29 | I Googled How Long Until Sleep Deprivation Could Kill Me | Natalie | IVF, Postnatal Anxiety, Epilepsy & Sleep Training

I googled how long until sleep deprivation could kill me.

Natalie spent three years trying to become a mum through unexplained infertility and IVF. Then her husband's epilepsy meant that after their son Arlo was born, she had to survive every single night alone, because for him, sleep deprivation isn't just exhausting, it's medically dangerous.

Arlo wasn't sleeping. Ten, sometimes eleven times a night he would wake. Natalie was diagnosed with postnatal anxiety, started counselling through the Gidget Foundation, and still found herself Googling how long a person can survive on almost no sleep, genuinely afraid of the answer.

In this episode, Natalie shares what it actually took to get help, why she turned down three personally recommended sleep consultants and went with her gut instead, what the first night of sleep training looked like when her husband physically could not be in the room, and how her marriage was tested under the weight of resentment neither of them wanted to feel.

This episode explores:

• Unexplained infertility and IVF
• High risk pregnancy and gestational diabetes
• Emergency c-section and birth trauma
• Postnatal anxiety and postpartum mental health
• Epilepsy and sleep deprivation risk in a partner

• Frequent night waking and contact napping
• Sleep training when one parent can't help
• Modified Ferber and space soothing

• Gidget Foundation counselling and perinatal support
• Resentment and relationship strain in early parenthood

If you've ever felt like the only person carrying the night alone, or wondered if you're the only one who's googled something that dark, this conversation will change how alone you feel.

To learn more about today's episode follow us at @awakeat3am.podcast and @sophiassleepschool for more real stories of motherhood, sleep and survival.