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Źródło: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260508-parents-in-ancient-times-felt-less-sleep-deprived-what-our-ancestors-did-differently-on-baby-sleep

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Why modern parents feel more sleep deprived than our ancestors did

Why modern parents feel more sleep deprived than our ancestors did

In ancientstarożytny, dawny times, parents probably didn't suffer as much from feeling sleep deprivedniewyspany, pozbawiony snu, leading some scientists to reconsiderponownie rozważyć, przemyśleć guidelineswytyczne, zalecenia for today's new parents to get some shut-eyeprzespać się / zdrzemnąć się.

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How exhaustingwyczerpujący is it to be a parent? When one brave soulodważny człowiek; śmiałek posedzadał; postawił this to a Reddit parenting forumforum, more than 400 answers flooded innapływać tłumnie; masowo spływać. "Extremely. It's extremely exhaustingwyczerpujący and it is literally CONSTANTdosłownie ciągłe; nieustanne," wrote one respondentrespondent; osoba odpowiadająca, the sentimentodczucie; opinia; sentyment echoedpowtórzony; odzwierciedlony by hundreds of others.

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There are many reasons why parents feel so bone-crushinglydo granic wyczerpania, straszliwie tired today – and not all of them have to do with sleep. For instancena przykład, many families raise their children without community supportwsparcie ze strony społeczności, while parents often have to jugglegodzic, łączyć naraz work with child-rearingwychowywanie dzieci. 

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At the same time, many caregiversopiekunowie / osoby opiekujące się kimś' sleep certainly changes after having children, whether that's due to an infantniemowlę's middle-of-the-nightśrodek nocy / w środku nocy feeds or a preschoolerdziecko w wieku przedszkolnym's penchantskłonność / zamiłowanie for a 05:00 startpobudka o 05:00 / rozpoczęcie dnia o 05:00. 

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Given thatbiorąc pod uwagę że; skoro we've been parentingwychowywanie dzieci; rodzicielstwo for as long astak długo jak; dopóki humans have existed, it may seem natural to assume parents have been sleep-deprivedniewyspany; pozbawiony snu for millenniatysiąclecia, too. But the evidencedowody; materiał dowodowy that we have indicateswskazuje; sugeruje this likely isn't true. So what did our ancestorsprzodkowie do differently – and is there anything we could learn from them?

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In everyday conversation, parenting and sleep deprivationniedobór snu; chroniczne niewyspanie are taken to be synonymoussynonimiczny; tożsamy znaczeniowo. However, the evidencedowody; materiał dowodowy on just how much sleep parents tend to lose after having a child is mixedniejednoznaczny; sprzeczny and culturallykulturowo dependentzależny; uzależniony.

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One study, for example, found that first-time mothersmatki po raz pierwszy in Germany on averageśrednio get an hour less of sleep per night in the first three months after their baby is born than they did pre-pregnancyciąża. Fathers lose a third of an hour. Although sleep durationczas trwania increased after an all-time lownajniższy poziom w historii at three months, neither parent had fully recovered their pre-pregnancyciąża sleep after six years.

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But the overall difference between parents and non-parentsosoby bez dzieci after the post-partum periodokres poporodowy is not nearly as big as you might believe. On average, the German study, which looked at nearly 40,000 people in total, found that parents who had at least one child under six years old reported sleeping about seven hours per night. Non-parentsosoby bez dzieci received just 10 minutes more sleep per night, for women, and 14 minutes more per night, for men.

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Meanwhile, data from a 2024 surveybadanie ankietowe in the US found that parents with children under age six are, on averageśrednio, in bedw łóżku for between eight and nine hours per night – well withinz dużym zapasem w granicach the recommendedzalecany range. Similarly, a French study, following more than 400 couples in the 36 months after birth, found that both mothers and fathers loggedodnotowały an average of eight hours' sleep or more at all time pointswe wszystkich punktach pomiarowych (although some individualsposzczególne osoby slept as little astak mało jak 4.25 hours per night, others as much asaż tyle co 12).

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Of course, this is mostly self-reportedsamodzielnie zgłoszony; oparty na samoocenie data, so people may over- or underestimateniedoszacować; zaniżyć their sleep durationczas trwania, like starting their calculationsobliczenia from when they went to bed and not when they fell asleep, for instancena przykład.

