We all know that with the arrival of children there are many things that change in our style and pace of life. One that is definitely notorious in both parents, is the amount of rest that is obtained, which is quite reduced after becoming parents.
A recent investigation analyzed the sleeping habits of thousands of families in the United States, finding that the number of hours dedicated to the sleep and rest of fathers and mothers, varied according to the number of children they had. Do you guess who rests more?
The research, which is part of an extensive report about rest and lifestyle in the United States, and in which more than 31,600 families participated, found that the number of children affected the dream of fathers and mothers differently.
In Babies and more, how many hours of sleep have we lost since we were parents? A calculator tells usOne might think that, the more children they have, the lower the hours of rest that parents get. And although at the beginning and as the children arrive they seem to be decreasing, the report shows an interesting fact: the fathers and mothers of five children sleep more.
According to your results, the mothers who had one and five children are the ones who sleep the most hours, while those with three children, are those who obtained a smaller amount of rest hours. Thus the results vary according to the number of children:
- With a child, parents sleep on average 8.8 hours and mothers 9.0.
- With two children, the parents sleep on average 8.6 hours and the mothers 8.9.
- With three children, the parents sleep on average 8.6 hours and the mothers 8.8.
- With four children, the parents sleep on average 8.4 hours and the mothers 8.9.
- With five children, parents sleep on average 8.4 hours and mothers 9.0.
Within the total amount of rest that fathers and mothers obtained every 24 hours, were considered not only the hours of sleep that occur when sleeping at night, but also, those small moments during the day in which it was possible to take a small nap or even doze for a few minutes.
The researchers explain that although all fathers lose total hours of rest with the arrival of the children, in the case of those who have three children, the fact that they are less hours may be due to the fact that It is the first time that the number of children exceeds the number of parents.
On the other hand, in the case of mothers who had more children, the hours of rest probably increased again because of the arrival of the fifth child, families already had an established pace of life, making them feel more relaxed and put their rest as a priority.
In Babies and more Having children reduces quality of sleep for the next six years (and probably more) after the birth of the first childAs for the difference in hours between fathers and mothers, they explain that this is because Women need more rest because their brain is in multitasking mode more frequently and this naturally increases with the number of children, something that we had already explained a few months ago when we talked about the mental load and the invisible work that they do throughout the day.
