Sleep Loss No Greater With Breastfeeding

Women who breastfeed don’t get less sleep than women who bottle-feed, a new study finds. Researchers looked into the question because very young babies get hungry and wake up more often if they are breastfed. That’s because breast milk is more easily digested than formula. The study included 80 women with young babies. Most of them were newborns. The study lasted for 12 weeks. Some women fed their babies breast milk only. Others used formula only, or both methods of feeding. The women kept electronic diaries about their sleep patterns. They recorded the number of times they woke up at night, the quality of sleep and how rested they felt during the day. They also wore devices to measure sleep. Overall, the feeding method did not affect how much sleep women got or how rested they felt. The journal Pediatrics published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it November 8.