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But it does, overallogólnie rzecz biorąc, suggestsugerować, wskazywać that many parents are getting relativelystosunkowo, dość good amounts of sleep, albeit with a lot of variationzróżnicowanie, rozrzut. And when researchersbadacze, naukowcy examine sleeping patternswzorce snu, sposób spania in contemporarywspółczesny foragingzbieracki, związany ze zdobywaniem pożywienia w naturze societies – which is often helpful to try to determineokreślić, ustalić how our ancestorsprzodkowie probably lived – results aren't too different. One analysisanaliza of three hunter-gathererzbieracko-łowiecki societies, for example, found that adults (including parents) spent between 6.9 to 8.5 hours per nightna noc, każdej nocy in bedw łóżku. Because they woke frequentlyczęsto, regularnie, the average of how much they actually slept was between 5.7 and 7.1 hours per nightna noc, każdej nocy.

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Cruciallyco najważniejsze; kluczowo, though, modern parentswspółcześni rodzice in industrialiseduprzemysłowiony societies consistentlykonsekwentnie; stale report feelingzgłaszać, że się czuje much more tired and exhaustedwyczerpany than those in foragingzbieracki; związany ze zbieractwem societies. Scientists have been trying to solverozwiązać the mysteryzagadka of why that is.

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In foragingzajmujący się zbieractwem / żerowaniem societies, nearly all adults – many of whom are parents – say they're very satisfiedzadowolony, usatysfakcjonowany with their sleep, says evolutionaryewolucyjny anthropologistantropolog David Samson, directordyrektor, kierownik of the University of Toronto's Sleep and Human Evolutionewolucja Lablaboratorium and author of the book The Sleepless Ape: The Strange and Unexpected Story of How Social Sleep Made Us Human. 

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Samson spent three months living with the Hadza, a foragingzajmujący się zbieractwem i poszukiwaniem pożywienia societyspołeczność; społeczeństwo in northern Tanzania, to study their sleep patternswzorce; schematy. "When you go to the Hadza and ask them, 'Is your sleep good or is it bad?', they say 'It's good'," he says.

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In contrastw przeciwieństwie, when parents in modern, industrialiseduprzemysłowiony, rozwinięty przemysłowo societies are asked about the quality of their sleep, they usually give it low marksoceniać to nisko / wystawić niską ocenę. In the German study, for example, mothers ratedocenili their satisfactionzadowolenie with their sleep 6.57 on a scaleskala of 0 to 10; fathers, 7.03. In the French study, nearlyprawie three-quarterstrzy czwarte of the mothers of three-month-oldstrzymiesięczne dzieci said they thought they had not had enough sleepnie dosypiać / nie mieć wystarczającej ilości snu.

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It's not that modern parents are waking up more oftenczęściej. Work by Samson and others has found that people in hunter-gathererłowiecko-zbieracki societies usually wake more frequentlyczęsto; wielokrotnie through the nightprzez całą noc than we do.

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Part of this might be because it wasn't until the Industrial RevolutionRewolucja przemysłowa that we began to focus on the goal of "consolidatednieprzerwany; skondensowany" sleep, says Helen Ball, director of the Durham Infancyniemowlęctwo; wczesne dzieciństwo and Sleep Centre in the UK and author of the book How Babies Sleep: A Factful Guide to the First 365 Days and Nights. The concept still isn't shared universallypowszechnie; na całym świecie around the world. She recently oversawnadzorowała; kierowała a research projectprojekt badawczy comparing adolescentnastoletni; młodzieżowy sleep in two ruralwiejski villages in Mexico versus Mexico City. In the ruralwiejski villages, "this idea of sleeping like a logspać jak zabity is unfamiliarnieznany; obcy", she says. "It was only in Mexico City that that was a familiarznany; swojski concept."

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Our ancestorsprzodkowie may have simply had less practicalpraktyczny, wynikający z realnych potrzeb need to sleep deeply in one continuousciągły, nieprzerwany stretch. "They would not have had the pressure of having to work a nine-to-five or an eight-to-five job that requiredwymagał, wymagało them to get a certain amount ofpewna ilość sleep during the night to be able to functionfunkcjonować, działać the next day and to functionfunkcjonować, działać safely," Ball says. "They weren't driving cars. They weren't operatingobsługując, sterując heavy machinerymaszyny, urządzenia mechaniczne. The kinds of things that matter to us just simply wouldn't have been issueskwestie, sprawy, problemy."

