Study to focus on sleep-deprived new dads

Kerry Benjoe , Regina Leader-Post; CanWest News Service

Published: Wednesday, December 05, 2007

REGINA - Chronic sleep deprivation is one of new motherhood's lesser joys, as any first-time mom will tell you between yawns.

What is less understood is how a new baby in the house affects fathers -- and a professor at the University of Regina is trying to change that.

"Although we do know a fair bit about what it's like for moms to become new parents, we don't know so much what it's like for dads," said Lynn Loutzenhiser, head of a study called Mom & Dad Plus One.

Loutzenhiser, who is with the university's psychology department, said a study conducted two years ago by the university found something surprising about the relationship between parents' and babies' sleep patterns.

"Some of the findings that we were not expecting, was that infant sleep patterns seemed to be affected by some of our fathers' experiences, such as stress," Loutzenhiser said.

Loutzenhiser said th study will take 100 first-time parents and conduct four separate interviews: one during the third trimester of pregnancy, another when the infant reaches one month, again when the baby is three months, then six months old.

The parents will also fill out questionnaires at each stage about stress and health, or anything else that could cause fatigue.

Loutzenhiser said the goal is to find out how fatigue affects new parents.

"Maybe we should be concerned about parents who are totally exhausted and who are just trying to get through their days," Loutzenhiser said. "But we need to know more about that before we can help them."