How To Sleep Like Your Baby

People tell you that time goes by so fast with newborns. Not at 2am on a Tuesday, it doesn’t

I used to take pride in how well I slept. I’d scoff at the 36% of men who clock less than seven hours of sleep a night. Who are these people? I know now they’re mums and dads – like my wife Meghan and me, who spent months after the birth of our child waking up every two hours to his wails.

During this time warp, I called up Men’s Health sleep adviser Chris Winter, the author of The Sleep Solution and a father himself. ‘Most new parents don’t expect how much sleep they lose, not only when trying to get the baby back to sleep, but also when trying to get themselves back to sleep,’ Dr Winter says. ‘It’s usually because there’s no plan.

I call this “guerrilla sleep”.’

Dr Winter suggests dividing and conquering. ‘Agree “on” and “off” shifts, ideally of about seven hours every other night,’ he says. The “on” shifter stays in a spare room, apart from the “off” shifter, who’s only to be woken in case of emergency.

My son sleeps better now, though there are still nights of terror. But something in me has shifted. I no longer take as much pride in my own sleep as I do in my child’s. Don’t tell Meghan, but most nights I don’t mind a teethinginduced caterwaul at 2am. I can swoop in, scoop him up and soothe him until he rests his cheek against my chest.

As I try to return to sleep, I implement one of Dr Winter’s strategies: meditating on something calming. He suggests mentally mapping out some relaxing weekend activities, but I often think of my son, dreaming his dreams, and hope that

I’m a part of them.