“Practitioners need to be more aware of the relationship between sleep” and the mental health of new parents

Researchers at the University of Leeds found that the mental health of new and established parents is heavily contingent on getting enough sleep.

Through analysing sleep patterns, physical activity, mental health, and overall life satisfaction in couples aged 25 to 40, researchers found that meeting sleep guidelines is associated with better mental health and life satisfaction, especially for newborn parents. In comparison, physical activity was found to have little to no impact on the mental health of parents.

The NHS recommends that adults need 7 to 9 hours per night to feel refreshed on average. However, in contrast, the University of Leeds research determined that the vast majority of the 68 couples studied were getting well below the recommended number of hours to sleep.

New parents are often severely sleep deprived; while getting more sleep is often tricky, prioritising improvements in this area may be highly beneficial to their quality of life

The number of new and second-time parents achieving seven hours of sleep each night decreased significantly from birth to six months postpartum, with parents achieving an average of six hours and 20 minutes of sleep per night.

Parents of under-ones are more likely to be affected by deprivation in their sleep hours, with even small decreases in hours of quality sleep being shown to negatively impact their mental health.

Lead author Dr Alison Divine of the Faculty of Biological Sciences said: “What we have found is that reductions in sleep during the first year of parenthood negatively impact the mental health of parents, but small increases in sleep are associated with better mental health.”

“To see real change in this area, practitioners need to be more aware of the relationship between sleep and mental health in order to better educate new parents.”

“Most of the parents who took part in the study were missing out on the recommended sleep hours by one hour. Just by making a small improvement to their sleep hours, parents could benefit from a significant improvement to their mental health.”

“Whilst getting more sleep is easier said than done with a newborn baby, our study suggests that prioritising sleep health education for new parents will have a positive impact on their quality of life.”