Sleep Tops New Parents' Mental Health Needs, Survey Reveals

Summary: Owlet’s State of Parenting Report highlights the mental health challenges faced by new parents, with sleep deprivation, stress, and anxiety playing major roles. Parents, on average, lose three hours of sleep per night during their baby’s first year, contributing to feelings of exhaustion and overwhelming worry about their child’s health, particularly around illnesses and sleep-related risks like SIDS. Many parents turn to technology for reassurance, with 75% reporting that baby monitoring tools help reduce anxiety.

Key Takeaways:

Sleep Deprivation Is the Top Mental Health Concern: 54% of parents cited more sleep as the greatest need for improving their mental health.
Health Worries Intensify Stress: Nearly 40% of parents are most concerned about their baby’s risk of illness or sleep-related death, fueling additional anxiety.
Technology Provides Comfort: 75% of parents reported that monitoring technology helped alleviate stress and anxiety about their baby’s well-being.

Infant smart monitoring company Owlet Inc released its State of Parenting Report, which reveals the pressure parents face during their baby’s first year of life, noting that, on average, parents lose three hours of sleep per night, contributing to higher levels of stress and fatigue.

With 126 million pediatric visits every year, it’s clear that health concerns also weigh heavily on parents’ minds. The number one reason for these visits is respiratory infections, and parents remain concerned about sudden and unexpected health issues. Still today, one of the leading causes of infant mortality is unexpected deaths during sleep, caused by sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), suffocation, and other unknown factors.

The new data sheds even more light on these struggles, along with the common feelings that overwhelm new parents, as well as the tools they seek for support.

The Link Between Exhaustion, Anxiety, and Parents’ Mental Health

The survey reveals that exhaustion (61%) is the most common emotion parents experience during the first year, followed by feeling overwhelmed (48%) and anxious (32%). This is compounded by 86% of parents waking up as many as eight times a night to check on their baby.

A lack of restful sleep, driven by these worries, continues to affect parents’ mental health. When asked what would benefit their mental health, but is the hardest to find, these parents answered:

More sleep – 54%
Time for self-care activities or hobbies – 43%
Assistance for household chores or responsibilities – 39%
More support from my family, friends, or partner – 32%

Worry About Baby’s Health is Causing Even More Stress

Exhaustion and overwhelmed feelings aside, these parents are also in a state of worry about their newborns’ well-being and health. When looking at common concerns parents may have during the first year of their baby’s life, nearly 40% of parents are most worried about their newborn contracting an illness, such as respiratory syncytial virus or passing away during their sleep from SIDS.

These fears further intensify parents’ stress, with 53% reporting they get little to no sleep and more than 40% saying that they feel extremely on edge and anxious when their baby is sick.

Parents Rely on Technology to Help Alleviate Their Anxiety

While the data finds that parents are alike in their worries and fears, it also shows commonality through the tools and solutions parents need to ease their worries and give them more peace of mind.

Nearly three out of four parents feel technology that helps them monitor their baby has made them feel less stressed and anxious.
50% of parents want a monitor that helps them understand if and when they need to seek medical attention when their baby is sick.
When their babies are sick, nearly a quarter of parents wish they had medical-grade health monitoring technology at home.

This report follows the recent launch of Only Owlet, the company’s global initiative that puts a spotlight on the universal parenting experience and demonstrates how parents can be more empowered to take the best care of their baby.

The total sample size was 3,012 parents (aged 16 and older) with children aged 1 and under across Germany, the UK, and the US. The research was conducted from June 13-18.