Today I wanted to talk a little bit about sleep deprivation and the huge impact it can have not only on children, but as parents too. Before we jump in, a little disclaimer: as parents, we expect some degree of sleep deprivation when we have children. Infants are MEANT to wake in the night, and even older children will wake in the night if something disturbs them, they are unwell or they have a specific need, and that’s NOT what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about the sleep deprivation that goes on longer than it should. The sleep deprivation that doesn’t feel right, and you know needs to change, as it’s simply not sustainable.
Looking back over history, there has been definite shifts as to how we view sleep or lack thereof. Sleep used to be quite a revered process, something to be taken seriously and some believed almost a spiritual state to be in. Fast forward to current day, technological advances, the average working week and you have a population that are not only sleep deprived, but who also actually strive to have lack of sleep.
The phrase, ‘you’ll sleep when you are dead’, and ‘I stayed up until 1am working’, are commonplace. It’s almost a badge of honour when your blood is actually 99.9% caffeine.
And now onto parents. Having a child that has sleep difficulties is not only exhausting, but can bring with it a whole host of other emotions, such as embarrassment, isolation and shame, as your little one doesn’t fit with the status quo of everyone else’s cherub like child who sleeps for 12 hours straight. And I think for many families, they choose to accept their lot. They choose to accept those sleepless nights, the bedtime battles. The rest of the population is barely sleeping anyway, so why you should be disgruntled if you’ve getting less sleep than you should?
But sustained sleep deprivation has a huge impact on not only our mental wellbeing, but also our physical wellbeing too.
Studies have found that children who have a better quality and quantity of sleep actually have improved concentration, general behaviour and are also more resilient to common ailments, such as colds.
And for women, this sustained sleep deprivation increases the risk of heart disease, type II diabetes and also depression. There has also been research demonstrating a strong link between post-partum depression and sleep deprivation.
And it goes further than that.
Researchers in Australia found that individuals who were sleep deprived demonstrated similar driving capabilities that were the same as drunk-drivers. So it’s not only the impact sleep deprivation can have on families, the effects can have much further reaching and dangerous consequences.
So where do that leave us?
It means that as a society we really need to reduce the stigma and pre-conceptions of severely sleep-deprived families. We need to support and provide non-judgmental and practical advice. Sleep deprivation affects so many families worldwide, yet, for so many, they struggle on a daily basis.
We pay money for the latest technology, the best skin care, those new shoes/bag/ holiday (delete as appropriate)…but using money to get support from a sleep consultant…people think twice. But when sleep really does affect so much more than feeling exhausted every day, getting good quality sleep should be towards the top of the list.
If you feel you would like some support with your child’s sleep, I’d love to chat. You can email me: laura@sleepnurse.uk, or feel free to book a free 30 minute discovery call via my homepage.
*Sources: The Sleep Revolution, Arianna Huffington / The Sleep Charity (2025).
