Parents’ Sleep Across Weekdays and Weekends: The Influence of Work, Housework, and Childcare Time

Abstract

Children increase time demands with important consequences for sleep. Here, we test whether parents’ paid and unpaid time demands and the presence of young children equally reduce mothers’ and fathers’ sleep, comparing the married/cohabiting to unmarried. Applying data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS, 2003–2016), we find married/cohabiting mothers report less sleep when young children or multiple children are present; they are employed; their spouses are employed; and they spend more time in housework and childcare. By contrast, unmarried mothers report less sleep when children are present because of their larger domestic loads. For married/cohabiting fathers, the presence of multiple children is associated with less sleep but doing more housework results in more sleep. Finally, unmarried fathers’ employment time explains the association of children on their sleep. Parents report a sleep deficit relative to the childless but the reasons vary by gender and the co-presence of a partner.