A new study has found that mothers who only manage to get five hours or less sleep each night are three times more likely to hang on to that extra weight gained in pregnancy, while women who slept seven hours a night or more lost more weight.
The researchers from Kaiser Permanente and Harvard Medical School believe their study is the first to examine the impact of sleep deprivation on weight retention in mothers after their baby is born.
While other studies have looked at the effect of sleep deprivation on mothers' cognitive and emotional health, associated weight gain has not been considered.
Dr. Erica P. Gunderson, a researcher with Kaiser Permanente and the lead author of the study, says it is well known that sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain and obesity in the general population.
Dr. Gunderson says the study shows that getting enough sleep, even two hours more, may be as important as a healthy diet and exercise for new mothers to return to their pre-pregnancy weight.
The study also found that mothers who slept fewer hours one year after the birth of their baby had twice the risk of substantial weight retention.
Other research has demonstrated that persistent sleep deprivation causes hormonal changes that may stimulate appetite; too little sleep has not only been linked to obesity in women, but also coronary artery disease and diabetes.
Of course welcome as any new research is which enhances our understanding of the human body, new mothers struggling to cope with fractious infants are bound to ponder what they are realistically able to do about a lack of sleep, particularly if they have other young children.