Sleep-deprived new mothers gave their infants a higher priority than themselves

Aim To understand why some parents are less sensitive to infant cues than others, we need to understand how healthy parents respond, and how this is influenced by factors such as sleep deprivation. Here, we examined whether sleep deprivation alters the self-infant-prioritisation effect in a population of first-time mothers within their first year of motherhood. Methods The study took place at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark from August 2018 until February 2020. First-time mothers were recruited through Midwife clinics, national and social media. All women completed a perceptual matching task including an infant category. The mothers were divided into two groups depending on their sleep status: below or above 7 h of average night-time sleep, measured with actigraphy. Results Forty-eight first-time mothers at the age of 29.13 +/- 3.87 years were included. In the sleep-deprived group, the infant category was statistically significantly higher in accuracy (p = 0.005) and faster in reaction time (p < 0.001) than all other categories. In contrast, in the non-sleep-deprived group, there was no statistically significant difference between self and infant, neither in accuracy, nor reaction time. Conclusion Sleep-deprived new mothers strongly prioritised infants over self, while non-sleep-deprived new mothers showed no prioritisation of the self over the infant.

Automated summary

This study examined the impact of sleep deprivation on the self-infant prioritization effect in first-time mothers. The findings showed that sleep-deprived mothers prioritized infants over themselves, while non-sleep-deprived mothers did not show any prioritization of self over the infant.