A study was recently conducted that revealed that lack of sleep could be responsible for new moms having trouble losing the baby weight postpartum.

Mothers who reported sleeping five hours or less per day when their babies were six months old had a threefold higher risk for substantial weight retention (11 pounds or more) at their baby’s first birthday than moms who slept seven hours per day, according to a new study by Kaiser Permanente and Harvard Medical School / Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

The study, published in the November issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the first to look at the impact of sleep deprivation on postpartum weight retention. Previous studies have looked at the effect of early postpartum sleep deprivation on mothers’ cognitive and emotional health but never associated weight gain.

“We’ve known for some time that sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain and obesity in the general population, but this study shows that getting enough sleep – even just two hours more – may be as important as a healthy diet and exercise for new mothers to return to their pre-pregnancy weight,” said Erica P. Gunderson, PhD, an investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland and the lead author of the study.

The study also found that mothers who slept fewer hours at one year postpartum than they did at six months postpartum had twice the risk of substantial weight retention. Other studies have shown that persistent sleep deprivation causes hormonal changes that may stimulate appetite. Shorter sleep duration has not only been linked to obesity in women, but coronary artery disease and diabetes as well.

Hum, well that’s interesting. But it seems I must be a freak of nature then, because with my first child, I never lost all the weight, and he slept very well, all night pretty much from 4-5 months. And I mean all night, not the 5 hours doctors consider is all night for a baby, but he would sleep 12 hours straight. No problem. I still could not lose the weight and got plenty of sleep. Baby #2…awake constantly till he was 14 months old…3-4-5 times a night. I never got more than 2 hour increments and was lucky to hit 5-6 hours total in a night. But low and behold I lost all the baby weight before he was 10 months old and an extra 20lbs on top of it.

Not that I don’t believe the study, I know I am strange, I have hormone issues which I believe are the cause of my weight issues more so than sleep issues.  It’s interesting that this is the first time a study like this has been done though, considering what an issue baby weight loss is for new moms.

Trouble is, what can you do, if you have a baby that doesn’t sleep, well, what are you gonna do. So wonderful, great to know what part of the problem could be, but it’s not like there is much a mom can do, baby’s need their moms, especially in the middle of the night. Such is life.

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