My best sleep memories as a dad were the mid-day naps I’d take with my youngest daughter six, seven and eight years ago.
Her older sister had started full day kindergarten, leaving just the two of us and our sleepy orange tabby cat at home every day.
After lunch, after the dishes were done and she’d washed her face and hands, we would pick out a book or ten and snuggle up on top of my crisply made king bed. I’d start to read and immediately get tired eyes and become warbly voiced, especially if the sun was shining warm through the blinds that desperately needed a dusting.
Her and I were there on the comforter each weekday afternoon. We made my tattered green and yellow woven baby blanket bigger than it is so it would cover most of both of us as we dozed off together with Tilly the cat nestled between. The house was statue still and absolutely silent save for nasally purring letting us two know, as we drifted away to dreamland, that we’re awash in joy.
These are without a doubt my most glorious memories from that time. I miss those snuggly day-sleeps dearly.
Sleep has never been a problem for me, even during the baby years of parenting. I never complained of being tired then and I don’t share parenting memes about being tired now. Babies cry and they need to eat during the night, that’s just part of the deal. Cats on the other hand, grrr. Why are they always hungry at 3am?
I am an early riser. Much of my morning productivity has its roots in a great night’s sleep but I’ve never before monitored my sleep. Frankly, I never knew it was possible to do so without wires and sticky tape on foreheads (my wife has a seizure disorder so we’ve been down the clinical sleep study path).
Enter the Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor: nothing to wear, nothing to charge, nothing to disrupt the sleep you will be tracking via the gorgeously designed Sleeptracker app and the sleek as silk monitors you slide discreetly between your mattress and foundation/frame.
While you make your 3rd cup of coffee around 10am and debate whether or not to eat the last donut in the breakroom, you’ll get your Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor notification. Included are graphs, figures and intel centered around your ratio of deep to light sleep, # of times you woke up, heart rate, breathing rate and so much more, all designed to give you the lowdown on how down and out you were last night.
Kind of like the way I used to eagerly check my fantasy baseball lineup every morning – hello, stat nerd here! — I’m excited to see my sleep stats. So far they have been spot on — I did indeed wake up just once last night, around 5am, to pee. My deep sleep is indeed a good % of my total sleep, and I have been waking up every day this week feeling ready to rock-n-roll.
Also provided in the daily sleep report via the app on your phone are tips for improving your sleep so that maybe you won’t need that third cup o’ joe tomorrow. And no, you definitely shouldn’t eat the donut.
That’s not the product talking, that’s me, the good birdie on your shoulder.
Walk. Away. From. The. Donut.
The Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor is a brilliantly executed piece of technology but it is simply unable to feed your cats in the dead of night and no matter how strikingly beautiful the packaging is, it cannot bring back those sunny day naps with your youngest daughter.
You will, however, quietly begin to discover how well you are or are not sleeping and subtly learn actionable ways to get more and better rest at night. The Beautyrest Sleeptracker monitor will offer tips for you to wake up feeling more rested as you and your kids make new sun-kissed memories together that you’ll cherish for the rest of your days.
I have partnered with Life of Dad and Beautyrest for this campaign. All my opinions expressed above are honest and unbiased, as always. I do miss those naps so much and you absolutely should avoid that last one and most all donuts you encounter.
