If you were to ask any parent what one of the biggest challenges they faced in life was, they would probably say it had to do with getting a good nights sleep. Let’s face it, children take a lot of energy and they have a lot more energy than their parents. Every parent is tired and there is really no way to get around it. We often try to convince ourselves that things are going to get easier once the children are older but the sleep still seems to remain elusive.
If you feel this way, you will be happy to know about a new study that talks about parents and how they typically face disrupted sleep for up to six years after the baby is born. One thing is likely, if you are a parent, you are nodding your head in agreement at this time. Science has now confirmed what all of us have known all along, parents are tired and it doesn’t end after the toddler years.
The University of Warwick conducted the sleep study. It showed that after the birth took place, the lack of sleep and the lower sleep satisfaction and duration did not get better until at least six years had passed. It may get a little better, but it doesn’t get to the point where it was before pregnancy occurred.
In order to conduct the study, 4,659 parents who had children between 2008-2015 were studied. During the years, the parents were asked to report on their sleep in annual interviews. For the first three months after the birth, mothers slept approximately one hour or less than they did before pregnancy. The fathers had sleep durations that dropped about 15 minutes.
This also tells us something that we already knew, mothers are getting less sleep than fathers. If you are shocked at this point, keep reading.
“Women tend to experience more sleep disruption than men after the birth of a child reflecting that mothers are still more often in the role of the primary caregiver than fathers,” says Dr. Sakari Lemola from the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick.
Before you say that it all involves feeding the children, it doesn’t get better after the children are weaned. Mothers of children who are between four and six years old sleep approximately 20 minutes less per night than they did during pre-pregnancy. Fathers are still at a similar time of about 15 minutes less.
The sleep effects tended to be more pronounced in first-time parents compared to those who are more ‘experienced’. The sleep effects in the first six months were also a little stronger in mothers who breastfed compared to those who bottle-fed.
Something that didn’t seem to play into the mix is the household income or psychosocial factors. That would include single parents versus dual parents or higher income levels. Those factors did not seem to have an impact on the changes in sleep patterns.
Dr. Lemola finished the study by saying something profound to new parents: “While having children is a major source of joy for most parents, it is possible that increased demands and responsibilities associated with the role as a parent lead to shorter sleep and decreased sleep quality even up to six years after birth of the first child.”