get to sleep during pregnancy thanks to the right positions and an accessory that all pregnant women should have at home (I will talk about it in the course of the article).
In the meantime, if you are looking for a professional who can virtually take you by the hand on the journey of waiting, I invite you to discover the prenatal video course by Doctor Maria Chiara Alvisi , the midwife of the DrSilva team (you can find it by clicking on the button at the end of the paragraph).
If, instead, you are looking for constantly updated content dedicated to the motor development of your puppy, I await you on the Instagram profile @drsilva.com_official .
How many hours should a pregnant woman sleep?
To stay healthy , it is advisable to sleep 7/8 hours a night.
In the case of a pregnant woman , the sleep requirement can reach 10 hours a day.
Since it can be difficult to get as much sleep as you would like at night due to problems such as back pain or nausea , it is a good idea to rest during the day when you feel the need.
How sleep changes during pregnancy
Sleep during pregnancy , like every fiber and function of the mother's organism, is subject to strong changes.
Getting to the heart of the latter, I recall that sleep during pregnancy in the first trimester increases due to the increase in progesterone levels.
The latter, essential for optimizing the receptivity of the uterus and for preparing the breast for breastfeeding, as mentioned here is also known as the “quiescence hormone” . The reason?
Its decisive contribution to the slowing down of various functions of the woman's organism - including intestinal peristalsis - thus helping it to adapt to the new condition, concentrating the right energies on the growth of the embryo first and then of the fetus.
Another key aspect to mention when talking about changes in sleep during pregnancy concerns the reduction, in the first and second trimester, of the duration of REM sleep, that is, the deepest sleep.
The picture just described is an effect of estrogen and evolves until, in the periods close to the end of pregnancy, the mother wakes up even several times a night.
According to authoritative hypotheses, it could be an adaptation mechanism to the awakenings to be faced, in the following months, for breastfeeding .
Regarding sleep during pregnancy in the second trimester, it is good to call into question a general improvement in quality compared to the first weeks of gestation.
Almost always, you no longer have the problem of nausea and your belly is not yet so big as to cause severe back pain and make falling asleep objectively difficult.
During the third trimester, it is common for “pregnancy” to be synonymous with “disturbed sleep.”
Back pain is the protagonist of the days and nights of the future mother.
There are two factors that cause it: the growing belly and the influence of estrogen and relaxin.
These hormones contribute on the one hand to relaxing muscles and joints , effectively promoting the puppy's passage through the pelvic floor and pelvis.
On the other hand, however, they compromise the ability to provide lumbar, abdominal and pelvic support.
Other factors that can make sleeping difficult during the third trimester during pregnancy include the need to urinate, which becomes more frequent due to the pressure of the uterus on the bladder , and the common occurrence of dreams that many mothers experience that are more vivid than usual (in some cases, they are real nightmares).
