Sleeping like a baby is not all sweet dreams

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Sleeping like a baby is not as desirable as people think, according to a new study which finds Irish parents are getting fewer than four hours unbroken sleep per night.

Most have to get up three times during the night to tend to their children.

Three hours and 45 minutes was the average block of sleep managed by parents of babies up to nine months old.

The survey of 492 new parents was comissioned by Pampers, the nappy manufacturers. It found almost half the parents were desperate for sleep, which made one-in-five bad tempered and one-in-two tearful or emotional on a regular basis.

One-in-four said they became irritable with their partner while others admitted becoming forgetful due to lack of sleep.

The sleep deprivation only eased up when the baby reached six months old, and started to sleep through the night.

The survey found parents tended to keep the baby's cot in their own room for nine months. One-in Ten babies slept in their parents' bed two or three times every week, while slightly fewer did so every night.

Fewer than four-in-10 parents had an established bedtime routine. The most popular method of trying to get their baby to sleep was breast or bottle feeding, followed by cuddling, or using music. Classical music was the most popular followed by the traditional ''Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star''.







Irish Independent News



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