Have a baby - and lose 44 days of sleep a year
New parents get just 5.1 hours shut-eye a night
New baby equals knackered parents. And no wonder: the latest research shows new parents lose 2.9 hours of sleep a night – adding up to a yawnsome 44 lost 'sleep days' in their baby's first year.
In a study of 1800 people by mattress company Ergoflex, nearly two thirds of new parents said they regularly lose sleep because of night feeds, with nappy changes and stress keeping them up in the wee hours, too.
We asked parents on Made For Mums' Twitter and Facebook pages to share their sleep-deprived thoughts...
@K8JohnsonAuthor asked: "Is it 88 days with twins?"
@katylittlelady agreed with the findings: "I think it must be 44 days. Feels a bit like it today," she tweeted.
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But many more of you felt the same as @HardeepKRakkar who said: “It has to be more than 44 days!”
So, what can you do to improve your sleep situation? Prioritise sleep. Easier said than done, we know, but daytime napping and going to bed earlier can help. Enlist the help of friends or family: if you’ve got someone who can help you with your baby, so you can get to bed earlier, or even have a longer nap in the day, jump at the chance.
Or, if your older baby’s sleep pattern is erratic, you could try to get them into a routine.
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