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But there's another way that ancientstarożytny; dawny parents approachedpodchodzili do; traktowali sleep differentlyinaczej than many of us do today.

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When Samson stayed with the Hadza, he described common parentingrodzicielski; wychowanie dzieci practicespraktyki; zwyczaje in the US, such as encouraging babies to sleep separately fromspać osobno od their caregiversopiekunowie; osoby sprawujące opiekę. "They looked at me like I was insaneszalony; obłąkany," says Samson. "They were like, 'Why? Why? Why?'… I felt badczuć się źle; mieć wyrzuty sumienia almost asking the questionzadawanie pytania."

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HadzaHadzowie, lud Hadza mothers, as in many other cultures throughout the world and virtually every hunter-gathererłowiecko-zbieracki society ever studied, sleep with their babies and breastfeed through the nightprzez całą noc. This is a practice dubbednazwany "breastsleeping" by anthropologistantropolog James McKenna, the founderzałożyciel and directordyrektor of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratorylaboratorium at the University of Notre Damena Uniwersytecie Notre Dame in Indiana, US.

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"There really isn't just infantniemowlę sleep or maternalmatczyny sleep, or breastfeeding or not breastfeeding," McKenna says. "It is all highly integratedściśle powiązany. The mother's body becomes the baby's habitatśrodowisko życia."

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Findingsustalenia about how breastsleepingspanie z dzieckiem przy piersi might affect a mother's sleep are mixedniejednoznaczne. But some research indicateswskazuje it affects how well-restedwypoczęty new parents feel.

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One study found that actual sleep time doesn't, on averageśrednio, differ much between mothers who do and don't bedsharespać z dzieckiem w jednym łóżku. Bedsharing mothers wake a little more throughoutprzez cały czas; przez całą noc the night, but seem to fall back asleepponownie zasnąć more quickly. Instead, some of the difference lies in the mothers' mindsets. 

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"The mums are not aware ofnie zdawać sobie sprawy z how frequentlyczęsto, z dużą częstotliwością they might feed in the night, or of how often they might check their babies in the night," Ball says. They may not be arousingwybudzając się, przechodząc do pełnego wybudzenia fully during a feed. Or they may simply be forgetting the wakes. This may be key to making them feel more refreshedwypoczęty, odświeżony the next day.

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This chimes withzgadza się z; współgra z research on how the way we view our sleep can change our own energy levels. Less rigidsztywny, mało elastyczny expectations of sleep might not just help us relax and unwind at night but also help us feel less fatiguedzmęczony, wyczerpany during the day, no matter how we slept the night before.

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Since mothers who breastsleep are breastfeedingkarmienie piersią rather than using formula or pumpingodciąganie pokarmu, their sleep qualityjakość snu may also feel improved due to the hormone prolactinprolaktyna, which spikes during breastfeedingkarmienie piersią and can make mothers sleepier. One study of 133 mothers found that breastfeedingkarmienie piersią parents got around 40-45 minutes more sleep than parents who used formula, for example, while another study on 120 mothers found that mothers who breastfed exclusivelywyłącznie got about 30 minutes more sleep per night at one month postpartumpoporodowy.

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Samson himself swears byprzysięga na coś / jest gorącym zwolennikiem czegoś this. He and his wife spent their daughter's first three months struggling to get the sleep they needed until trying the sameto samo / ten sam breastsleeping he'd witnessedbył świadkiem / zaobserwował with the Hadza, following public health guidelineswytyczne / zalecenia about how to bedsharespa z dzieckiem w jednym łóżku as safely as possible. "Our entirecały / cały złożony z life changed," Samson says. "She didn't have to sit up, she didn't have to wake up, she was just awareświadomy / zorientowany – oh, she's feeding now – and then boom, back to sleep. And it changed everything."

