As per common belief new mothers who choose to breast feed their babies have to sacrifice their sleep substantially but a recent study has shown that it is not true and mothers who breast feed also sleep enough like mothers who formula feed.

The research findings will be published in the journal Pediatrics online on 8th November. The study says that the sleep hours are just the same for mothers who breast feed and who formula feed.

The study's lead author, Hawley Montgomery-Downs who is an assistant professor of psychology and coordinator of the behavioral neuroscience program at West Virginia University in Morgantown said, "There is some small evidence that infants who are breast-fed sleep less, but no one has ever looked at the mother's sleep. But, we found absolutely no difference in the mother's sleep based on how babies were fed."

Parents now know that breast feeding is healthier for both mother and child and is easy to digest by the baby whose digestive system not yet mature to hold food for longer times. So they wake up more often to be fed and breast milk contains the hormone prolactin which has a sleep-inducing effect on the baby.