Lack of sleep presents
a parental problem. Sleep
well to parent well.
All parents know what it’s like to miss out on sleep, yet it appears that a lack of quality sleep is associated with parenting ability. Tu et al (2018) found evidence that mothers who reported a lack of quality sleep were more permissive parents to their adolescent children – that is parenting marked by lax or inconsistent discipline.
The findings also indicate that this might be particularly relevant for African-American mothers and mothers from socioeconomically disadvantaged households. Is this a vicious cycle – tired mothers struggling to enforce consistent discipline and ultimately losing sleep because of it?
Original research: https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12676