No wonder we feel exhausted! New parents lose 44 DAYS of sleep in the first year of a child's life

Parents get just 5.1 hours of sleep per night in their first year

Night feeds, crying infants and waking up with worry were top reasons



Parents lose out on more than six weeks worth of sleep in a single year of caring for a newborn.

Night feeds, crying infants and waking up with worry were the top three reasons cited for losing out on sleep.

Insomnia and stacking up chores were also common problems that contributed to lack of sleep.



Parents are getting just 5.1 hours of sleep per night in the first year of their child's life

According to the new research i nto the sleeping habits of people from across the UK, parents are getting just 5.1 hours of sleep per night in the first year of their child's life.



This suggests that the average new parent loses 2.9 hours of sleep per night below the eight hours recommended minimum.



This equates to a sleep loss of 20.3 hours per week, making up 1,055.6 hours lost in the first year of a child's life - equivalent to 44 days.

Worrying about their baby's safety and tending to their needs came top of the reasons why

In the study of over 1,800 people, married respondents were also asked to estimate how many times they were awoken by their partner's snoring or bedtime habits in an average week.



The results showed that the average person is awoken by their partner more than twice a week, resulting in 109 wake-ups per year.

New parents' top reasons for sleepless nights

Night feeds - 62 per cent Baby crying/ waking - 57 per cent Worried about baby’s safety - 45 per cent Insomnia/ Trouble sleeping - 34 per cent

Used time when baby was sleeping to get chores done - 27 per cent



According to the research, carried out by Ergoflex, the average Briton sleeps for

2,847 hours every year - or 118 full days.

That equates to 26 years across their lifetime.

In the average year, this equates to



A spokesman for Ergoflex says: 'Sleeping is one of the most important elements of everyone's lives, so we wanted to take a good look at sleeping by numbers - how much sleep we rack up in a lifetime, how good our sleep is and generally what our sleeping experiences are as a nation.



'It was incredibly interesting to see how everything adds up. While we all know that we sleep for a large portion of our lives, 26 years is an incredibly long time - as is losing 44 days of sleep in the first year of being a parent.'

'Good quality sleep is vital to ensuring we're enabling our minds and bodies to rest and rejuvenate; ultimately providing the foundation for a healthy life.