Irish babies top EU havoc league

IRISH babies are no bundle of joy in the bedroom, where they cause havoc with their parents’ sleep patterns and sex lives.

A survey shows the tiny tots can cause massive disruption by going to sleep later and waking more often than some of their European cousins.

They are also more likely to share a room or even a bed with their parents and they leave their sleep-starved mammies and daddies looking more haggard than other parents.

The survey, carried out by Pampers, shows Irish parents with babies between one and 13 months get on average five-and-a-half hours' uninterrupted sleep.

That's slightly more than bleary-eyed British parents but a precious half-hour less than the Germans and a whole hour-and-a-quarter less than the French.

Irish babies are also slow to board the bus for sleepy-bye land, with the average bedtime recorded at 8.55pm, compared to 8.45pm in Britain, 8.30pm in France and 8.15pm in Germany. Three out of five don't go to bed until after 9pm and just one-in-10 beds down before 7.30pm.

French babies are the most independent, with 75% sleeping in their own room and only 2% sharing a mattress with their parents. Irish babies are at the other extreme, with 38% sleeping in their own room and 11% sharing their parents' bed.

That's despite the advice from experts that babies who snuggle under their parents' duvets are almost twice as likely to wake during the night than those who have their own space.

Little wonder then that Irish parents are the most likely to complain that having a baby has had a negative impact on their personal appearance and one-in-five say the new arrival has put a strain on their sexual relationship.

Matters are worse in Britain, where one-in-four parents say baby's arrival has upset their nocturnal activities. British babies also take the longest to settle down, demanding 50 minutes of lullabies, pleading and bribery compared to 45 minutes for Irish tots and 40 minutes for the French and German.

On the plus side for parents with newborns here, they only have on average four months of chronic sleep deprivation to suffer before their little one starts sleeping through the night.