Jessica Biel has a special trick for getting babies to sleep (and swears it works)

When you have a new baby in your life, one of the major topics of conversation and focus of obsession is sleep.

How precious little of it we're getting, how to get more of it, how much of it the baby needs – seriously; sleep is all most of us can think about in those hazy newborn days. And no wonder, really, as studies have suggested parents loose an average of two hours of sleep per night for the first five months, then one hour a night all the way up until baby turns two. So, you know, no wonder you feel knackered, mama! And when it comes to sleep deprivation, it turns out celebrity mamas are just like us. "Sleep deprivation is torture," Biel said during a recent event at her restaurant, Au Fudge. "I have a 3-year-old, and it's pretty common for him to not sleep through the night. The first six months, if you can sleep, sleep." Biel has previously discussed how hard the early days of parenthood were for her and husband Justin Timberlake. She also revealed how she used the methods described by paediatrician Dr Harvey Karp, in his book 'The Happiest Baby on the Block.' After a friend gave her a copy of Karp's book, the actress and mother-of-one found a lot of success using Karp's "Five S's": swaddling, side, shushing, swinging, and sucking. "I would go through the list of the five Ss, and just check. Tried that. Okay, not that one. Not that one. Oh, that one. In an hour, it's different, or maybe you start to see a pattern," she says. And also, mama – remember, it's OK to admit that this is hard, and we're glad Biel is doing just that.