I wonder if they meant 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep?  Getting 5
hours of uninterrupted sleep helps replenish serotonin, I think.
Sleep deprivation is one of the factors that contributes to PPD.

Cordelia

On Oct 1, 2009, at 3:01 PM, LACTNET automatic digest system wrote:

>
> Date:    Thu, 1 Oct 2009 15:28:00 -0400
> From:    Elizabeth Cammin <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: lactating mothers' need of sleep
>
> Marit Olanders wrote:
>> In a Swedish book on child rearing I read "Five hours of sleep for a
>> lactating mother equals eight hours of sleep for someone who doesn't
>> breastfeed". No reference. Hence my personal experience this is not
>> correct.
> Totally anecdotal here, but that amount of sleep literally made me
> sick.   I possibly have two of the worst sleeping children I have
> heard
> of.  My son was 2 when my daughter was born, and between the two of
> them, even with help from husband, I had so much interrupted sleep for
> so long that I got mono at 38 years old and could not get rid of it, I
> had symptoms for at least a year.  It will flare up when I get too run
> down.  I am a nurse since 1992 and I have been exposed to tons of
> nasty
> bugs and never used to get sick.  Now I get sick all the time, I have
> had strep throat 3 times since my daughter was born in 2007 and when I
> get colds, they are not just easy colds that go away after a week,
> they
> hang on for a couple of weeks.
>
> My almost 5 years of sleep deprivation have taken a toll on my health,
> my immune system is depressed, I never used to get sick like this,
> plus
> I am having a heck of a time losing weight, read that the cortisol
> that
> results from being sleep deprived will make it really hard to lose
> weight, and now I have chronic pain in my feet from the extra weight
> and
> it has also exacerbated my fibromyalgia.
>
> I have never given a drop of formula to either child and I am a stay
> at
> home mom.  My daughter is still breastfeeding.  I have been
> breastfeeding for almost 5 years straight.
>
> Five hours of sleep a night would make me mentally and physically
> unstable.  I think this "fact" flies in the face of research on sleep
> deprivation, which, they are finding causes all kinds of diseases.
> Again it's anecdotal but I cannot see how breastfeeding could possibly
> make you need less sleep.
>
> Liz Cammin, RN and LLL Leader, Midland, MI


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