Everyone needs sleep. Parents more than most.
(Well, air traffic controllers more than most, probably, and, soldiers and doctors and stuff too. But parents are definitely on the list. Especially parents who happen to be military doctors turned air traffic controllers!)
We’re tired. And that’s just the way it is and always will be.
We never get enough sleep, but what if there’s a way to improve the sleep we do get?
As you know, I have a 6-year-old and a baby. Sleep is but a fantasy for me.
The 6-year-old sleeps through the night, and the baby has his moments but is still finding his groove. It will probably be a while before my nights aren’t consistently interrupted, and even then, I suspect the two jerks will continue to wake me up way earlier than I’d prefer. By the time Detective Munch is independent enough to leave me alone, The Hammer will surely be picking up the slack. It’s one of the downsides of the bigger age gap.
So when I got the opportunity to work with Beautyrest and use their cool Sleeptracker monitor, it seemed like a great chance to find out if there is anything I could do to maximize the limited sleep I manage to piece together every night. Unfortunately, after a few weeks of using it, it turns out I’m already crushing the whole sleep thing!
Except not really. Because I barely get to use it.
The best part about this product is that I don’t have to wear anything or charge anything or really even do anything. I just plugged it into the wall and put it under my mattress and it started recording my sleep patterns. Unfortunately, I can’t be sure they’re actually my sleep patterns!
Detective Munch climbs in at least a few nights a week, and either I end up sleeping elsewhere (because he’s too big for all three of us to fit comfortably) or we’re both on the side of the mattress where the sensor sits. So the insane numbers the monitor is telling me I’m racking up – “Last night your total sleep was better than 98% of people like you!” – are a real slap in the face, because they aren’t indicative of my sleep. It’s recording him, and according to the easy-to-use app – which tells me how long I’ve slept, how much was deep sleep, light sleep, and REM sleep – the Detective sleeps like a rock!
They should change the saying from “slept like a baby” to “slept like a 6-year-old” because I have both and believe me, Detective Munch crushes his little brother in the sleeping competition. And thanks to the Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor, I have the sleep stats to prove it.
I can’t blame Beautyrest, I can only blame Detective Munch. And myself and Mom and Buried, for indulging his co-sleeping habit too often and now being stuck with the stealthy interloper multiple times a week.
The fact is, the Sleeptracker is doing it’s job and doing it well… it’s just doing it for the wrong person!
I now have a full accounting of the quality of my son’s sleep, and boy, is it top-notch! My 6-year-old is waking up well-rested after a night of deep sleep, and should be ready to conquer first grade every day!
If he doesn’t start pulling straight As (or straight check-pluses or whatever “grades” they give kids this young), Daddy is going to reclaim his bed – and his Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor – with a vengeance.
Disclosure: I have partnered with Life of Dad and Beautyrest for this campaign, but my opinions are my own, even if they don’t always make sense because holy wow am I tired!
