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Parenting

09th Nov 2019

Study says that dads get more sleep than mums and tell us something we don’t know

Trine Jensen-Burke

Feeling tired?

You are certainly not alone. It seems we are all wrecked.

At least more wrecked than our husbands and partners, if a new study is to be believed.

According to a study presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s recent meeting in Boston, women are sleeping less and less each year. And, wait for it – the reason behind this is simple: it’s because mums usually carry the most burden when it comes to taking care of the family, the children, and all of the household chores.

AKA we carry most of the mental burden our running a family.

And with so much to do each day, it’s no wonder that we sleep less than our spouses.

“Our study found not only are they not sleeping long enough, they also report feeling tired throughout the day,” said study author Kelly Sullivan, PhD, and member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Over 5,806 members, both men and women, participated in the research. And, unsurprisingly, perhaps, the team of researchers involved in the study found that more than half of women under the age of 45 are sleep deprived. The study also concluded that with each additional child in the family, the odds of a mother suffering from insufficient sleep almost doubled.

And apart from just feeling seriously spaced out from tiredness most of the time, the study is troubling, as another study from Duke University found that poor sleep is “associated with greater psychological distress and higher levels of biomarkers associated with elevated risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.”