Achieving quality sleep can be challenging even in the best circumstances, but during pregnancy, as your baby grows, getting a good night’s sleep can become nearly impossible.

Tossing and turning, aching legs, and lower back pain can all interfere with your sleep. 

To understand how to sleep better while pregnant, it is first important to know why.

Why is Sleep So Hard During Pregnancy?

Your expanding stomach: As your baby grows, it exerts pressure on your uterus, making it difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position. Learning how to sleep during the third trimester is the hardest because of your baby’s increasing weight.

Body pain: As your center of gravity shifts, it puts pressure on your back muscles, leading to pain and discomfort that can easily interrupt your sleep. Leg cramps, restless legs syndrome, and discomfort from your baby’s movements all make sleep difficult.

Heartburn, indigestion, and shortness of breath: These issues tend to worsen when lying down, making sleep uncomfortable.

Frequent urination: The increase in blood volume and bladder pressure from the growing uterus leads to more frequent bathroom trips during the night.

Hormonal changes: The increase in both progesterone and estrogen can cause sleep disturbances, especially later in pregnancy.

Worry: As you progress, your worry and anxiety increase related to the health of your baby, childbirth, and the incredible changes that are about to take place in your life.

Increased body temperature: Your escalating hormone levels can also cause an increase in body temperature, making it uncomfortable to sleep soundly throughout the night.

The Second and Third Trimesters

The challenges intensify in the second and third trimesters as everything you experience becomes more intense, making it hard to find the best way to sleep during pregnancy in its final stages.

Top Pregnancy Sleep Aids that Moms Swear By

Understanding how to use pregnancy sleep aids and what works will turn a night of misery into a blissful, restful night’s rest.

6 Timeless pregnancy sleep aids that work

1. Full-Body Pillows: Full-body pillows, such as the Yana Pillow, provide total body comfort and support. They support your head, neck, hips, growing belly, and spine, prevent you from rolling onto your back, and do not require constant readjustment.

2. Wedges and other pillows: Elevating your legs and upper body with wedges or adjustable pillows helps maintain a neutral spine position, thereby alleviating back pain. Raising your legs also helps reduce swelling, leg cramps, and restless leg syndrome, alleviating the persistent pain that can keep you awake.

3. Pregnancy-Safe Herbal Teas: Natural sleep aids for pregnancy, such as chamomile or lemon balm tea, are excellent options for addressing insomnia. Always check with your doctor, though, before addressing insomnia during pregnancy solutions, like tea.

4. Sleep Hygiene Tips: Your sleep environment can also play a significant role in your quest for a restful night’s sleep. Be sure to lower the temperature of your bedroom; the ideal temperature during pregnancy is between 60°F and 67°F.

Additionally, consider using blackout curtains and maintaining a consistent bedtime routine whenever possible to improve your sleep.

5. Prenatal Yoga and Breathing Exercises: To promote improved sleeping while pregnant, remedies that incorporate stretching and breathing techniques offer stress relief and total body relaxation. 

A relaxed state before bedtime helps promote deeper sleep and makes it easier to fall asleep.

6. Warm baths, or magnesium Lotion: Two natural ways to improve sleep during pregnancy by addressing common sleep disruptors.

Warm baths: Warm water relaxes tense muscles and helps alleviate back pain, leg cramps, and general muscle aches associated with the increased weight of your baby. 

Baths also promote: stress reduction, improved circulation, soothe discomfort, and help you wind down, preparing the body for sleep.

Magnesium Lotion: Magnesium is a mineral that helps activate bodily functions, including muscle relaxation and nerve function, both of which are essential for a good night’s sleep. 

Topical application facilitates direct absorption into the skin, alleviating muscle tension and cramps while calming the nervous system, thereby contributing to a sense of tranquility and improved sleep quality.

These Mom-approved relaxation techniques are tried-and-true natural remedies that help you achieve the quality sleep you need for your health and the well-being of your growing baby.

There is no reason to toss and turn as you move through the three trimesters of your pregnancy.

Start with a Yana Body Pillow for the support you need for your neck, spine, stomach, and hips as your body changes and your baby grows.

We offer the right products that are healthy, customizable, and cooling to help you achieve a restful night’s sleep that will carry you through pregnancy and beyond. 

Additionally, they serve well as a nursing pillow, making the Yana Pillows your trusted companion.

Learn more about our products and their benefits at Yana Sleep!