New Parents Face Six Years of Sleep Deprivation

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Starting a family is a well-known way to make a good night’s sleep a distant dream, but new research suggests the parental yawns might go on for six years.

Researchers tracking the sleep of thousands of men and women as their family size increased have found that shuteye hits a low about three months after birth – with the effect strongest in women.

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Strikingly, the team found the impact of the first child lingered for both parents. Even once the impact of subsequent children was taken into account, women were still relatively sleep deprived, both in terms of quality and quantity, four to six years after their first child’s birth. Overall sleep satisfaction was rated just over one point lower on average, while sleep duration was about 25 minutes less.

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The mothers also lost about 40 minutes of sleep a night in the year after a baby arrived compared with pre-pregnancy levels regardless of whether it was their first or a subsequent child.

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While similar trends were seen for fathers, the effects were less pronounced. Even at three months after their first child’s birth, fathers only lost 13 minutes of sleep.

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