A mum hasn't had a full night's sleep in six years over her decision not to sleep train her children.
Ami Mistry, 41, has three children; Harriet, six, Tilly, four and Alfie, one - but only her eldest sleeps through the night, meaning she's up at all hours tending to them.
Ami doesn't agree with sleep training methods, like letting your kids 'cry it out,' as she worries that it makes children "incredibly stressed" if they're left to self-soothe during the night.
"I want to parent them all the time, rather than just during the day," she told MyLondon.
However, this comes at a price.
Ami's husband is a surgeon in the NHS and needs to ensure he gets as much sleep as possible, and while she said he did try to help with their first child, they soon realised it wasn't an option for him to be sleep-deprived.
For more of the news you care about, straight to your inbox, sign up for one of our daily newsletters here.
This meant the responsibility fell on A-Level maths teacher Ami to do all of the nighttime care.
"It's absolutely exhausting," she said.
"They've never slept particularly well, to be honest, but at the moment the main trouble is my 17-month-old: if there were four wake-ups a night that would be a spectacular night.
"He's up quite frequently, sometimes it's every half an hour - he doesn't stay up for too long, usually, sometimes it's up to 20 minutes, or occasionally he might be up for a couple of hours through the night."
Ami said that she tried to sleep train with her second child Tilly, "but it was awful."
"I read up on wake times and tried to go with the flow, but it was awful," she said.
"She was a terrible sleeper, she cried, she had some allergies which we didn't realise until she was about six months old. I was absolutely exhausted with her - she'd fall asleep and then five minutes later she'd start screaming. It was horrific.
"I'd worry more throughout the night, thinking: 'If I fall back asleep she's just going to wake me up again, I'm not going to get any sleep'. I'd end up, sometimes, being awake the entire night.
"She didn't start sleeping through until she was about three, and I just accepted that this is what it's going to be like, so I became a bit more relaxed about the whole thing," Ami added.
"[With my youngest], if he's going to sleep that would be a bonus, but I'm not really expecting him to sleep through until he's at least two and a half."
Until then, Ami claims the Power Up' brain health supplement - a blend of 22 ingredients - which she's developed as part of her business, Supermum, has helped her live a fuller life while sleep-deprived from caring for three little ones.
Dr Clare Morrison, a GP and medical consultant at MedExpress who has over 25 years of experience in the NHS acknowledged how hard it is for parents with young children to get a good night's sleep, but she stressed the importance of it.
"The consequences of sleep deprivation include brain fog, immunity and heart problems, but the most useful way to combat these problems is to focus on getting a good night's sleep," she said.
"No remedy will compensate for a lack of sleep, and sleep is vitally important for both physical and mental health."
Dr Morrison recommends trying to sleep when the baby sleeps, even if that means taking daytime naps and going to bed early.
"Try to enlist help from others, and don't lie awake worrying that you won't hear the baby cry," she added.
Have you got a story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email us at yourmirror@mirror.co.uk
