I guess I should have clarified that I define for my classes that "better" sleep, meaning "safe" sleep, 
is not necessarily "longer" sleep. That longer sleep may not be healthy for infants and certainly is 
not in the early days when breastfeeding is being established & baby might be sleeping through 
feeds.  I always point out that the caloric content is identical between formula and breast milk - 
that the thick look of formula does not mean that there are more calories and that the nutrient 
content of breast milk is clearly superior when it comes to nutrients that are absorbed and used 
by the baby.

As for the length of time an infant sleeps on formula - some of this may be simply due to bottle 
feeding rather than the content of the bottle because either the breastfeeding wasn't going well 
and finally slept longer because the baby was full or the baby was overfed from the bottle and fed 
longer than the baby should have.  Then the other scenario exists which I do find among my 
clientele that the baby is really fussy and sleeps a lot less when formula is introduced.  

I'm not really sure I would be convinced about any research comparing sleep on formula versus 
sleep on breast milk unless conditions were very controlled as to breastfeeding going well, 
amount of intake, bottle versus the breast and a host of other conditions.  Given what I now know 
about how parents in Manhattan classify exclusive breastfeeding and how deeply I have to probe 
to uncover the bottle of formula in the hospital, I would look at any study on the topic with a very 
keen eye as to comparability between the groups.

Susan Burger

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