>> Although sleep duration increased after an all-time low at three months, neither parent had fully recovered their pre-pregnancy sleep after six years.

>Another reason to not have kids.

I was working nights before my kiddo came along, and I cant tell whether it was working in another timezone that ruined my sleep or he did. Either way, its not likely to ever come back.

> On average, the German study, which looked at nearly 40,000 people in total, found that parents who had at least one child under six years old reported sleeping about seven hours per night. Non-parents received just 10 minutes more sleep per night, for women, and 14 minutes more per night, for men.

I'll trade 15 minutes of sleep for a lifetime of joy, thank you :)

> on average

Not sure where are those lucky ones, but I've met half a dozen parents that became literal zombies during the first years because of a lack of sleep. From what they've reported, 2 hours is a lucky night. It does get better later on, after 2(!) years.

I have five children and find this very difficult to believe. Even the "worst" of it (age 0-3 months) was never anything close to that bad.

My neighbors' first kid had colic and they said the baby slept for at most 20 minutes at a time the first year.

So yea I imagine that'll turn you into a zombie.

They also said after a year they got a tip about a chiropractor (IIRC), went there and after 5 minutes the colic was gone. A real mix of emotions they said...

Both of my kids woke up their mom 2 to 4 times at night to feed for at least a year. One was a terrible sleeper, only 8 hours max per night, he still basically goes to sleep when the adults do and wakes up when the adults wake up. Sometimes before.

My second screamed every night for two years. It was fun.

None of your kids had colic? Every caretaker (experienced parents) that tried to releive us completely lost their mind within hours. And it never ends, for months.

A person's definition of a 'lifetime of joy' may exclude caring for children.

A lifetime is a long time. Much longer than children are children.

> A lifetime is a long time.

By all accounts it is not.