Mother May I...Sleep?  Valerie R.
Hometown: Waltham, MA
Life before Zeo
For new moms, sleep is always an issue. It’s a huge issue and it’s not just about you. It’s about your whole family, and if you work it’s about your work performance, I mean it really sort of dominoes to everything. It really makes a difference on people’s health and outlook and ability to function. I don’t think I was necessarily a bad sleeper but I don’t think I paid the sort of attention to it or really viewed it as something I had the ability to control or to do something about. You’re just so busy and there’s always something going on and there’s always something else to be done and if something has to give it tends to be your sleep. So you make accommodations around your sleep and then you pay for it later. I had a tendency to do things before I went to sleep that may be more stimulating. I had a tendency to use that time to worry and to think through things and to try to think ahead. This state of thinking and wondering will keep you from sleeping. [Some people can get by without much sleep]. I’ve never been that kind of person. I don’t think clearly. I can’t focus on things. I don’t feel good even physically. I just have a hard time getting through a regular day without a certain amount of sleep. And it was affecting everything… from how I physically felt to how I got along with my family, to how much patience I had. There’s a lot going on around a new baby and it’s just, it was really trying for me. Doubts & Fears
I don’t know if I expected it would help me. I hoped that it might be able to help me. But before I started using Zeo I didn’t really have a good expectation of what would happen. I hoped that it would be able to help me but I had tried other things in the past and found them not to be necessarily helpful. I was a little bit skeptical and until I actually started using Zeo and seeing how you get the data and getting the emails and sort of participating in the process, I don’t think I was really able to see what value there could be. The Zeo Experience
I started using Zeo when I was on maternity leave with my second child, my daughter Grace. To me it was even more important to try to control as many of the things affecting my sleep as possible because you can’t control an infant. You want to make sure that what sleep you get is the best sleep possible - that you’re not wasting any of the time that you could be sleeping and that you’re not missing out on better quality sleep. Zeo definitely motivates you to make the changes you need. And I think that the proof was in the pudding. Once I started to try certain things, and saw that my score actually did change, that motivated me to pay more attention to the coaching emails. If you had asked me before Zeo, I would have said caffeine doesn’t bother me from sleeping because I am accustomed to it. But its funny, the coaching program talks about food and drink and what you shouldn’t have before bed. And actually it did make a small difference if I had coffee later in the day. Subjectively it didn’t feel like it did, but it’s interesting to see that caffeine really did have an effect. One thing that I most enjoyed and continue to use is what Zeo calls the “power down hour,” taking a block of time before you go to sleep to really relax and mentally wind down. With small children, once they’re asleep, there’s a temptation to think, “this is the perfect time for me to go downstairs to pay some bills and clean the kitchen.” It’s possible to do that but you can actually see what it costs you in terms of the quality and quantity of your sleep to make that kind of a decision. And for me, being able to see a real sort of result makes it easier for me to say, “I’m not going to do that.” I think Zeo catches you. It’s almost like if you’re on a diet and you slide from your good habits and then you step on the scale and see that you’ve gained weight. You can easily not do the things you know you ought to be doing in order to sleep well, but then when you see your ZQ score drop, it motivates you to put yourself back on to the plan. Even my husband has changed due to my Zeo. In the morning, when we’d wake up, my husband would say, “what did you get?” And if I said, “oh, I got a 60 or a 65,” he said, “oh, that’s great.” But if I said I got a 42, he’d say, “today I’ll take [the baby] downstairs and let you get more sleep.” Because of Zeo, there was an actual quantitative number that I could point to instead of just saying “I feel tired,” and sound as if I was moaning and groaning about it.
Life After Zeo
I think that Zeo has changed my life in that it has helped me to actually sleep better and make clear to me that I can have some effect on the quantity and quality of my sleep, even with a small child.
They say: “that’s what happens, you have a baby and you don’t sleep.” The temptation is to throw up your hands and say, “well in three years I’ll sleep again.” But realistically, there are some things that you can do that have an affect and that was a big deal for Zeo to help me to feel there was something I could do.
Zeo would be an excellent tool for a new mother just because they are concerned about a lack of sleep and it’s effect on their relationship with their new baby. There’s so much stress at that point of your life, that to get a good night sleep really is an important thing and Zeo is a tool that you can really maximize the sleep that you’re going to be able to get. You’re still going to have sleepless nights and things you can’t do anything about because of your baby, but what you can control, it can help you to control. And that’s huge. I do think I’m a better mother because of Zeo. Because I’m not as sleep deprived, I’m really able to enjoy my baby. I love it.
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