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Not all studies have found that sleeping close to one's infant improves a parent's sleep. One study that followed 139 families across the first year of infancyniemowlęctwo; wczesne dzieciństwo, for example, found that mothers who shared a room or beddzielić pokój lub łóżko z dzieckiem / spać z dzieckiem w jednym pokoju lub łóżku with their infant had more disruptedzakłócony; przerywany sleep than those who did not. Their babies, however, did not wake more. (Of course, it is hard to tease outwyłuskać; dociec; wydobyć cause and effectprzyczyna i skutek: it could be that more vigilantczujny; baczny or anxiouszaniepokojony; niespokojny mothers, who also might wake more often, were more likely to want to keep their babies close during sleep rather than separate.)

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The quality of wakefulnessczuwanie; stan czuwania and how alertczujny; uważny mothers are during it likely plays a role. Take, for example, the common advice to put a baby in a cribłóżeczko dziecięce, if not in a different room entirely; to stay highly alertczujny; uważny throughout feedingkarmienie or re-settlingponowne usypianie; ponowne układanie do snu an infantniemowlę, even if it requires scrollingprzewijanie a phone; and to trackśledzić; notować waking and feedingkarmienie times – none of which, of course, our hunter-gathererłowca-zbieracz ancestorsprzodkowie would have done.

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All of these stimulibodźce signal to our body to arousepobudzić; wybudzić fully, says Pamela Douglas, a senior lecturerstarszy wykładowca at the medical schoolwydział lekarski of the University of Queensland, Australia.

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For some of these strategiesstrategie, sposoby działania, this is, in factwłaściwie, tak naprawdę, the point. Accidentally falling asleep with a baby in a space not set upprzystosować, przygotować for shared sleepwspólne spanie – such as a couch or armchair – can make the risk of suddennagły infantniemowlę death up to 67 times greater. As a result, some health professionals tell parents to do whatever they need to be fully awakecałkowicie rozbudzony, na pełni sił during night feedsnocne karmienia.      

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One downsideminus, wada to this, of course, is that it isn't always successful, with parents sometimes falling asleepzasypianie in these especially unsafe spaces. Another is that it can then be harder for parents to fall back asleepznowu zasnąć after tending to their baby – ultimatelyostatecznie, w końcu affecting sleep qualityjakość snu, the researchers posittwierdzić, zakładać.

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To keep parents and children safe, while taking into account the growing body of researchcoraz większy zbiór badań on parental sleep qualityjakość snu rodziców, Douglas has founded a sleep interventioninterwencja; działanie mające na celu rozwiązanie problemu programmeprogram; plan działania nicknamednazywany przezwiskiem; ochrzczony nazwą Possums. Her work, on top of promoting strategiesstrategie; sposoby postępowania for mindfulnessuważność and relaxationrelaks; odprężenie, for instance, suggests parents should not trackśledzić; monitorować wakes and feeds. They should also allow babies to "feedkarmić to sleep".

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Humans present a strikinguderzający; wyraźny paradoxparadoks: compared to other speciesgatunek, our babies are born extremely immatureniedojrzały and require a great deal from caregiversopiekunowie; osoby sprawujące opiekę, says Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, a professor of anthropologyantropologia at the University of California-Davis in the US, and author of several books on evolutionaryewolucyjny parenting. Yet the hunter-gathererłowiecko-zbieracki environment that our ancestorsprzodkowie survivedprzetrwali for tens of thousands of yearsprzez dziesiątki tysięcy lat was a difficult one, where humans had to expendwydatkować; zużywać a great amount of calorieskalorie and time simply on procuringpozyskiwanie; zdobywanie food.

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Unlike now, though, they had help – lots of it – to devotepoświęcać the necessary time and resourcing to each offspringpotomstwo, while having enough children to allow for population replacement.

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"There's no waynie ma mowy; absolutnie nie that populationpopulacja would not have gone extinctwymarły, there's no waynie ma mowy; absolutnie nie that speciesgatunek could have evolved," Hrdy says, "unless mothers had had alloparentalallorodzicielski; sprawowany przez niespokrewnionego opiekuna as well as parental care and provisioningzapewnianie zaopatrzenia; dostarczanie pożywienia i zasobów of offspringpotomstwo; młode."

