Sleep? You must be dreaming!

You what?!

According to a just-published sleep study carried out by the Arizona State University, whether or not you’re suffering from sleep-deprivation and, as a result, poor quality of life, it’s all in your head. The results of the five-year sleep study suggest that those who feel they don’t get adequate sleep, see a bigger impact on their quality of life (they’re tired, cranky, short-tempered – sound familiar?!) – while those who don’t focus on their sleep, or don’t notice that they haven’t had enough are getting on with everything just fine, thanks for asking.

Lead author of the study, Graciela E. Silva, PhD, assistant professor at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at ASU says: “These findings signal to the importance of perception of quality of sleep on quality of life.”

In other words, if you think you’ve had a crap night’s sleep, you’ll be grumpy and miserable as a result (ie experiencing rubbish quality of life). But if you haven’t noticed that you’ve been falling asleep half-way through the 7PM Project, only to be rudely awoken at three am, staying up with your restless offspring till four am, crashing out till six am and then going hammer and tongs all day without so much as a break, let along a five-minute power nap…if none of that has even registered with you, you’re officially living the good life. Despite your clearly delusional mental state.

But that’s parenting for you, right?

Apparently, a change in attitude can help you feel less exhausted, according to the sleep study’s authors. Well, that…and a permanent full-time nanny and three weeks lounging by the pool in The Maldives wouldn’t go astray, either.

So what about you? How does sleep – or the lack thereof – affect you and your family? How do you deal with debilitating tiredness? And have you got any top tips to get recalcitrant little ones off to sleep?