”Doctor, please save my wife and child!” One morning, I was seeing an outpatient when a middle-aged man suddenly barged in, pleading with me as soon as he entered the door. ”Don’t panic, tell me about your wife’s condition first!” Seeing that he was in such a hurry, I had to put my hands on the work first in order to get an overview of what was going on. After a preliminary understanding, I learned that the man’s wife just a month after giving birth, probably due to the first mother, coupled with the child and more eventful, resulting in nearly a month basically did not sleep peacefully, but considering the sleeping one to affect breastfeeding, the second afraid that they take drugs to sleep and neglect the child, so have not dared to take. But other than that, I can’t think of any other way, so I’ve been putting it off again and again, and now I’m so exhausted that I feel like I can’t hold on anymore. So I had to seek help from a doctor. Considering that the patient’s condition was not very critical, I suggested that the man go through the normal procedure of registering for a consultation. After some explanation and consolation, the man accepted my suggestion. ? ”Your husband said that you have not been sleeping well for the last 1 month, is that correct?” When it was the man’s wife’s turn – Xiao Yue (a pseudonym), I asked with concern. ”Doctor, it’s not that I can’t sleep, but I don’t have time to sleep. My child cries a lot at night, asking for milk one minute and urine and stool the next. As soon as he moves, I wake up immediately. After I wake up, it’s hard to go back to sleep, and I’m always worried that something will happen to him later.” Compared to her husband, Xiaoyue was much more calm when reporting her condition. ”Do you have time to sleep during the day?” I continued to ask. ”I’m even busier during the day! Because my husband works during the day, I am the only one left at home. In addition to taking care of the children, I also have to take care of a lot of household chores!” From the tone of Xiaoyue’s voice, I could see her helplessness. ”Are there no old people at home who can help?” ”No, really. You see, my parents are busy helping my brother take care of the kids these days. My parents-in-law are very old and not well, so if they come, I still have to take care of them.” Said here, Xiao Yue’s eyes were flooded with tears. ”Then have you considered asking your husband to work shifts with you at night?” I tried to help Xiaoyue find a solution. ”It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, but my husband is a dead sleeper, so it would take a lot of effort to wake him up in the middle of the night. More importantly, he is driving, I am afraid that he is sleep-deprived, driving during the day what accident. So I couldn’t bear to wake him up.” From Xiaoyue’s words, we can see that the young couple is still very affectionate. ”So! ……” I was actually speechless for a moment. ”Doctor, in a case like mine, is there any other solution?” Xiaoyue seemed to feel a bit desperate. ”As the saying goes, there is always a way out.” I hastened to comfort. ”Considering your current situation, sleeping soundly for a long time like a normal person is indeed unrealistic for you. But you can sleep in segments, that is, naps.” ”How to take a nap?” Koyuki was surprised by this new term. ”By napping, I mean sleeping for only 1-2 hours at a time, or even half an hour.” I explained. ”Does that work?” Koyuki seemed even more puzzled. ”Of course it works, and it has long been no rule of thumb. Although naps cannot replace normal sleep, several studies have shown that naps can help individuals regain strength as quickly as possible, improve work and study efficiency, enhance memory, and also protect the heart.” ”How does napping work?” Xiaoyue still did not understand. ”There are three kinds of naps, one for preventive naps, such as you worry about getting up often at night and not enough sleep, you can choose to sleep 1-2 hours at 9 pm before your husband is still asleep; another for habitual naps, that is, naps on time every day, such as after lunch, and after putting the children to sleep. You can also nap for a while; the last is the acute nap, such as you stay up late last night, the next morning you are sleepy, at this time you can put the child in the stroller, as long as to ensure that he does not have any accidents, regardless of whether he is playing well or sleeping alone, you take the opportunity to nap for a moment, than you open your eyes and hard to hold on.” ”Is this going to work?” Xiaoyue is still half-hearted. ”It will work. You have to know that many national leaders or business executives, they are also as busy as you are in a day, rarely have time to sleep like a normal person to wake up naturally. But you see them as well as the spirit of the work and not the slightest bit of tiredness. The secret is to take a nap, that is, to make full use of the time gap to rest in the car or on the plane, etc.” ”Doctor, is there any other place I should pay attention to?” Xiao Yue was still not very reassured. ”As for you, the biggest problem is that you are a first-time mother, one is inexperienced and the other is too nervous, and the latter is directly related to the former. Therefore, in the process of parenting, you should be good at summing up, on the one hand, to train and cultivate good habits of work and rest, on the other hand, to figure out the message sent by the child’s crying. We often say that children cry for these reasons: one is hungry, want to eat milk; two is defecation; three is bored; four is not feeling well. If you know these rules well, you will be able to take care of them without panic. On the contrary, if you are too nervous and anxious, you will inadvertently transmit this anxiety to your child, who will also become irritable and restless, and his irritability will in turn aggravate your anxiety, thus falling into a vicious circle.” ”Doctor, what you said is very true!” Xiaoyue was slightly impressed. ”No one is born to be a good mother. The key is to keep learning in practice and to keep summarizing. For now, the most urgent task is to learn to choose a sleep style that suits you according to your child’s habits.” I concluded with a summary. …… 1 month later, Xiao Yue came to the clinic again. But this time she wanted to tell me that she was no longer bothered by sleep.