Breastfeeding mums don't get less sleep! Myth Busted!

Rearch published this month in the European Journal of Paedatrics, by Dr Hawley Montgomery-Downs of West Virginia University, contradicts the myth that breastfeeding moms get less sleep.  Dr Hawley said:

"The results represent good information to be able to tell women; that not breastfeeding is not going to help you get better sleep.  There has been an "urban myth" that women who breastfeed get less sleep, which may cause some to hesitate to do so.  Indeed, babies digest breast milk faster than formula, the researcher said, so breastfed babies may need to be fed more often in the middle of the night."

When Montgomery-Downs and her colleagues asked 80 new mothers to report how often they woke up and how rested they felt, and to wear sensors that measured how long and efficiently they slept, they found Breastfeeding mothers slept just as long and felt just as rested.

This suggests that "there may be some kind of compensation" for breastfeeding mothers, Montgomery-Downs said in an interview.  "For instance, babies who breastfeed may wake up more (and wake up their parents more), but those nighttime feedings may have less of an impact than if they were drinking formula", she suggested. "In order to prepare a bottle, women often have to get up, turn on the lights, and move around quite a bit, all of which may make it harder for them to go back to sleep."

"Alternatively, when breastfeeding, women may be awake for shorter intervals, and be less active, which makes it easier for them to go back to sleep. Women who breastfeed also have higher levels of the hormone prolactin, which facilitates sleep," Montgomery-Downs noted. "And if the babies are sleeping next to the mothers, they may feed while the mother is sleeping, she added".

"Better sleep really is not a reason not to breastfeed," she concluded.

These findings are consistent with other recent evidence.  Several studies between 2004 and 2009 have indicted exclusive breastfeeding mothers got more sleep; three sets of parents have been studied: those that were exclusively breastfeeding, those that were breastfeeding AND formula feeding, and those who were feeding only formula.  Although, the exclusively breastfeeding mothers were awakened more times throughout the night than the other mothers, they still got an average of 40-45 minutes MORE sleep each night.

Not only did the breastfeeding mothers get more sleep, they got BETTER SLEEP. The studies showed that REM (rapid eye movement) sleep was similar within the groups, but the difference in slow-wave sleep (SWS) was remarkable. People who get less SWS report more day-time fatigue. Studies also show that those who get less SWS are more likely to suffer depression. To be clear, the “breastfeeding mothers got an average of 182 minutes of SWS. Women in the control group had an average of 86 minutes. And the exclusively bottle-feeding women had an average of 63 minutes.”

In short, women who do not exclusively breastfeed get less sleep, get less restorative sleep, and are more likely to suffer depression.

Doan and colleagues noted the following.

“Using supplementation as a coping strategy for minimizing sleep loss can actually be detrimental because of its impact on prolactin hormone production and secretion. Maintenance of breastfeeding as well as deep restorative sleep stages may be greatly compromised for new mothers who cope with infant feedings by supplementing in an effort to get more sleep time. In sum, advising women to avoid nighttime breastfeeding to lessen their risk of depression is not medically sound. In fact, if women follow this advice, it may actually increase their risk of depression.” ibreastfeeding with references.