Infant Feeding Methods and Maternal Sleep and Daytime Functioning

The benefits of breast-feeding are well established for both mothers and infants. Some previous studies based on subjective evidence from maternal diaries reported that breast-fed infants have less total sleep time and more nighttime awakenings compared with formula-fed infants, although others found no differences for either of these sleep measures. Relatively few studies have investigated the effect of feeding methods on maternal sleep. One study using actigraphy, an objective measure of sleep performance, reported no decrease in sleep time at night among breast-feeding mothers compared to formula-feeding mothers but more awakenings during the night.This study investigated possible differences in sleep performance and daytime functioning between mothers who breast-fed, mothers who formula-fed, and those who used a combination of the 2 methods by assessing objective and subjective measures during the first 3 postpartum months. The use of continuous wrist actigraphy provided objective measurements of total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and sleep fragmentation.Mothers used a personal digital assistant to record subjective sleep measures, including, numbers of nocturnal awakenings, total nocturnal wake time, sleep quality, and daytime functioning by using the fatigue visual analog scale, the Stanford Sleepiness Scale, or the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.The data showed no differences in objective and subjective measures of sleep or sleepiness/fatigue between breast-feeding mothers, formula feeding mothers, and those using a combination of the 2 methods.These findings provide further support for the positive effect of breast-feeding on maternal sleep.