New estimates show that the number of UK parents of babies from birth to 18 months who are regularly kept awake at night has risen to over a million. In persistent cases, many parents suffer severe effects from this sleep deprivation, including long-term health problems and even marriage breakdown.

Exhaustion is usually viewed as unavoidable by most new parents, who try to "grin and bear it". However the publication on New Year's Day of The Good Sleep Guide for You and Your Baby by Angela Henderson offers some valuable words of advice

Like many other modern mothers, Angela Henderson found little information available when her first child was born, and coped with severe sleep deprivation while also juggling the demands of childcare, running a home and holding down a job (in her case, as director of a medical charity).

So traumatic was her experience of sleep deprivation, it changed the course of her life. At the birth of her second baby she decided to use her time and her medical charity expertise to research and write the step-by-step guide she'd searched for the first time around.

As a result, The Good Sleep Guide for You and Your Baby was born, presented in a simple, practical way for exhausted parents.

"The stress of long-term crying in babies and small children can lead to a range of extremely serious problems including: child abuse, ill health, marriage and relationship breakdown and inability to function at work," said Jacquie McGreavey; co-ordinator of the Tayside Group of Sleep Clinics.

Her latest research also indicates sleep deprivation as a major cause of maternal post-natal depression.

Angela's book contains practical, step by step tips to encourage baby to sleep through the night. For instance she suggests that when feeding at night "behave very differently from a day-time feed. Keep quiet, don't talk to him or interact 'socially'. Make it clear that night is for sleeping, not playing."

Her book is now in its second edition - and has been published by Gloucestershire company Hawthorn Press.

Parental sleep deprivation is a serious problem which carries with it heavy costs for the taxpayer and the health services. Angela Henderson's simple analogy makes the stark case: "If there were over a million UK adults suffering annually from a debilitating disease, then finding a solution would be an NHS priority. More Government money spent on proper education and clinical help can save money and probably also lives."

Victoria Temple

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