4 ms·

My sleep pattern changed when I had a kid and remained that way. I always needed 7 hours of sleep to feel good and productive, but after the baby, I've found my

by spaceman_2020 3y ago

My sleep pattern changed when I had a kid and remained that way. I always needed 7 hours of sleep to feel good and productive, but after the baby, I've found myself being equally productive with 5-5.5hrs of sleep.

seper8 3y ago
Nah, you have just gotten used to being lower functioning. Like an alcoholic who still thinks he can drive equally well after 5 beers. At least, almost all of the existing science points into this direction. You aren't sleeping less because you need less. You have lost the ability to stay asleep for a healthy amount of time.
- bcrosby95 3y ago
  Just to add onto this with an anecdote, I experienced this phenomena for a smaller amount of sleep: 1-3 hours per night. But I had other physical effects such as a persistent headache - it was obvious it was bad for me. It took a lot of effort to reset my body to obtain a more healthy amount of sleep. I think I went about a month with 1-3 hours per night. The initial cause was "sleep regression in twins", but that was only for 2 weeks. The next 2 weeks was how long it took me to get my body to sleep more than a couple hours per night.
- tstrimple 3y ago
  While this is likely true, there are differences in the amount of time folks need to sleep in order to recover. There is a gene that is found to be associated with these short sleepers as well. Activating the gene in mice demonstrates a similar reduction in natural sleep cycles with no apparent impact on health. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/gene-identified-people-who-need-little-sleep https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/gene-id...
wharvle 3y ago
Nb to observers considering having kids but worried about this, unless you’re badly space-constrained it’s pretty easy to keep sleep for both adults north of 6.5hrs a night, and to have catch-up nights for both on the weekend (9+ hours). Plus the period in which night feedings are necessary, rather than habit, is only 2.5-3 months anyway. It’s mostly a fairly simple scheduling problem, plus having one adult sleeping somewhere they can’t hear the baby during each “shift” (loud fans help). Not having to jump instantly on the crying baby also lets you slooowwwly stretch your response times longer, which is a nice smooth way work toward the glorious 1-feeding-per-night and finally no-night-feedings period (babies wake up and cry even when not hungry—past the earliest weeks, immediate feeding may not be necessary, and if you can wait a minute they may go back to sleep, because they weren’t hungry, they’d just woken up and briefly freaked out—if you keep pouncing every time as soon as they make a noise, it trains them to stay awake rather than going back to sleep, and you’ll have a bad time for, potentially, much longer) All bets off if you have a kid who’s ill, but for most babies, it’s entirely achievable.
- csdvrx 3y ago
  > It’s mostly a fairly simple scheduling problem, plus having one adult sleeping somewhere they can’t hear the baby during each “shift” (loud fans help). Wouldn't it be easier to have a soundproofed room for either the parents or the baby? Your key assumption is "not badly space-constrained" is plausible, but no time/scheduling constraints for adults seems unlikely. > if you can wait a minute they may go back to sleep, because they weren’t hungry, they’d just woken up and briefly freaked out—if you keep pouncing every time as soon as they make a noise, it trains them to stay awake rather than going back to sleep, and you’ll have a bad time for, potentially, much longer Your observations would be in favor of soundproofing where delaying intervention would be a feature, not a bug.
  - wharvle 3y ago
    What’s with the soundproofing thing? I don’t follow what you’re getting at. Yes you could solve the problem with soundproofing, but that’s really expensive. Some distance and a loud fan is something more people already have than soundproofed rooms. If you’d rather soundproof, sure, go nuts, I’m not providing an exhaustive list of solutions. > but no time/scheduling constraints for adults seems unlikely. For parents with 9-5 sorts of jobs, it works fine. You don’t even need “sleep-per-parent x2” amounts of contiguous time available, because there’ll be a gap of usually a hour or three between the last time the kid wakes up for first-parent and the first time they wake up for second-parent, and it’s not like you can’t get any sleep while “on duty”. We were managing 6ish uninterrupted hours per parent in the very worst weeks for each kid, and more than that for total sleep, with a sleep window (for us, the parents) of about 10 hours. Not sure what you mean. Yeah inconsistent shift work or something could mess it up, but that messes up everything.
    - csdvrx 3y ago
      > Not sure what you mean I'm basically non functional at less than 7h of uninterrupted sleep per night. > We were managing 6ish uninterrupted hours per parent It may not be enough > What’s with the soundproofing thing? Soundproof the room where either the parents or the baby are would be more reliable to control the noise level by preventing it from reaching out instead of adding more. It could also be converted later into a music room

seper8 3y ago

Nah, you have just gotten used to being lower functioning. Like an alcoholic who still thinks he can drive equally well after 5 beers. At least, almost all of the existing science points into this direction. You aren't sleeping less because you need less. You have lost the ability to stay asleep for a healthy amount of time.

