American scientists have confirmed what we have always guessed about.
– I want to sleep, – I complain to my husband in the morning.
– What did you do at night? He raises an eyebrow skeptically.
– Didn’t you hear? The child woke up several times: now to drink, then to pee, then the blanket fell …
– No, I haven’t heard at all. Slept like a marmot.
Mommies will understand me: at that moment I really wanted to kill him.
And that was almost always the case. Nearby you can even arrange dancing with a tambourine. If dad wants to sleep, he sleeps. And he doesn’t care who is crawling on him, who throws pillows on him, and who jumps on his back from the back of the sofa.
– Doesn’t it all bother you? – I wondered.
Now I don’t need his answer. Scientists at the University of South Georgia answered for it. It is officially confirmed: the presence of children in the family does not affect the sleep of dads at all. Unlike mommies’ sleep.
“New research confirms what many women already know: they are sleep deprived,” begins a press release posted on the US university’s website ‘reassuringly’. “Living with children makes it difficult for moms to sleep, but not dads.”
Now about how it was found out. No super complicated experiments. A banal nationwide telephone survey. More than 5800 people answered two questions: how many hours they slept on average in the past month and how often they felt tired. In addition, the researchers analyzed gender, age, marital status, education, physical activity, number of children, and other factors that could cause chronic sleep deprivation.
“2908 women under 45 reported that the only factor that really influenced the quality and duration of their sleep was having children,” the researchers said. – And with each subsequent child in the family, the likelihood of a lack of sleep increased by 50 percent. Only 48 percent of women with children sleep seven or more hours at night. Whereas among the childless there are 62 percent. “
And if you didn’t get enough sleep at night, how do you feel all day? Especially if you run out of coffee at home. Yes, lethargy, fatigue and the inability to go about their business. Women with children admitted that they feel very tired literally every other day. Total, 14 days a month (11 – for childless. – Approx. WDay).
“I think our study will support moms feeling empty,” says Kelly Sullivan, Ph.D., American Academy of Neurology Fellow. Adequate sleep is important for overall health. In addition, its lack can affect the work of the heart and brain, as well as the weight of a person. It is important for us to understand what prevents people from resting so that we can help them feel better.
Well, there is understanding. But how scientists can help mothers with children in this situation is still a mystery.