New research conducted by London-based research firm Mintel reveals a new trend in parenting in which dads are more sleep deprived than moms due to their role in infant care.
The days of new mums missing out on precious sleep as they change their baby’s nappy while their partner snores at their side are officially over.
For the first time, more new dads than mums are getting out of bed in the middle of the night to change their tot’s nappies.
Seven in ten fathers of babies say they are up in the night changing nappies compared with less than two thirds of mums, the latest research shows.
An average of 67% of parents with babies and young children under the age of four change nappies at night. Of those 71% are fathers and 64%) of mothers.
Men are also reporting they are more sleep deprived than their other halves, with 43% of dads getting just four to six hours of sleep compared to 38% of mums. And 57% of mothers get seven hours or more of sleep a night compared to (54%) of dads.
While parents of young children are most likely (41%) to get around four to six hours sleep, babies and children are enjoying significantly more sleep than their parents, with nine in 10 (87%) children getting seven hours or more of sleep per night and half (47%) enjoying 10 hours of sleep or more.
You know, in my experience, men tend to feel like they are always more tired, more sick, more self sacrificing than women. I strongly question a study based on self reporting. Do it again using an objective tracking system. Also, it’s a rare baby that wakes up over and over for a new nappie. They want to be nursed, rocked, walked around. Based on my experience as the parent of babies, the terms used and the methods of measuring outcomes, I think this report is fishy.