Ep 8: Jess, Split Nights, Sleep Deprivation & The Sleep Advice She Regrets Following

In this episode of Awake at 3am, the tables turn.

Jess, usually the interviewer, shares her own experience of severe sleep deprivation, split nights, frequent night waking and the parenting decisions that still sit heavily with her years later.

After successfully sleep training her first daughter, Jess expected a similar experience with baby number two. Instead, she found herself navigating endless night wakes, conflicting sleep advice, multiple sleep consultants and a level of exhaustion that slowly eroded her confidence as a mum.

Like so many parents experiencing chronic sleep deprivation, she became desperate for answers. Desperate for sleep. Desperate to feel like herself again.

At one point, while following professional sleep advice she believed would finally solve their nights, Jess found herself listening to her baby cry for two and a half hours. It's a decision she still struggles to reconcile and one that shaped the way she thinks about baby sleep, sleep training and motherhood today.

This conversation explores what sleep deprivation really does to parents. The self-doubt. The mum guilt. The strain on relationships. The endless second-guessing. And the desperate decisions that can feel reasonable when you're surviving on broken sleep.

Most importantly, it's a reminder that struggling with your baby's sleep does not make you a bad parent and that even experienced parents can find themselves overwhelmed by frequent night waking and exhaustion.

In this episode we discuss:

• Split nights and frequent night waking

• Sleep deprivation and maternal mental health

• Sleep training and sleep consultant advice

• Mum guilt and parenting regret

• Baby sleep and infant sleep challenges

• Self-doubt in motherhood

• Broken sleep and exhausted parents

• Sleep associations and night waking

• The emotional impact of sleep deprivation

• Trusting your instincts as a parent

• Why every child is different

If you've ever searched for answers about split nights, frequent night waking, sleep deprivation, baby sleep, sleep training, exhausted mums, sleep consultants, maternal mental health or why your baby is awake for hours overnight, this episode is for you.

Follow @awakeat3am.podcast and @sophiassleepschool for more honest conversations about motherhood, sleep and survival.