Your baby is 18 months old and does not sleep through the night? And you only dream of one thing:to regain your quality of pre-baby sleep? Rest assured, you are not alone. A study published in January 2019 in the journal Sleep has looked into the issue and even believes that the arrival of a baby in a home can disrupt the sleep of new parents until the child is six years old. And this is not only valid with the first child. The worst moment according to the researchers? 3 months after the birth of the child(ren). This is not going to reassure future parents!
The researchers interviewed a large panel of women and men (more than 4,000 in total) in Germany between 2008 and 2015, to determine the impact of the arrival of a child on the sleep of its parents. Verdict? If the satisfaction related to sleep increases with the child's age, it would seem that it never equals that felt before the child's arrival, at least until the child is 6 years old (l the study does not go further, the researchers cannot comment on a possible end date). Indeed, the child can sleep quickly, but get up, cry or be sick during the night, which means that the parents never really sleep soundly. The amount of sleep is also impacted, but this affects women more than men (and it is not only related to the possible choice to breastfeed…).
Having a child changes the life of a couple forever. We lose quality of sleep, but we gain one (or more) little being(s) to love... It's all a matter of perspective!
