Stacey Solomon has revealed that her husband Joe Swash's absence while working abroad caused her stress levels to rise, particularly at night, during a recent podcast appearance where she wore a stress monitor for four days.
The 37-year-old former X Factor contestant, who has been in a relationship with the 44-year-old former EastEnders actor since the 2010s, discussed the findings with host Oli Patrick. Together, the couple raise five children: Zachary, Leighton, Rex, Rose, and Belle.
Stress Levels Rise When Joe Is Away
Describing a time when Joe was in Guatemala, South America, Stacey recalled how the anticipation of his return and his absence affected her. She said: "During the day I never feel stressed, but if I get to a point like the nighttime when I know that I need to sleep and I knew that day Joe was coming back from Guatemala, I was going straight to back to work to Manchester."
She added: "So I knew the next day I had to be even more on it, to go back to work and do the handover. Then, not being able to get the kids to sleep stresses me out because I'm already anticipating the next day and how I'm going to deal with that next day and that is the only time at night I might get stressed."
Relaxing When Joe Is Home
Stacey explained that when Joe is at home, she can relax because she knows he has the children covered. She said: "When Joe's home I can be like, 'Joe, I've got to go. I've got to go to bed. It's nine o'clock and I've got to leave at six in the morning'. Whereas, because I knew he wasn't there and I was doing the night feeds and then I was going straight back to work and he was coming back."
Speaking about Joe going away, Stacey said: "The control freak in me, I lost it."
Sleep as the Best Solution
As to how she copes, Stacey said her sleep solution was simple: "I think the best thing for me is to just to lay down and go to sleep. Even though it took me 90 minutes to get to sleep, it would have taken me longer to run a bath, put the oils in, do all that and then try and go to sleep after. I feel like sleep is the best present to myself."
