Sleep Deprivation Or Parenting Path To Insanity

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

I am writing, because it is already unbearable to look at mothers. Dads do not reach, but I believe that they also have this, though it is less common. We do take care of men, their average life expectancy is shorter. But the brain is more intact, if not poisoned with alcohol.

Almost every day I see at least one mother in a state of complete depression, with a high level of anxiety, who almost does not react to my voice and utters the same complaints monotonously: “I yell at the child, I am annoyed, I am guilty, I have a heartbeat and probably soon a heart attack, I don't understand what's going on, I can't get out on my own, but I always could, and so on.

Postpartum depression? Almost. But not really. This is a condition that is caused by a commonplace thing that almost all parents encounter - sleep deprivation. Yes, a banal constant lack of sleep can lead to almost insanity in a few months. They can call it whatever they like: postpartum depression (but this is not it), panic attacks (not them), VSD (yes, as a symptom), anxiety-phobic disorder, and even psychosis. It is known that sleep deprivation has been used as a torture and also as a treatment for depression (in case a person sleeps all the time and it is difficult for him to wake up). In the case of depression treatment - to achieve a state of euphoria. Tested on myself - it works, I will describe it below.

Let's see what happens to a sleep deprived person.

I will not give links to sources, I read them a lot, experimented on myself (with sleep - my favorite, yeah), in the end I give out almost everything that I could get. So, sleep deprivation is not only a complete lack of sleep for a day or more, but also constant intermittent sleep when a person does not sleep in a row for more than 3, 5 - 4 hours. That is, many mothers now recognize themselves, right?

So the consequences:

1. Increased irritability and aggression. Typically, aggression is directed at an object that does not allow sleep. In our case, this is a child. This aggression is poorly controlled or almost uncontrollable. Yes, moms yell at children. Believe me, not always because mothers are poorly brought up. Sometimes because they just haven't slept for a couple of years.

2. Vegeto-vascular dystonia and its consequences.

With VSD, which has arisen as a result of sleep deprivation, the following symptoms are observed: dizziness, as in drunkenness, shortness of breath, choking, shortness of breath, lack of coordination, weakness, weakness in the arms and legs, tinnitus. Sometimes everything that happens around seems unreal, and the body is light, the ground leaves from under our feet, a feeling of fear appears. Colors, sounds, paints can become much brighter than usual, which is similar to the effect of drugs. The sense of the passage of time may be disturbed. There may be a feeling of someone else's presence in the apartment, non-existent sounds (steps, whispering, voices), peripheral vision picks up non-existent objects. This leads to the development of phobias and obsessions, rituals.

Depersonalization is also possible - the loss or change of the feeling of one's own "I", as if everything that happens in a person's life happens to someone else, as when watching a movie. Depersonalization is accompanied by a loss of emotions, dull color perception, everything around seems dead, flat, the very concept of mood disappears. The quality of memory, attention decreases, absent-mindedness appears. Interestingly, self-control in the presence of these symptoms is always maintained, so others do not take what is happening as a serious disorder.

3. As follows from the above, against the background of sleep deprivation, anxiety-phobic disorders and obsessive behavior develop.

4. Not the worst, but unpleasant - a decrease in libido. It is often found in young mothers. And childbirth itself has nothing to do with it - like after childbirth, decreased libido and all that).

5. Even less scary - rapid aging of the skin, dark circles under the eyes, dry skin and wrinkles. Not that terrible, but it does not add joy to life.

6. Also not very scary - weight gain. Checked on myself, because I sleep a little (and in vain). As soon as there are visible extra pounds, I understand - we must not "stop eating" (because I eat little), but START SLEEPING. By the way, according to experts, fat deposits with a lack of sleep accumulate, first of all, on the stomach.

So, what do we have if a young mother gets up to her child several times every night, then feeds him and rocks him for a while, and then does not sleep during the day? We have an anxious, irritable, screaming, exhausted woman with a lack of libido, often complaining of pain and discomfort in the heart, panic attacks, constantly in a state of anxiety and permanent hysteria, in a state of derealization and depersonalization. I, of course, now greatly exaggerate, often these symptoms are still isolated, that is, not all develop together, but only individual ones (fortunately). She seems to her husband and other relatives "sick", "inadequate", "hysterical".

