One of the hardest parts about being a new parent is the loss of sleep. Getting up with the baby in the middle of the night time and time again can really take it’s toll on you.

Then there is the debate of who is going to get up with the baby next, mom or dad? I never knew this issue had a name until recently. It is called "Competitive Baby Sleep Syndrome". I read a very interesting article about it on Telegraph.co.uk written by Sawrah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent. Here is what Having A Baby Costs Two Months Sleep A Year had to say about this syndrome:

While loss of sleep is an accepted part of bringing a baby into the world, perhaps not so many parents realised that they can lose two months sleep during the first year of their infant’s life. By the age of one, 38 per cent of babies are still not sleeping through. Research published today shows that a third of new parents lose that amount of sleep and reports a new condition – Competitive Sleep Syndrome. It seems almost half of new parents argue over who has less sleep, and a fifth become competitive with friends by bragging, often falsely, about how good their baby is at sleeping through the night. Inevitably, mothers blame fathers for their own sleep deficit, saying men are slow to get out of bed in the night. While 42 per cent of mothers say they respond to their baby’s night-time cries within 30 seconds, only 12 per cent believe their partner does, and 68 per cent believe it takes their partner five minutes or longer. Only one per cent of women claim to be able to sleep through crying but 43 per cent claim their partner can. The survey was conducted by the nursery products company Tomy, which said a third of parents regularly lose 90 minutes sleep a night, equivalent to a full night’s sleep every week or 68 in a year.

The good news is that one day you will sleep again, although it might be several years away!