Are men more likely to sleep through a baby’s cries?

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Recent research from Aarhus University in Denmark has contested a widely accepted aspect of parenting – that women or mothers are “hardwired” and more likely to wake up to a baby’s cries than men.

There were barely any differences between how men and women reacted to auditory stimuli, the research showed. Women were only slightly more responsive than men to sounds at a lower volume.

However, women or mothers were three times more likely to wake up during the night to respond to or check on their child, according to the study.

Published in the journal of the American Psychological Association, the first study, which had 140 adult participants between the ages of 18 to 42 without children, showed that there was no difference in the waking patterns of men and women.

Christine Parsons, professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University and one of the study’s authors, told CTV News.ca that women woke up with a slightly higher probability, but only to sounds at a “whisper-level volume.”

There were two kinds of sounds played through the mobile application used as a testing method for the study: a baby’s cry and an alarm.

“It allowed us to detect with really high precision how quickly men and women were able to wake up to these sounds,” Parsons said. “And then we could compare.”

The second study, consisting of 224 first-time parents, showed the differences in how many times men and women woke up for nighttime caregiving.

The study’s participants answered a questionnaire every morning for seven days about their sleep and overnight caregiving, along with their partners’.

“We know a lot about what mothers and fathers do during the day, but surprisingly, there have been relatively few studies looking at nighttime care,” Parsons said. “And that’s actually the part of parenthood that’s really challenging.”

‘Important conversations’

There are other societal factors like parental leave that can shape caregiving behaviours, according to parenting and psychiatry experts.

Dr. Shimi Kang, clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia, told CTV News.ca this study reflects “important conversations that are happening in our society and culture.”

Kang points out that pregnancy and the post-pregnancy period involve important variables that can lead to significant physiological changes in women.

The study also highlights the impact of social factors, particularly parental leave policies.

“Mothers have substantially more earmarked parental leave available to them than fathers on average, which generally leads to greater maternal time with an infant in the postnatal period,” the study said. “Mothers are also the primary users of leave entitlements that can be shared between parents, resulting in different opportunities for engaging in infant care in the early months postpartum.”

Kang acknowledges the study’s findings on gender and women’s perceived or assumed responsibility for a baby’s overnight care.

“The women’s brain has more empathy. The centres of empathy are bigger,” Kang explains. “So maybe there’s more empathy, compassion to want to console this infant, on the positive.”

“On the negative, there’s this feeling of guilt and societal messages that drive her to do that.”

Men, however, may have a greater sense of confidence and less guilt, she said. But the negative aspect could be feelings of laziness and selfishness.

Kang added that although there are some factors that are determined by society like nurturing behaviour that determines the roles of men and women, these roles are not fixed.

“I think that parenting is a time of huge stress. There is a mental health crisis (and) sleep deprivation is on the rise. Parents are one of the most stressed groups,” she said. “And I think for people, having these kinds of conversations about roles and responsibilities as much as they can is really good for all parties involved – and for society in general.”