bcrosby95 3y ago
Just to add onto this with an anecdote, I experienced this phenomena for a smaller amount of sleep: 1-3 hours per night. But I had other physical effects such as a persistent headache - it was obvious it was bad for me. It took a lot of effort to reset my body to obtain a more healthy amount of sleep. I think I went about a month with 1-3 hours per night. The initial cause was "sleep regression in twins", but that was only for 2 weeks. The next 2 weeks was how long it took me to get my body to sleep more than a couple hours per night.
tstrimple 3y ago
While this is likely true, there are differences in the amount of time folks need to sleep in order to recover. There is a gene that is found to be associated with these short sleepers as well. Activating the gene in mice demonstrates a similar reduction in natural sleep cycles with no apparent impact on health. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/gene-identified-people-who-need-little-sleep https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/gene-id...

wharvle 3y ago

Nb to observers considering having kids but worried about this, unless you’re badly space-constrained it’s pretty easy to keep sleep for both adults north of 6.5hrs a night, and to have catch-up nights for both on the weekend (9+ hours). Plus the period in which night feedings are necessary, rather than habit, is only 2.5-3 months anyway. It’s mostly a fairly simple scheduling problem, plus having one adult sleeping somewhere they can’t hear the baby during each “shift” (loud fans help). Not having to jump instantly on the crying baby also lets you slooowwwly stretch your response times longer, which is a nice smooth way work toward the glorious 1-feeding-per-night and finally no-night-feedings period (babies wake up and cry even when not hungry—past the earliest weeks, immediate feeding may not be necessary, and if you can wait a minute they may go back to sleep, because they weren’t hungry, they’d just woken up and briefly freaked out—if you keep pouncing every time as soon as they make a noise, it trains them to stay awake rather than going back to sleep, and you’ll have a bad time for, potentially, much longer) All bets off if you have a kid who’s ill, but for most babies, it’s entirely achievable.

csdvrx 3y ago
> It’s mostly a fairly simple scheduling problem, plus having one adult sleeping somewhere they can’t hear the baby during each “shift” (loud fans help). Wouldn't it be easier to have a soundproofed room for either the parents or the baby? Your key assumption is "not badly space-constrained" is plausible, but no time/scheduling constraints for adults seems unlikely. > if you can wait a minute they may go back to sleep, because they weren’t hungry, they’d just woken up and briefly freaked out—if you keep pouncing every time as soon as they make a noise, it trains them to stay awake rather than going back to sleep, and you’ll have a bad time for, potentially, much longer Your observations would be in favor of soundproofing where delaying intervention would be a feature, not a bug.
- wharvle 3y ago
  What’s with the soundproofing thing? I don’t follow what you’re getting at. Yes you could solve the problem with soundproofing, but that’s really expensive. Some distance and a loud fan is something more people already have than soundproofed rooms. If you’d rather soundproof, sure, go nuts, I’m not providing an exhaustive list of solutions. > but no time/scheduling constraints for adults seems unlikely. For parents with 9-5 sorts of jobs, it works fine. You don’t even need “sleep-per-parent x2” amounts of contiguous time available, because there’ll be a gap of usually a hour or three between the last time the kid wakes up for first-parent and the first time they wake up for second-parent, and it’s not like you can’t get any sleep while “on duty”. We were managing 6ish uninterrupted hours per parent in the very worst weeks for each kid, and more than that for total sleep, with a sleep window (for us, the parents) of about 10 hours. Not sure what you mean. Yeah inconsistent shift work or something could mess it up, but that messes up everything.
  - csdvrx 3y ago
    > Not sure what you mean I'm basically non functional at less than 7h of uninterrupted sleep per night. > We were managing 6ish uninterrupted hours per parent It may not be enough > What’s with the soundproofing thing? Soundproof the room where either the parents or the baby are would be more reliable to control the noise level by preventing it from reaching out instead of adding more. It could also be converted later into a music room