Conception kicks off big changes in a woman's body. Everything changes: physical condition, mood, sometimes even outlook on life. Hormones come into play, regulating and directing the changes that occur. The same hormone simultaneously takes care of the preservation of the fetus and causes drowsiness in early pregnancy. Nature in her great wisdom gives the female body time to prepare, for physical changes and the restructuring of the psyche. During this period, the most natural behavior (from the point of view of nature) is peace and tranquility. And how else to give the fetus the opportunity to calmly form, without diverting the forces of the mother's body to extraneous and completely unnecessary things from the point of view of the same nature?
Drowsiness at the beginning of pregnancy is normal
Modern ladies are not accustomed to consider themselves weak. Try to spin at work, at home, with children, shopping and the list goes on. The stamina and strength of a working mom would put any Olympic champion to shame. And when, against the background of constant stress and time pressure, the body suddenly demands a stop, fails its mistress and simply refuses to act in the same mode, many women get lost and start to panic. And nothing out of the ordinary happens! Slight nausea, weakness, causeless tears, the feeling that you are constantly falling asleep - these are the first signs of a pregnancy.
Physiology is to blame. The body is smarter than us, it protects the nervous system from a stressful situation, allows you to switch to “other rails” without unnecessary stress, and takes care of the safety of the fetus. You need a hormone with the name to thank for this. This substance is constantly produced in the body, but with the onset of pregnancy, the amount of the hormone in the blood increases significantly.
Tip: if you really want to sleep during pregnancy - sleep well! Rest every free minute, do not overload yourself.
The pregnancy hormone acts on the centers of thermoregulation (fever), depresses the psyche (unreasonable tearfulness, lethargy and drowsiness). He is also responsible for the relaxation of smooth muscles, which is extremely important during childbirth. But as a result of its actions, blood pressure decreases. This is one of the reasons for the appearance of drowsiness in early pregnancy. Hence the constant fatigue, the desire to crawl under the covers. Do not reproach yourself for laziness, do not look for reasons for a breakdown. This condition is the norm in the first three months of bearing a child.
When does drowsiness appear?
Contrary to popular belief, during pregnancy you do not want to sleep all the time, but only at the beginning (up to 12-16 weeks) and in the last trimester. In the interval, in the second trimester of pregnancy, drowsiness disappears, cheerfulness appears, a surge of energy. By this time, the foundation of the future life has already been laid, tuning and fine-tuning begins, requiring attentiveness and accuracy, but not so expending the mother's strength. A woman gets the opportunity to appreciate all the delights of her position, to enjoy her happiness, to dream about her future baby.
The second peak of drowsiness occurs in the third trimester of pregnancy. At about 36–37 weeks, serious preparation for labor begins. The body of a woman prepares itself and strengthens the baby for the most difficult and most important thing in life - birth. During childbirth, blood loss is inevitable, which means a breakdown in the mother's strength. The child will have to fight for life in the literal sense of the word. All this will require large reserves of energy. Therefore, in the last weeks, nature does not allow a woman to disperse her reserves, forcing her to sleep more. And this is the same norm as the desire to sleep at the initial stage of gestation.
What does constant sleepiness mean?
Normally, weakness and drowsiness during pregnancy disappear in the second trimester. If this does not happen, then the time has come to seriously take care of your condition. One of the reasons for turning into a "sleeping beauty" is often anemia. It is accompanied by:
- tingling or numbness of the extremities;
- deterioration of the skin condition (pallor, dryness);
- increased fragility and hair loss.
It is not enough to fight the symptoms with cosmetic procedures or massage. Iron preparations prescribed by a doctor after checking the blood for hemoglobin will help to cope with anemia.
Important! Do not take any medication without a doctor's prescription. An overdose of even harmless vitamins can adversely affect your condition.
In severe cases, when anemia is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, frequent headache, visual impairment, there is a risk of preeclampsia (late toxicosis). Gestosis is characterized by:
- high blood pressure;
- loss of protein in the urine
- sometimes convulsions.
Worst of all, these symptoms are optional. It is impossible to recognize the emergence of a danger to the mother and fetus on their own. To understand why during pregnancy you constantly want to sleep and whether this is due to poor health can only be done by a doctor after a thorough examination. It is not difficult to control pressure with the help of modern tonometers, even for people far from medicine, but this is all that can be done at home.
Important! Do not miss an appointment with a gynecologist, take all the tests on time and follow the doctor's prescriptions. is one of the leading causes of maternal death worldwide!
How to combine pregnancy and work
This is not an easy task, but for an organized woman she is quite capable. You cannot solve the problem alone. Enlist the support of your loved ones. A few tips to help you stay awake:
- be sure to walk in the fresh air (walk an extra stop on foot, forgetting that you need to rush home and cook dinner);
- replace active communication with friends in the evenings for a quiet rest in the comfort of your home;
- do not try to move mountains and redo all household chores for a short weekend (the business will not end anyway, but fatigue will remain);
- use every opportunity to sleep, announce to your family that you need extra rest;
- take a warm shower before bed, drink milk with honey (this will help you fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly all night);
- instead of the usual coffee or strong tea, drink juice in the morning (preferably freshly squeezed) and have breakfast with oatmeal, not a sandwich;
- at the workplace, triple your short breaks and airing (you can combine this with a light workout).
And most importantly - go to bed no later than ten o'clock in the evening, even if you used to stay up late. According to doctors, the strongest and most useful sleep falls on the interval from ten in the evening to one in the morning. In total, you need to sleep at least ten hours a day, and two of them can fall on daytime sleep.
How to help an expectant mother
In an ideal world, the attention of a pregnant woman should be directed only to herself and her well-being. In reality, work responsibilities, household chores and caring for loved ones do not disappear anywhere. And if it is not always possible to transfer work activities to employees, then household duties can be shared with your loved ones.
Unfortunately, in most cases, the woman bears the heavy burden of pregnancy on her own. And not because others are indifferent or inattentive. It is difficult for even the wisest man to understand why she constantly wants to sleep and evaluate her emotional state of a woman during pregnancy (what is there, she does not always understand herself!). The lack of mental and physical peace unsettles anyone, not only the expectant mother. And if we also remember about unresolved problems at work, the fear of childbirth, the inability to find a comfortable position when the baby begins to “box”, then what kind of restful sleep can we talk about?
No need to pretend to be an iron lady, talk to your family, ask for help, and accept it with gratitude. And it's better to do it before you fall completely exhausted. It's not only and not so much about your pride or independence. A sleepy mother is a threat to the health of the child. Chronic lack of sleep undermines the health of the mother, depriving her of strength and creating a danger to the baby.
