Parenting is the most rewarding job in the entire world but, gosh, is it exhausting – especially for us mums.

 

This is the finding of a new US study, which recently explored the sleeping habits of parents across the country.

 

The results were eye-opening: it emerged that the more children a woman has, the more sleep deprived she will be. Meanwhile, men’s sleep is not adversely affected by having children in the home.

 

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The study, to be presented at a major conference in Boston this week, examined data recorded from a national survey of 5,805 people.

 

Each participant was asked how long they slept for each night, as well as how many days they were left feeling tired during the previous month.

 

For the purposes of the study, seven to nine hours a night was considered the optimum amount of sleep; while less than six hours was considered insufficient.

 

 

When making their calculations, the researchers took the following factors into consideration: age, race, education, marital status, income, BMI, exercise, employment, snoring, and the number of children in the household.

 

Of the almost 3,000 women aged 45 and younger surveyed, the ONLY factor associated with getting enough sleep was having children in the house.

 

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, each child increases the odds of insufficient sleep by almost a whopping 50 percent!

 

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Of those mothers surveyed, 48 percent got less than seven hours’ sleep a night. Furthermore, young women with children reported feeling tired a staggering 14 days out of the month.

 

All factors taken into consideration, the study results revealed that men’s sleep was NOT affected by having children in the home.

 

Remember this the next time you're having an argument over who should get up for the midnight feed.

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