6 ms·

Was the stress primarily because of sleep deprivation/multitasking with a new baby? I am just trying to understand.

WalterSear 10y ago
There's a lot of people on here discussing the stress of a new child. I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory.
- sevensor 10y ago
  In practice the two will be impossible to tease apart at any rate. Stress and lack of sleep make a feedback loop. The more you feel like you're drowning, the harder it gets to find sleep. Adding nighttime feedings just throws gas on the fire.
  - WalterSear 10y ago
    From a fine grained point of view, yes, stress causes sleep problems. However, stress is a result of, and not the cause of the sleep deprivation that comes with nursing and changing a child throughout the night.
- khedoros1 10y ago
  I find getting too little sleep very stressful. I'm required to keep doing the same things, but less able to handle those demands. When I don't get enough sleep, I've got worse health, constant headaches, and neck aches. It's its own stressor, as well as having separate negative effects.
  - WalterSear 10y ago
    Yes, but that's a specific physical stressor, resulting in mental stress. It's not what is being examined in the article and modeled in the experiment.
    - khedoros1 10y ago
      That doesn't change the fact that lack of sleep is a stressor. I was replying to your statement: > "I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory."
ashark 10y ago
Not the poster you're asking, but have 3 kids. Stress factors include: 1) Getting very, very poor sleep, which can last anywhere from 2-12 months depending on your kid and your parenting technique. 2) Higher monthly expenses, plus a potentially-giant bill for the birth, on top of a year of smaller but still substantial bills for various things. This will be worse if the pregnancy is split over two years of insurance deductible (probably irrelevant in countries with medical coverage systems that aren't totally broken, but very relevant in the US) 3) Having your free time (including kid-free time that you have to use to keep the house in something that resembles order if you squint at it really hard) drop to ~25-30% what it was pre-kid. (you can gain a bit more by making your sleep even worse, though. Hooray?) 4) Your house will be kinda messy and gross even if you try hard to keep it clean, which is discouraging and stressful. 5) Leaving the house and getting out of the car now being A Whole Thing instead of something that barely takes any time or effort at all. Everything you do that isn't sitting at home in your pajamas is much more difficult. Even that is, in a way. 6) You no longer actually have time off, ever. Not in the sense you did before kids. 7) If you're a woman and want to breast feed... oh god. It's bad. Even worse sleep, and you'll have either a baby or a noisy milking machine attached to you seemingly all the damn time, which is incredibly inconvenient if you need to do anything else at all ever. Go ahead an multiply the stress of the above by a factor of 10 if your new kid has serious health issues.
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  > potentially-giant bill for the birth It boggles my mind that we consider the US a first-world country when I read things like this. Also not sure I agree about the breastfeeding being so bad. Sure, it's a bit of a chore, but most mothers I know (including my wife) found it to be a positive experience that increases attachment. And the leaving the house/car part I also don't follow. You have one more person to dress and one more item of luggage to carry; it's hardly an exponential increase. Otherwise I agree, esp. about stress if kid has serious health issues. (We have two kids, aged 1.5 and 4).
  - Practicality 10y ago
    Michael McIntyre explains the leaving the house/car part perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GO2xz0L9gQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GO2xz0L9gQ (Edit: The full presentation is pretty relevant to the topic too if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1cFt2tWsI4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1cFt2tWsI4)
thro3212 10y ago
No, my wife had complications and was misdiagnosed. Long story, it is over now.
- vivekian2 10y ago
  Hope things are better now. Yes, this is totally understandable. Coping with a new baby is difficult, but any other complication just makes it super difficult.

There's a lot of people on here discussing the stress of a new child. I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory.

sevensor 10y ago
In practice the two will be impossible to tease apart at any rate. Stress and lack of sleep make a feedback loop. The more you feel like you're drowning, the harder it gets to find sleep. Adding nighttime feedings just throws gas on the fire.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  From a fine grained point of view, yes, stress causes sleep problems. However, stress is a result of, and not the cause of the sleep deprivation that comes with nursing and changing a child throughout the night.
khedoros1 10y ago
I find getting too little sleep very stressful. I'm required to keep doing the same things, but less able to handle those demands. When I don't get enough sleep, I've got worse health, constant headaches, and neck aches. It's its own stressor, as well as having separate negative effects.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  Yes, but that's a specific physical stressor, resulting in mental stress. It's not what is being examined in the article and modeled in the experiment.
  - khedoros1 10y ago
    That doesn't change the fact that lack of sleep is a stressor. I was replying to your statement: > "I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory."

ashark 10y ago

Not the poster you're asking, but have 3 kids. Stress factors include: 1) Getting very, very poor sleep, which can last anywhere from 2-12 months depending on your kid and your parenting technique. 2) Higher monthly expenses, plus a potentially-giant bill for the birth, on top of a year of smaller but still substantial bills for various things. This will be worse if the pregnancy is split over two years of insurance deductible (probably irrelevant in countries with medical coverage systems that aren't totally broken, but very relevant in the US) 3) Having your free time (including kid-free time that you have to use to keep the house in something that resembles order if you squint at it really hard) drop to ~25-30% what it was pre-kid. (you can gain a bit more by making your sleep even worse, though. Hooray?) 4) Your house will be kinda messy and gross even if you try hard to keep it clean, which is discouraging and stressful. 5) Leaving the house and getting out of the car now being A Whole Thing instead of something that barely takes any time or effort at all. Everything you do that isn't sitting at home in your pajamas is much more difficult. Even that is, in a way. 6) You no longer actually have time off, ever. Not in the sense you did before kids. 7) If you're a woman and want to breast feed... oh god. It's bad. Even worse sleep, and you'll have either a baby or a noisy milking machine attached to you seemingly all the damn time, which is incredibly inconvenient if you need to do anything else at all ever. Go ahead an multiply the stress of the above by a factor of 10 if your new kid has serious health issues.

semi-extrinsic 10y ago
> potentially-giant bill for the birth It boggles my mind that we consider the US a first-world country when I read things like this. Also not sure I agree about the breastfeeding being so bad. Sure, it's a bit of a chore, but most mothers I know (including my wife) found it to be a positive experience that increases attachment. And the leaving the house/car part I also don't follow. You have one more person to dress and one more item of luggage to carry; it's hardly an exponential increase. Otherwise I agree, esp. about stress if kid has serious health issues. (We have two kids, aged 1.5 and 4).
- Practicality 10y ago
  Michael McIntyre explains the leaving the house/car part perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GO2xz0L9gQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GO2xz0L9gQ (Edit: The full presentation is pretty relevant to the topic too if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1cFt2tWsI4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1cFt2tWsI4)

thro3212 10y ago

No, my wife had complications and was misdiagnosed. Long story, it is over now.

vivekian2 10y ago
Hope things are better now. Yes, this is totally understandable. Coping with a new baby is difficult, but any other complication just makes it super difficult.