Research
Parental sleep deprivation may last six years after birth
New research has found unexpected long-term changes in sleep patterns after the birth of a child.
It’s no surprise that having children disrupts parents’ sleep. More surprising is how long sleep deprivation lasts after the birth of a child.
The study from the University of Warwick was published in the peer-reviewed journal Sleep. Researchers carried out annual interviews with 4,659 people who had a child during the eight-year study period.
Women and men both reported drops in sleep length and quality after the birth of their first child. Neither parent’s sleep went back to pre-pregnancy levels even four to six years after giving birth.
The difference from pre-pregnancy sleep was most apparent three months after giving birth, when women reported sleep shorter by an average 62 minutes, and men by 13 minutes. The researchers said factors such as age, wealth and single parenthood did not make any difference to parents’ sleep time or satisfaction.
Breastfeeding did affect women’s sleep. Breastfeeding women slept on average 14 minutes less than women who didn’t breastfeed.
The researchers said the differences between sleep changes in men and women “may be associated with the observation that mothers, including working women, spend more time on household and child rearing tasks compared with fathers”.
They said “advice and support should be routinely given to new parents preparing for childbirth, towards managing sleep expectations and to encourage them to take precautions to reduce risks from the effects of sleep fragmentation and deprivation”.