Sleep Like a Baby?

I’m sure you’ve heard that expression “I slept like a baby.” From what I’ve gathered that means that someone got a good nights rest with no interruptions. I’m almost positive that whoever came up with that expression never had a baby.

From my experience with babies, they wake up at night. A lot. They do not sleep 8-10 hours straight and then awake in the morning feeling rested and refreshed. No, in fact they do quite the opposite. They wake up every couple hours during the night and want to eat or need to be changed, and usually manage to wake everyone else in the house up too.

I think a more appropriate expression might be “I slept like a teenager in the summer.” But, then that would mean that you slept for at least 12- if not 14-hours straight, waking up after 1 p.m. Another good alternative might be “I slept like a college student last night.” But, between parties, classes, study groups and work college students average only 5-6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Maybe the expression works though for all the busy folks who catch their sleep whenever and where ever they can.

Joy Larson is a mother of four boys, graduate of The University of Montana, animal lover and writer.