Speaking up for today's mums - Jane Cartledge

ASK any woman who's recently given birth and they'll tell you pregnancy (or is it motherhood?) addles your brain.

Being a mum plays havoc with your memory and your concentration.

I've never worked out whether multi-tasking motherhood is to blame or whether it's simply that I'm getting older.

Or maybe it's a cruel combination of the two.

This week, after yawning my way through the past three years, scientists told me to get some kip.

"Women's Health Much More at Risk from Sleep Deprivation," the press release screamed.

I read on eagerly, hoping for a path to enlightenment or at best clearer thinking.

It seems us mums are finely balancing the demands of home and work with far less sleep than we need. Put simply we're juggling too many balls on too little kip.

Well I don't need a scientist to tell me that - the bags under my eyes speak volumes.

The Whitehall study told me what I already knew but thankfully it also spelled out a few home health truths I hadn't quite appreciated.

Women who sleep for five hours or less each night are twice as likely to suffer high blood pressure and heart problems than women who get plenty of shut-eye.

If that wasn't bad enough it turns out blokes get off scot free health-wise.

They might feel tired but no matter how little sleep they get, their heart or blood pressure doesn't suffer in the same way as ours.

The health implications of not enough sleep are quite eye-opening.

And what's also pretty scary is that children across Britain are suffering too.

As the new school term gets going half of all parents are struggling to get their kids into bed at a decent hour.

Half of all parents surveyed for a new poll said they were battling to get back into a school-night routine.

Parents admit they let their kids stay up late as a reward for eating their veg or washing up and some confess they just don't enforce bedtime as they know they should.

It's not surprising then that we're all pretty tired. We're leading ever more hectic and busy lives but are we getting the rest we need?

It doesn't appear so and perhaps the reason is because most of us don't know how much sleep we actually require.

'The Whitehall study told me what I already knew'

What we learn as kids we take into adulthood. If we've skimped on sleep as kids then those sleeping patterns affect how we view the importance of sleep in adulthood.

Whatever the reasons for our lack of sleep it's obvious we're not getting enough.

Trams heave with yawning people, bleary eyed commuters sit sleepily at the lights - and that's before the nights draw in.

Perhaps we should listen to the scientists and stop fighting it.

A little light reading before bed might help for those with extreme insomnia.

"Gender-Specific Associations of Short Sleep Duration With Prevalent and Incident Hypertension: The Whitehall II Study" is published next month.