It will take almost four hours before babies usually wake up and start crying, leading to single parents’ extreme sleep deprivation.
It is rather unsurprising the fact that single mothers are the most sleep-deprived US citizens, taking into account that they have to watch over their offspring constantly, without having a partner to switch to. This study was conducted by the US Center for Disease Control because sleep-depravity can cause serious health threats like diabetes, stress-related disorders, and cardiovascular illnesses, as well as a higher risk for traffic and workplace accidents.
While having a child younger than 18 years-old, 44% of single mothers suffer from sleep deprivation, while 38% of single fathers fall below the recommended 7-hour sleep period. This is most likely due to the fact that mothers are often more stressed by their offspring’s well-being in comparison to fathers, but this slight difference does not alter the numbers by a large margin.
Couples are not spared by this lack of sleep, but in their case, numbers fare a bit better, with only 33% of them not catching a good night’s rest. Families that do not live in the same home with their kids only portray a 31% chance, most likely due to how kids usually stay up late at night. But in the case of nuclear families, dads are the ones that suffer from sleep deprivation, with 34%, statistically higher than mothers’ 31%.
In regards to the ease in which one falls asleep, single parents are once again in the top of the leaderboards, with 17% of dads and 24% of moms encountering problems at least four times a week when attempting to go to sleep. This percentage is significantly lower for couples that live together with only 10% fathers and 14% moms respectively.
Staying asleep for more than four hours was also taken into account, with single parents rising to 28% for moms and 19% of fathers, joined by couples’ numbers marked at 21% and 13%.
But these numbers get somewhat switched when the idea of having a good night’s rest is applied to parents living with their kids. Couples having their offspring sleeping in their close vicinity had a higher chance of staying asleep when compared to mothers’ 24% and fathers’ 18% that do not live with their children. A reason for this may be the fear that something would happen to their children, even though this concept might be only on the subconscious level.
By not having a good rest, 52% of single moms and 40% of single dads were subjected to very groggy mornings around four times a week. This could eventually lead to health problems and work-related incidents, especially if the workplace is extremely taxing. In order to circumvent this, around 8% of couples and 7% of single parents took medicine that helped them sleep more soundly. Even if this method can bypass the lack of sleep, some medication may have adverse side-effects, as well as the risk of causing addiction, in some specific cases.
Even if single mothers are the most sleep-deprived US citizens, females overall have trouble sleeping in almost every circumstance, from all sides of the spectrum. A recent study has shown that sleep deprivation can even increase the risk of premature death, making this CDC study portray some rather grim numbers.
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