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I think his question could be rephrased as "why don't we witness a mass epidemic of parents falling asleep"? I think many 20 and 30 somethings (without kids) w

I think his question could be rephrased as "why don't we witness a mass epidemic of parents falling asleep"? I think many 20 and 30 somethings (without kids) who, if they were to get under 6 or so hours of sleep for a couple nights, would automatically pass out on the train/subway/bus/etc, in public. So how are (seemingly most) parents getting 4 hours of sleep for extended periods of time yet aren't falling asleep on public transit on their way to work?

toast0 7y ago
> So how are (seemingly most) parents getting 4 hours of sleep for extended periods of time yet aren't falling asleep on public transit on their way to work? Most parents are getting more than 4 hours of sleep, but it's broken up. If your kid is on a 3 hour feed/sleep cycle, and it takes 1 hour for feeding and getting back to sleep (which is in the difficult part of the spectrum), that leave s you 2 hours to sleep before another wake up. If both parents are needed, or if it's a single parent, chances are you're going to bed early, because you're exhausted; you'll probably go to bed when the evening feeding is done, say at 9pm, sleep for two hours, wake up for 1 hour, go back to sleep at midnight for two more hours, wake up at 2 am to feed, sleep again until 5 am, feed until 6 am and then get ready for the day. You've ended up with 6 hours of sleep -- this is okish. If you have two parents taking shifts, one parent slept from 9-11, and then from 12-5, for a total of 7 hours; the other slept from 9-2, and from 3-5, also a total of 7 hours. Of course, some nights don't go well, or the evening feeding is over at 8 and you don't really want to go to bed then, and that pushes everything back. But, if feeding only takes 30 minutes, that helps a bit. And some times the feeding cycles clash with sleep cycles -- it was awful for the (thankfully short) period where baby was consistently waking us up during REM sleep. Also --- micronaps :D
- journalctl 7y ago
  Just to be clear, six hours of broken sleep isn’t the same as six hours of uninterrupted sleep. The longer you’re asleep, the deeper stages of sleep you get to, which is important to being fully rested.
shantly 7y ago
> So how are (seemingly most) parents getting 4 hours of sleep for extended periods of time If this is happening and you're not a single parent and your kid's not got chronic health issues, you're doing something wrong. And actually unless both those things are true you should still be able to manage 6-9hrs (though with one or two interruptions, admittedly). Most parents do not manage to screw themselves this badly for very long before figuring out what's up, I'm sure, because the solutions aren't exactly rocket science (take shifts to ensure 5-6hrs uninterrupted plus more with interruptions for both partners; go to bed earlier)
pavel_lishin 7y ago
> So how are (seemingly most) parents getting 4 hours of sleep for extended periods of time yet aren't falling asleep on public transit on their way to work? Can't speak for everyone, but I did. How do you tell an exhausted parent taking a snooze on the train from an exhausted non-parent taking a snooze on the train?

toast0 7y ago

> So how are (seemingly most) parents getting 4 hours of sleep for extended periods of time yet aren't falling asleep on public transit on their way to work? Most parents are getting more than 4 hours of sleep, but it's broken up. If your kid is on a 3 hour feed/sleep cycle, and it takes 1 hour for feeding and getting back to sleep (which is in the difficult part of the spectrum), that leave s you 2 hours to sleep before another wake up. If both parents are needed, or if it's a single parent, chances are you're going to bed early, because you're exhausted; you'll probably go to bed when the evening feeding is done, say at 9pm, sleep for two hours, wake up for 1 hour, go back to sleep at midnight for two more hours, wake up at 2 am to feed, sleep again until 5 am, feed until 6 am and then get ready for the day. You've ended up with 6 hours of sleep -- this is okish. If you have two parents taking shifts, one parent slept from 9-11, and then from 12-5, for a total of 7 hours; the other slept from 9-2, and from 3-5, also a total of 7 hours. Of course, some nights don't go well, or the evening feeding is over at 8 and you don't really want to go to bed then, and that pushes everything back. But, if feeding only takes 30 minutes, that helps a bit. And some times the feeding cycles clash with sleep cycles -- it was awful for the (thankfully short) period where baby was consistently waking us up during REM sleep. Also --- micronaps :D

journalctl 7y ago
Just to be clear, six hours of broken sleep isn’t the same as six hours of uninterrupted sleep. The longer you’re asleep, the deeper stages of sleep you get to, which is important to being fully rested.

shantly 7y ago

> So how are (seemingly most) parents getting 4 hours of sleep for extended periods of time If this is happening and you're not a single parent and your kid's not got chronic health issues, you're doing something wrong. And actually unless both those things are true you should still be able to manage 6-9hrs (though with one or two interruptions, admittedly). Most parents do not manage to screw themselves this badly for very long before figuring out what's up, I'm sure, because the solutions aren't exactly rocket science (take shifts to ensure 5-6hrs uninterrupted plus more with interruptions for both partners; go to bed earlier)

pavel_lishin 7y ago

> So how are (seemingly most) parents getting 4 hours of sleep for extended periods of time yet aren't falling asleep on public transit on their way to work? Can't speak for everyone, but I did. How do you tell an exhausted parent taking a snooze on the train from an exhausted non-parent taking a snooze on the train?