Photo: Getty
Sweet dreams, new parents — if you can.
A new study claims that first-time moms’ and dads’ sleep schedules will take up to six years to return to normal following the birth of their child.
Thestudy was published Mondayand comes from researchers at the University of Warwick, who tracked the sleep patterns of 4,659 parents who had a child between 2008 and 2015.
Research found that in the first three months after giving birth, mothers slept an average of one hour less than they did before they welcomed their newborn, while fathers lost 15 minutes of sleep on average.
Getty
But even four to six years later, mothers were still averaging 20 minutes less sleep than their pre-parent days. Fathers’ sleep duration, meanwhile, stayed the same at just 15 minutes less, according to the study.
“Women tend to experience more sleep disruption than men after the birth of a child reflecting that mothers are still more often in the role of the primary caregiver than fathers,” Dr. Sakari Lemola of the University of Warwick’s Department of Psychology said, according toScience Daily.
RELATED VIDEO:Andy CohenSays Being a New Dad to Son Benjamin Is a “Dream” but Jokes “Sleep Is Another Story”
Factors such as household income andwhether the mother or father was a single parentdid not appear to have an impact on the results, according to the study.
“It’s normal and necessary for a newborn to be up every two to three hours — that doesn’t make for a good night’s rest for adults,” PEOPLE’s Health Squad pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Murray toldPEOPLE in August.
source: people.com
