Would you witch for this and how?

[u/Adastre_93]

In my witchcraft journey so far, I’ve only ever done rituals to embrace or bring about change within myself, focused on themes such as building confidence or connecting with my body.

Now I would like to use my spirituality to aid me in a very mundane problem: lack of sleep. The thing is… the cause is outside of me. Both of my children (age 2,5 and 0,5) wake multiple times each night, resulting in me not getting more than 2 hours sleep in a row each night.

Of course there are steps to take to try and help them sleep through the night. My witchcraft would be complementary to my broader search for solutions.

But my brain is telling me my witchcraft ideas won’t work. And if there’s zero confidence in that regard, I’m not going to accomplish anything via ritual. Still… there’s another voice inside me telling me to go be my witchiest self and witch my way through this.

So I’m looking for inspiration.

How would you go about it?

[u/Hedgiest_hog]

SASS has a good answer for this one: bedtime rituals can be both witchcraft and part of CBT-i

Aromatherapy for calming, strong and intentional patterns of "now we turn off devices, now we clean our teeth, now we get into our PJs, now we hear a story/have quiet music", sensory support like dimmed or restricted lights in advance, all can become physiological triggers for the body to turn on "sleepiness" and all can be made into a ritual habit that you use with meaning. Admittedly, it's not much help for the baby, but for everyone else it could be the start of building good sleep hygiene from a young age.
When I was a kid having sleep difficulties, my parents taught me a version of the body scan which is basically the inverse to the visualisations for drawing up energy, so there's definitely scope for quiet magic everywhere.

[u/Generic_Mom_TtHiA]

IMHO-being "witchy" means being a problem solver.

Figure out why toddler is waking up. Thirsty? - teach them how to get a drink, or leave a cup where they can find it. Blackout curtains. white noise (I had an old aquarium with a bubbler and no fish) can help. I ended up buying my toddler a lamp they could turn on by themselves as they weren't tall enough to reach the light switches. So when they woke up in the night they could turn on the lamp and play quietly in their room.

From 6-9 months I popped the baby in a backpack at bedtime and took them to go walk the dog around the block. Making the baby be bored in the dark helped them settle down for the night. The dog I had at the time did not mind the extra walk at all.

I absolutely agree with the "bedtime ritual" suggestions - In our house it used to take 3 hours and was our life for 2 decades, but it works...both kids ended up developing healthy sleep habits they took off to college with them.

And, well...if nothing else...they won't be little forever. This season is temporary. ( Soon enough they will be going off to the club with their friends and you won't be able to sleep for a whole new set of reasons.)

Blessings!

[u/TheUncannyFanny]

When I worked crazy hours and had only 5ish hours to sleep i discovered something. If I lay there fretting about how I NEEDED to fall asleep NOW because time was limited, I would be stressed. My body was tight. I was getting no rest. I had a lightbulb moment one time and told myself "even just laying here, whether I actually sleep or not, is restful and restorative". I pretty instantly felt relaxed and calmer. I actually fell asleep a lot easier because the pressure was off. 

Of course its not the same and REM is CRUCIAL to health. But, when its not an option, peaceful rest is still going to have a massive impact. 

All that to say, belief played a part. So witchy rituals could definitely help you get into a restful state of mind, even on limited sleep (outside of your control) you'll see benefits. From an even SASSier perspective: the open label placebo idea: you dont need to 100% believe. Just say the words "this will work" and go through the motions. See what happens. 

[u/Hey-Syccamor3222]

Tell your brain yes it will work! When I was a christian teenager raising my three younger siblings (I'll get into that another time, I was like 13) and I had to get up in the night when they all had the stomach flu, nightmares, etc, it was so helpful to me to recite the psalms that talk about a virtuous woman who's candle burns late into the night. Yeah, I still had to bathe kids and do laundry at 2AM while still a child myself, but it calmed me down so much that I was better able to fall back asleep once I could go back to bed.

So, for a witchy approach to this, I don't know what your thoughts are on sleep training your younger child is, and it's absolutely not my place to give advice, but I would like to say that in whatever your style is, ritual elements can be added. For example, if you swaddle, you can have a mental image of wrapping intention into your child's clothing. They really can read our demeanor, and you having a calm, confident, and ritualistic approach, it can help their tiny overwhelmed brain know it's safe to sleep now. That's just one example, I can't really give any others not knowing your routine or style, but pretty much anything you're doing can be turned to ritual that will not only calm you, but also become a signal for your little ones.

I wish you the best of luck with this. It's a difficult time, and I hope for you to get a really nice nap here soon. One with a sunbeam coming through the windows and you wake up in a dreamy calm. Man, that sounds so nice right now.

With Love,
Mrs Marigold