If anyone can talk to you about how difficult it is to sleep well when there are children at home, are the mothers and fathers. When we have children for the first time, we realize how exhausting this new stage is in our lives, but it turns out that it is not the same for everyone.
A recent study based on a telephone survey confirms that living with children is exhausting, yes. But only for mothers.
According to this new study conducted by the American Academy of Neurology and the University of South Georgia, having children can create more havoc in women's sleep schedules than in men's.
A survey was carried out by telephone to 5,805 people in the United States, in which they were asked how many hours they slept, considering that 7 to 8 hours was somewhat optimal and less than 6 hours as insufficient. They were also asked how many days they had felt tired during the last month, as well as basic information such as age, race, income, marital status, body mass index, exercise habits, employment status and the number of children, among other things. These last data were taken into account because possible factors related to sleep deprivation.
Among the 2,908 women 45 years of age or younger who participated in the study, it was found that the only factor associated with getting enough sleep was having children at home. With each child they had, the probability of having an insufficient amount of sleep increased to almost 50%..
For women under 45, 48% of those who had children said they slept at least six hours a day, compared with 62% of those without children.
The research not only found that living with children was related to the number of hours women sleep, but it is also related to how often they feel tired. Women with children said they felt tired 14 days a month, while women without children only felt tired 11 days.
Instead, it was found that men are not affected at all for their sleep hours whether or not there are children at home.
Come on, this does not surprise us because although parents are more and more involved in the upbringing and care of their children, in the majority of households the mothers remain primarily responsible for them.
But why didn't fathers sleep less than mothers?
A few months ago Armando wrote an article telling us the results of a study published in the book "The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child's First Four Years"by Tara Haelle and Emily Willingham.
It mentioned that if they were counted 24 hours a day, recent fathers slept less than mothers. How is this? Very simple: most parents sleep at night and go to work during the day. On the other hand, mothers, who stay at home taking advantage of maternity leave, and can take a nap next to the baby. This is how adding up the hours, mothers sleep more hours in total than fathers.
And then, who sleeps the most?
In my opinion, rather than saying who sleeps more or who sleeps less, it is a question about who sleeps better.
In the results of the most recent survey conducted by telephone, it is not specified whether only nighttime sleep hours are taken into account and possible naps are excluded or if the six hours that women with children say they sleep is the total sum of Sleeping hours in 24 hours.
But in the results of the study published by Armando, there is talk that although mothers sleep longer, their sleep hours are more fragmented than those of parents. Which makes a lot of sense because although there are parents who also get up at night to care for their children, it is women who primarily do it. Either because we get used to doing it during maternity leave and we continue to do it even if it's over or because there are things that only mothers can give to babies, such as the breast, for example.
The latter would explain why mothers, despite sleeping six hours, they feel tired more days Than women without children. Being sleeping to wake up in a short time and repeat it several times during the night, we do not get to have that restful sleep so necessary to feel rested. That is why many mothers and fathers wake up, we felt that we could sleep another eight hours more.
It is also worth mentioning that the study that states that fathers sleep less than mothers speaks specifically of recent fathers, that is, those who have a month-old baby, while that of the telephone survey does not specify the age of the children.
In the end, I think we can all agree that mothers are the ones who resent the arrival of their children when it comes to sleep and that's why we feel so tired most of the time.
