You’ll Sleep when Your Newborn Lets You (start evil laugh)

May is Better Sleep Month – but try telling that to parents of newborns.

According to baby-breathing-monitor maker Owlet Baby Care, just 5% of parents with a newborn (zero to six months old) are getting the recommended eight hours of sleep a night.

A full 43% of them get a mere one to three hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.

Seventeen percent of moms say they get a poor night sleep every single night of the week due to their newborn.

This is nasty stuff, since impaired sleep can affect a parent’s health, moods and general well-being just when she needs it most.

It can also cause parents of newborns to fall asleep in some strange places, as Owlet found:

Close to one-third (30 percent) of new fathers have fallen asleep at work.
One in five (21 percent) of new parents have fallen asleep in a parked car.
Twelve percent have fallen asleep at the kitchen table.
Eleven percent have fallen asleep in the shower.

There’s no easy solution to this problem, but it certainly helps when parents share middle-of-the night baby responsibilities.

Owlet’s research found that not enough parents are doing this: 32% of moms report that their spouse or partner never get out of bed to check on baby at night, while only 7% of dads report that mom never got out of bed.

Of course, the Owlet Smart Sock monitor can help bring peace of mind. It sends alerts — to a base station and via WiFi to a smartphone — if a baby were to stop breathing while sleeping.

Another good piece of advice is to find ways to nap at work.