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These "alloparentsallorodzice / niespokrewnieni opiekunowie zastępczy" included other relativesinni krewni, particularly grandmothers and older siblingsstarsze rodzeństwo, but often more loosely-relatedluźno spokrewnieni caregiversopiekunowie, too. 

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Anthropologistsantropolodzy observing the Efé of Central Africa, for example, found that 18-week-old infantsniemowlęta spend 60% of their time being cared for by someone other than their mother and often are breastfedkarmione piersią by someone other than their mother.

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In many industrialiseduprzemysłowiony societies, that model has largely disappearedzniknęła / przestała istnieć. Its closest replacementzastępstwo, zamiennik, paid childcareopieka nad dziećmi, can create its own sorts of stresses, including financialfinansowy. 

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Today, many families work a "double shiftpodwójna zmiana; łączenie pracy zawodowej z opieką domową" – caregivingopiekuńczy; sprawowanie opieki and working outside the home. In the US, more than five-in-10 households with children today are dual-incomedwuosobowy dochód; z dwojgiem pracujących partnerów, while in the EU, more than six-in-10 are. Genderpłeć disparitiesdysproporcje, nierówności also persistutrzymywać się, nadal występować, with the majoritywiększość of caregivingopiekuńczy; sprawowanie opieki and householdgospodarstwo domowe labourpraca; wysiłek fizyczny/pracowniczy usually still falling onspoczywający na; przypadający na women – making mothers, in particular, feel more tired.

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Compared to foragingzbieracki; zdobywający pożywienie przez zbieranie i polowanie cultures, it is also more common to have more children with smaller age gapsróżnice wieku. Anthropologistsantropolodzy, including Hrdy have found that, in foragingzbieracki; zdobywający pożywienie przez zbieranie i polowanie cultures, babies were normally spacedrozłożone w czasie; oddzielone around four years apart; it was when societies became agriculturalrolniczy; agrarny and settledosiadły; zamieszkały na stałe that mothers began to have more children, more quicklyszybciej. So for our foragingzbieracki; zdobywający pożywienie przez zbieranie i polowanie ancestorsprzodkowie, having only one baby or toddlermałe dziecko; maluch to look afteropiekować się at a timenaraz; jednocześnie may too have helped with fatiguezmęczenie; wyczerpanie levels.

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As a resultw rezultacie, it's likely the changes in sleep and lifestyle that have led today's parents to feel so overwhelmedprzytłoczony and sleep-deprivedniedospany, not necessarilyniekoniecznie lack of sleep itself.

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Still, if anything, some experts argue that we've evolved to be resilientodporny psychicznie / wytrzymały to the strainobciążenie / napięcie of sleep deprivationpozbawienie / niedobór during early parenthoodrodzicielstwo, because it's an evolutionaryewolucyjny trade-offkompromis kosztem czegoś innego / wymiana korzyści i strat for our speciesgatunek to survive – it's the culture around us that has made this resilience harder to upholdpodtrzymywać / utrzymywać.

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"We evolvedewoluowaliśmy / rozwinęliśmy się stopniowo to be adaptableelastyczny, potrafiący się dostosować, to have flexibilityelastyczność, zdolność do dostosowania się, to be able to manageradzić sobie z, opanować criseskryzysy, to be able to manageradzić sobie z, opanować different life history patternswzorce przebiegu życia," says Samson. "There are just going to be times in life where it's worth itwarte zachodu / opłacalne mimo wysiłku. You're shifting the gearprzestawianie priorytetów / zmiana biegu myślenia from 'longevitydługowieczność, długi czas trwania' to a mission-criticalkluczowy dla powodzenia misji / absolutnie priorytetowy task in the present. And I think reproductionrozmnażanie, reprodukcja is one of those things." 

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So, are there times in life when it's okay to lose sleepmartwić się, nie spać z przejęcia?

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"From the evolutionaryewolucyjny anthropologyantropologia perspectivepunkt widzenia – it's 100% yes."

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* Amanda Ruggeri is a journalist who explores the science, history and culture of the ideas we take for grantedbrać coś za pewnik; uważać coś za oczywiste. Her upcomingnadchodzący, mający się wkrótce odbyć book on sleep will be published by BenBella in summer 2027. She is @mandyruggeri on Instagram, Threads and TikTok.

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