Insomnia Not Recommended for Parents of Children Under Three

A recent study has confirmed what parenting and sleep experts have suspected for decades: insomniac mothers are not recommended for children under three years of age. While it is true that children of all ages suffer, it is those under three that show the most significant effects of a sleep-deprived mother's poor judgement.

In an alarming case study, a mother suffering from severe sleep deprivation--including repeated bouts of insomnia and three children who wake repeatedly at night for the first several years of life--climbed up onto a top bunk to make her son's bed. Leaving her youngest child to play with the telephone and a roll of scotch tape, she proceeded to lie down and close her eyes.

Hidden cameras showed that when she climbed down half an hour later, her youngest daughter (an infant barely over a year old) had found a red marker and drawn all over her face.

 

Unfortunately, that was not all.

The young child had also unloaded the shoe rack,



climbed onto a chair and helped herself to a drawer full of kitchen utensils,

 

opened and emptied a tub of glitter,

 

filled her purse, acquired a chapstick and made plans to strike out on her own,

 

then thought the better of it and put herself down for a nap on the couch with a toy bottle.



It must also be noted that this was a home where not only scotch tape, telephones, and colored markers but also Lego, Polly Pocket accessories, fridge magnets, and coin collections were all freely available.

While these incidents alone are both dangerous and disturbing, researchers believe the psychological effects arising from being raised by a sleep-deprived mother may be even more serious.

Further investigation is needed. It is clear, however, that children of all ages--and particularly those three and under--can benefit from being raised by mothers who SLEEP AT NIGHT.