When
Moms Don’t Get
Enough Sleep ...

AND WHAT THEY
CAN DO ABOUT IT
BY PJ FEINSTEIN
I f you send a text message to Jamie Maier after
midnight, there’s a good chance she’ll respond
right away. Maier, a family law attorney in
Rockville, routinely stays up until 2:30 or 3 a.m.

despite knowing she’s going to be woken up
four short hours later by her five-year-old son and
almost three-year-old daughter.

Maier, 34, can deal with waking up grumpy and
surviving on coffee because staying up late is the only
way she can squeeze some much needed “me-time”
into her non-stop daily schedule. Between working
during the day and taking care of her family in the
evening, “I was truly catering to everyone else’s
needs and not my own,” she says. “I used to be cre-
ative, I used to have hobbies and I wasn’t doing any
of that anymore.”
After her husband goes to bed around 10 p.m.,
Maier indulges in “trash TV,” browses her favorite
shopping websites or makes beaded bracelets for
friends — her newest creative pursuit.

“Too many people, especially busy moms, think
they can get used to getting less sleep than they
need, but it doesn’t work that way,” says Terry
Cralle, RN, a certified clinical sleep educator and
28 WashingtonFAMILY JULY 2019
“Too many people,
especially busy
moms, think they
can get used to
getting less sleep
than they need, but
it doesn’t work
that way.”
­— TERRY CRALLE —