Dear all:
I was just skimming and saw the two questions about sleeping enough and stress in 
regards to milk supply.

The New York Times Sunday magazine section did a brilliant article on sleep called 
something like the "Sleep Industrial Complex".  It is a good read on misconceptions about 
sleep.  It confirmed what is true for my husband and I.  He has a problem getting 
restorative sleep.  I actually sleep fewer hours than he does.  This seems to be true for 
people who have problems feeling restored after sleep --- they do not sleep fewer hours 
than those who have restorative sleep.  In fact, the article describes patterns of sleep 
that occurred until fairly recently in human history where it was not at all uncommon for 
people to get up in the middle of the night and then go back to sleep again.  It turns out 
that eight hours of continual sleep is not the norm.  Of course, I really liked the siestas 
that were built into tropical cultures and have been abandoned elsewhere.  In Niger, we 
had a 2-3 hour siesta break from work at midday.

The more important question is whether or not the family is setting up patterns than 
enable restorative sleep.  This means --- enhancing the natural sleep rhythms.  
Disruptions occur when humans are yanked out of deep sleep.  Like menstrual cycles 
among women living together, creating a secure close safe environment for sleep can 
facilitate the family developing natural sleep rhythms that are in sync, whereby the 
family wakes up in light sleep mode for infant feeding and then immediately drifts back 
through the other modes.  If you have the feeding environment three rooms away and 
down a set of stairs --- it will not facilitate quick return to deeper modes of sleep.  Here 
in Manhattan, parents always laugh when I say that its actually difficult to not cosleep 
(meaning in close enough proximity for parents and babies to hear each other) because 
we all live in tiny spaces.  Many middle class families (and we are the minority here) 
actually take the door off a closet in the bedroom and turn the closet into the baby's 
"room".  

So, I think the more important question is not whether parents are getting enough sleep 
but what are the impediments to getting restorative sleep!  And mothers can really be 
helped by oxytocin release.  I've seen more mothers have trouble sleeping who are not 
draining their breasts at night with either baby or pump --- or are in severe pain which I 
do believe counteracts the effects of oxytocin --- or are getting up and washing a bunch 
of bottles or running into a separate room in the middle of the night.

And as for stress --- again --- after 9-11 I found that mothers continued to make milk 
despite severe ongoing stress.  I think discussing coping strategies is more important for 
mothers to have the energy to resolve their breastfeeding problems without planting the 
idea that because you have stress you will make less milk.  That way, a mother who is 
feeling stressed doesn't feel like she's doing one more thing wrong by being stressed.  
Her stress response may very well be appropriate, the causes of the stress need to be 
addressed.

Best, Susan Burger

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