Up all night: Exactly how bad is long-term sleep deprivation for the health of new parents?

Thankfully, it won’t kill you (in case you’ve Googled it too). Lauren Taylor examines the damage – and what really helps.

Sleep deprivation: what's the longterm effect?

We’re bombarded with messages that sleep is vital for our physical and mental health. Sleep allows the brain to process information, the body to recover from the day, our heart rate and breathing to slow down and hormones to regulate, among other things – all of which sound pretty crucial to our survival. So if you’re a new parent – or a parent or carer to a young child with sleep problems – that messaging can make you feel quite powerless.

“Sleep while you still can,” everyone told me, well-meaningly, before I had a baby. We’re conditioned to understand that ‘newborn equals tiredness’, so of course everyone expects multiple night-time waking and early mornings. At least at first. I didn’t really expect not to have a full night’s sleep for almost a year though – and the impact that would have.