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For all those dads out there who’re thinking that caring for their baby hasn’t affected them as much as their wives, well, they’ve got another thing coming. Some studies suggest that dads lose more sleep in caring for their baby than the moms! Unbelievable, yes? Well, not quite.
A 2013 study on 21 couples who experience less sleep while looking after the infant concluded that dads get less sleep than moms. The couples wore wrist trackers to measure levels of sleepiness. The results indicated that while moms got more sleep than dads, it was usually a disturbed kind, and it was directly related to their feeding sessions. Both parents, felt equally tired during the first month postpartum than in the last month of pregnancy, but neurobehavioral testing concluded that moms scored worse than fathers due to intermittent awakenings.
This was not the first time when such a study was conducted. A 2004 study on 72 couples during the first postpartum month also followed suit by using wrist trackers, and the results were similar. The amount of sleep salvaged was recorded throughout the day. It appeared that mothers caught up with lost sleep during daytime while fathers were not able to do so.
There is always a partnership of sorts between parents- one makes up for the other, or they take turns. However the role of the non-birthing partner is also crucial and sadly it might be overlooked or not acknowledged by the birthing partner.
In a 2011 study that involved 21 new parents, it was found that the not recognizing sleep-deprivation is on both sides. While mothers believe that fathers sleep very well throughout, the fathers overestimate the disturbed mood that moms typically experience. In short both the partners have wrong notions about each other on how well the father slept or how moody the mother was.
A 2009 study suggests that there was a drastic declension in marital satisfaction during the transition into newly found parenthood. The ‘robust decline’ is directly associated with sleep deprivation and disruption following birth whereby more than mommies, it’s daddies who have bear the brunt.
It can very well be gleaned that most fathers have to work during the day, and battle the sleepiness at their desks while mothers could take a sabbatical and stay at home. It can be worse when a couple has twins born to them or if the mother has a C-section whereby her mobility is reduced for weeks on end.
Women folk might also want to make a note that a sleepy husband could invite dangers while driving to work! Insufficient sleep could also lead to irritability, lowered patience, high levels of stress, and all of these could be bad for the infant in how you attend to it. Sleep-deprivation is especially is harmful to those with a history of mental illness.
At the same time, men might think what their wives do all day long at while they hazily struggle at their workstations. Each one secretly has negative notions about the other– but husbands aren’t out there chilling out – besides the office load of work, they have the sleeplessness that puts them in the same boat. Honestly, it’s a silent battle between couples. And, the truth is neither of them is having fun out there. They are all equally robbed off their slumber and caring for the baby saps the life out of them.