What are the relatives doing in this case? They recommend "pulling yourself together", "drinking antidepressants", in extreme cases - "going to a psychologist." And almost never - they do not give the opportunity to simply RELEASE. That is, they do not offer it. Not because the relatives are bad, but because for some reason young mothers are "supposed" not to sleep. Like, a small child, everyone is awake, and what, no one died. They died, they died, they jumped out the window or did it in another way. In fact, in the absence of sleep for more than 10 days, a person can actually die.

For clarity, here is a small excerpt from self-observation of a person who deliberately deprived himself of sleep. After a few days of sleep less than 4 hours a day (!!! this is mom's "normal" mode !!!), he writes the following:

“I don’t know about others, but I can describe my condition. It’s already like taking heavier hallucinogenic drugs.

The feeling of "unreality" increases. Phobias of tracking and persecution appear. Obsessions, like someone trying to catch me for something. Mixing of realities, the effect of "falling out" - you constantly think that you fall asleep and wake up, and in this process, you cannot understand what is dream and what is reality. Although you are not really sleeping. There is no slowness, but everything around it seems to be scenery. Hostile and suspicious attitude towards other people. Auditory hallucinations - the meaning of words, tone is distorted, which is why collisions with relatives and friends are frequent. Nervousness, twitching. Inability to concentrate on anything. Complete loss of appetite and sleep. Increased sweating, fear of the unknown.

But, of course, the most interesting thing is visual hallucinations … hallucinations are associative in nature, in particular, this is a violation (due to depletion of the psycho-physiological reserves of the body) in the signal coming through the optic nerve, a perversion of the image, among hunters called "eye fever" - when the eye sees one thing, but due to a disturbance in the psyche, sends a signal to the brain about another object.

My personal quirks:

rotting corpse on the street (canvas bag and plastic bags)

moving people in the store (mannequins standing still)

worms in noodles (just noodles)

a person swinging something on the periphery of vision (there was no one)

people who contact me (no one really approached me)

my decaying hand (shadow fell badly)

the same with the face

fountain pen melting in hand (there was nothing)

blood spread over the surface (a piece of red cloth)

some vague figures in the crowd, among acquaintances (there was no one)

and so on, I can't remember everything. But more often than not, hallucinations are unpleasant, small, and there are many of them. This has a very strong effect on the psyche.

In general, the state is … extremely depressed and depressed. Constant leaps from reality into unreality are tiresome, in general, the sensations are similar to bad trips when using mescaline, DOB or DOM. An incessant feeling of despair, melancholy, persecution is gradually driving towards madness, and this is very serious. IF you started sleep deprivation in a state of severe depression, psychosis or neurosis, remember that the fourth stage exacerbates the existing disturbances in the psyche, and it can even lead to death. Yours or someone else's."

From my personal experience, as an extremely low-sleep person (well, a fool). Yes, everything that is described is true. Yes, after the first day, if before that I slept more or less normally - euphoria and a rise in strength, joy and a fairy tale, like after an energy drink. And after a few days of deprivation, trash begins.

In total, I am in favor of mom sleeping. Do not care if for this the child has to sleep under his armpit, or with a nipple, or there is a mixture at night, if there is no other way. Yes, I am for GW, if anything, BUT. Believe me, a healthy mother's psyche is much more important.

Naturally, it's cool if you manage to put the baby with you, hardly wake up while feeding, sleep a couple of times a day for 4-5 hours in a row or several times for 3 hours. Then everything is easier. It's great if the baby's pressing at night helps, after which he sleeps. Or motion sickness. Or something else. Always look for a way, even if it doesn't fit into your natural or other parenting system. Believe me, no theory is more important than your sleep, because a child needs a healthy (!) Mom. And yes, you can always sleep in the neurosis department, that's a fact))

And yet. Dad, imagine what kind of zombie is next to your child, if he did not get enough sleep. This is, of course, a joke, but only partially. Take care of the mothers of your children.