Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents

Göran Härdelin,1,2 Benjamin C Holding,1,3 Tim Reess,2 Anahita Geranmayeh,1,2 John Axelsson,1,2 Tina Sundelin1,2 1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Department of Sociology, University of...

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Autores principales:	Härdelin G, Holding BC, Reess T, Geranmayeh A, Axelsson J, Sundelin T
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Dove Medical Press 2021
Materias:	parent sleep working parental leave equal imbalance Psychiatry RC435-571 Neurophysiology and neuropsychology QP351-495
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/15aa25d91ce5453e9f0d0b9f81aabe6f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:15aa25d91ce5453e9f0d0b9f81aabe6f2021-12-02T17:25:13ZDo Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents1179-1608https://doaj.org/article/15aa25d91ce5453e9f0d0b9f81aabe6f2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.dovepress.com/do-mothers-have-worse-sleep-than-fathers-sleep-imbalance-parental-stre-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-NSShttps://doaj.org/toc/1179-1608Göran Härdelin,1,2 Benjamin C Holding,1,3 Tim Reess,2 Anahita Geranmayeh,1,2 John Axelsson,1,2 Tina Sundelin1,2 1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkCorrespondence: Tina SundelinStress Research Institute, Department of Psychology, Stockholm, 106 91, SwedenEmail tina.sundelin@psychology.su.sePurpose: Previous research indicates that mothers take a larger responsibility for child care during the night and that they have more disturbed sleep than fathers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether such a sleep imbalance exists in working parents of young children, and the extent to which it depends on the way sleep is measured. The study also examined whether imbalanced sleep between parents predicts parental stress and relationship satisfaction.Methods: Sleep was measured for seven consecutive days in 60 parenting couples (average age of the youngest child: 3.3 years ± SD 2.5 years). Actigraphs were worn across the week, and ratings of sleep, parental stress, and relationship satisfaction were made daily.Results: Mothers perceived their sleep quality as worse (b= − 0.38 scale units, p< 0.001), with more wake periods (b= +0.96 awakenings, p< 0.001) but with longer sleep duration (b= +32.4 min, p< 0.01) than fathers. Actigraphy data confirmed that mothers slept longer than fathers (b= +28.03 min, p< 0.001), but no significant differences were found for wake time, number of awakenings or who woke up first during shared awakenings. Furthermore, there was no difference in whether mothers and fathers slept sufficiently. The level of sleep imbalance between parents did not predict parental stress. A larger imbalance in subjective sleep sufficiency predicted decreased relationship satisfaction for fathers (b= − 0.13 scale units, p< 0.01) but increased relationship satisfaction for mothers (b= 0.14 scale units, p< 0.05). No other sleep imbalance measures predicted relationship satisfaction.Conclusion: Our findings are in line with previous research on sleep in men and women in general, with longer sleep and subjective reports of sleep disturbances in women, rather than previous research on sleep in parents of young children. Thus, we found no evidence of a sleep imbalance when both parents have similar working responsibilities.Keywords: parent, sleep, working, parental leave, equal, imbalanceHärdelin GHolding BCReess TGeranmayeh AAxelsson JSundelin TDove Medical Pressarticleparentsleepworkingparental leaveequalimbalancePsychiatryRC435-571Neurophysiology and neuropsychologyQP351-495ENNature and Science of Sleep, Vol Volume 13, Pp 1955-1966 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	parent sleep working parental leave equal imbalance Psychiatry RC435-571 Neurophysiology and neuropsychology QP351-495
spellingShingle	parent sleep working parental leave equal imbalance Psychiatry RC435-571 Neurophysiology and neuropsychology QP351-495 Härdelin G Holding BC Reess T Geranmayeh A Axelsson J Sundelin T Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents
description	Göran Härdelin,1,2 Benjamin C Holding,1,3 Tim Reess,2 Anahita Geranmayeh,1,2 John Axelsson,1,2 Tina Sundelin1,2 1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkCorrespondence: Tina SundelinStress Research Institute, Department of Psychology, Stockholm, 106 91, SwedenEmail tina.sundelin@psychology.su.sePurpose: Previous research indicates that mothers take a larger responsibility for child care during the night and that they have more disturbed sleep than fathers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether such a sleep imbalance exists in working parents of young children, and the extent to which it depends on the way sleep is measured. The study also examined whether imbalanced sleep between parents predicts parental stress and relationship satisfaction.Methods: Sleep was measured for seven consecutive days in 60 parenting couples (average age of the youngest child: 3.3 years ± SD 2.5 years). Actigraphs were worn across the week, and ratings of sleep, parental stress, and relationship satisfaction were made daily.Results: Mothers perceived their sleep quality as worse (b= − 0.38 scale units, p< 0.001), with more wake periods (b= +0.96 awakenings, p< 0.001) but with longer sleep duration (b= +32.4 min, p< 0.01) than fathers. Actigraphy data confirmed that mothers slept longer than fathers (b= +28.03 min, p< 0.001), but no significant differences were found for wake time, number of awakenings or who woke up first during shared awakenings. Furthermore, there was no difference in whether mothers and fathers slept sufficiently. The level of sleep imbalance between parents did not predict parental stress. A larger imbalance in subjective sleep sufficiency predicted decreased relationship satisfaction for fathers (b= − 0.13 scale units, p< 0.01) but increased relationship satisfaction for mothers (b= 0.14 scale units, p< 0.05). No other sleep imbalance measures predicted relationship satisfaction.Conclusion: Our findings are in line with previous research on sleep in men and women in general, with longer sleep and subjective reports of sleep disturbances in women, rather than previous research on sleep in parents of young children. Thus, we found no evidence of a sleep imbalance when both parents have similar working responsibilities.Keywords: parent, sleep, working, parental leave, equal, imbalance
format	article
author	Härdelin G Holding BC Reess T Geranmayeh A Axelsson J Sundelin T
author_facet	Härdelin G Holding BC Reess T Geranmayeh A Axelsson J Sundelin T
author_sort	Härdelin G
title	Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents
title_short	Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents
title_full	Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents
title_fullStr	Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents
title_full_unstemmed	Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents
title_sort	do mothers have worse sleep than fathers? sleep imbalance, parental stress, and relationship satisfaction in working parents
publisher	Dove Medical Press
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/15aa25d91ce5453e9f0d0b9f81aabe6f
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Do Mothers Have Worse Sleep Than Fathers? Sleep Imbalance, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction in Working Parents

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