Why New Moms Still Feel Exhausted—Even With “Enough” Sleep

If you're a new parent running on fumes—even though your sleep tracker says you clocked a decent number of hours—you're not imagining things. A new study presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that while new moms may eventually get back to their pre-baby total sleep time, the way they sleep is still very different… and very disrupted.

Sleep: Not Just About Hours!

Researchers at Washington State University’s Sleep and Performance Research Center followed 41 first-time moms (ages 26 to 43), gathering sleep data from their Fitbits starting a year before birth and continuing through baby’s first birthday.

In that first postpartum week, moms averaged just 4.4 hours of sleep per night—a big drop from their pre-baby average of 7.8 hours. And the longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep? That shrank from 5.6 hours to just 2.2. Even by the time their baby was 2 to 3 months old, moms were still only getting about 4.1 hours of continuous sleep—well below what they were used to pre-parenthood.

Dr. Teresa Lillis, the study’s lead author and an adjunct professor at Rush University Medical Center, explains: “Moms do tend to regain their total nightly sleep after those early weeks, but the structure of their sleep stays changed.” In other words, it’s not just about how much sleep you get—but whether you get to stay asleep. And that makes a big difference in how rested (or not) you feel.

Why This Matters for Maternal Health

Interrupted sleep isn’t just frustrating—it can affect your mental and physical well-being. Dr. Lillis points out that fragmented sleep like this could be a factor in postpartum depression and other health issues.

So while advice like “sleep when the baby sleeps” isn’t wrong, this study suggests we should go one step further: New moms need help getting longer, more restful chunks of sleep, not just more minutes overall.

The takeaway? If you're a mom feeling wiped out even after technically getting enough sleep, there's a reason. Your sleep may still be chopped up and not nearly as restorative as it used to be—and that matters. It’s time we talk not just about how much moms are sleeping, but how well.

A Smarter Way to Stretch Sleep

At Happiest Baby, we know exhaustion is more than just a nuisance—it can impact every aspect of life. That’s why we created SNOO! Our award-winning smart bassinet automatically responds to your baby’s cries with gentle rocking and white noise to help your little one fall and stay asleep…so you get more uninterrupted ZZZs, too. In fact, SNOO adds 1–2+ hours of sleep each night, helping sleep-deprived parents get the deep, continuous rest they need to feel like themselves again.

More on Sleep and Maternal Health:

• How to Prioritize Your Sleep During Parental Leave
• Sleep: The Ultimate Brain Boost
• Maternal Health Is Declining—Here’s What to Know
• The Happiest Baby Postpartum Mental Wellness Toolkit

Disclaimer: The information on our site is NOT medical advice for any specific person or condition. It is only meant as general information. If you have any medical questions and concerns about your child or yourself, please contact your health provider.