New parents losing four hours sleep per night – study

Monday 4th February 2013

Parents of newborns lose an average of four hours sleep each night over the first year of the baby’s life - amounting to a massive 1450 hours over the course of twelve months – and 90% of parents are woken by their child crying, according to the results of a survey from Pampers. Wet nappies, hunger and teething are the typical reasons for night-time awakenings, with a greater frequency during the first year.

Sleep becomes such a key issue to parents over the first year of their baby’s lives that the point at which the child manages to go a whole night without waking up is viewed as one of the main developmental ‘milestones’, along with their first word.

Gender roles were also investigated in the study, and it was found that women remain the primary parent when it comes to bedtime duties, with just one in six couples sharing the job of putting the baby to bed.
 

Tags: sleep parents baby babies

Category: Sleep Research

< Back to blogs home