A study titled “Long-term effects of pregnancy and childbirth on sleep satisfaction and duration of first-time and experienced mothers and fathers” was published in Journal Sleep. The study focused on parents and the amount of sleep they were getting.
The study was done between 2008 and 2015. It included 2,541 women and 2,118 men in Germany who reported about the birth of their first, second, or third child.
The researchers found that sleep satisfaction and duration sharply declined with childbirth and reached a nadir during the first three months postpartum. Women were more strongly affected than men were.
Surprisingly, sleep satisfaction and duration did not fully recover for parents for up to six years after the birth of their first child. This was true for both women and men.
The researchers concluded:
Following the sharp decline in sleep satisfaction and duration in the first months postpartum, neither mothers’ nor fathers’ sleep fully recovers to prepregnancy levels up to 6 years after the birth of their first child.
Are you a parent who is feels completely exhausted? It is not your fault – and you are not alone. There are many parents who are as sleep deprived as you are.
The Guardian spoke with Cathy Finlay, an antenatal teacher with the National Childbirth Trust. She has advice for parents who need to mitigate the impact of disturbed sleep.
Don’t worry about non-essential jobs around the house. Accept help from family and friends when it is offered. She also advised parents to nap while the children were napping. She recommended that one parent could provide care for the children while the other rested for the “night shift” portion of parenting.
There is an important thing for sleep deprived parents to remember. The exhaustion and lack of sleep will not last forever!
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