Kalki Koechlin sends out a wake-up call about sleep deprivation among new moms

Social media has empowered people to have free flowing conversations about subjects that were once taken for granted. Sleep deprivation, and its physical and mental health effects among new mothers, is one such subject. Actor Kalki Koechlin, who keeps sharing nuggets of her motherhood journey on Instagram, has proudly taken the baton to spark more conversation around it.

Kalki, who became a mother to a baby girl named Sappho with her boyfriend Guy Hershberg, recently took to the social media platform to share a poignant post. She raised concern around the health hazards that come with the lack of sleep and irregular sleep patterns. These become a part of parcel of the early years of motherhood.

Little post on sleep deprivation

In her post, Kalki set the record straight: “Sleep deprivation is no joke. It is truly mentally and physically debilitating.”

Expressing “no wonder” that it is used as a form of torture all over the world, Kalki added, “New mothers can really relate to sleep deprivation. It can make us feel tired and lost and hopeless.”

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Her note comes just days ahead of the World Mental Health Day. It was accompanied by a video montage of her personal pictures. These are moments from her first trimester naps, second trimester naps, third trimester naps, labour naps, ‘I can’t do this naps’ to her sleep pattern in the post-delivery phase.

Her “bliss naps” turn to “just gonna close my eyes for a second naps” to “Sleep, I love you, don’t ever leave me…” to “please go to sleep before I do naps”. While giving a peek into the bliss she experiences upon spending time and sleeping with her little daughter, Kalki also highlights how nap time can sometimes even last only three and half minutes for a new mom.

Check out her Instagram post here!

The physical and mental exhaustion that comes with parenting is real, ladies.

According to the US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health, postpartum women sleep less during the early weeks following delivery than during pregnancy and other periods of reproductive age. At the same time, these women have an increased risk of depression.

Also Read: Did you know your nutrition intake can dictate the quality of your sleep?

What can sleep deprivation do?

• It can cause daytime sleepiness
• It can lead to cognitive deficits
• It may make you feel fatigued
• It can cause irritability
• It can lead to anxiety

Kalki, who is also has some words of wisdom to deal with sleep deprivation. And she hopes it can help women to “find the moments (for naps) and slip into them blissfully”.

“Those around can help by taking over tasks in the domestic realm or with the baby, so she (the baby) feels confident to switch off sometimes,” added the actor, who has written more about the issue in her book ‘The Elephant in the Womb’.