[WalterSear]

There's a lot of people on here discussing the stress of a new child.

I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory.

[khedoros1]

I find getting too little sleep very stressful. I'm required to keep doing the same things, but less able to handle those demands. When I don't get enough sleep, I've got worse health, constant headaches, and neck aches. It's its own stressor, as well as having separate negative effects.

[WalterSear]

Yes, but that's a specific physical stressor, resulting in mental stress. It's not what is being examined in the article and modeled in the experiment.

[khedoros1]

That doesn't change the fact that lack of sleep is a stressor. I was replying to your statement:

> "I don't think they are differentiating between stress, that this study discusses, from lack of sleep, which also affects memory."

[sevensor]

In practice the two will be impossible to tease apart at any rate. Stress and lack of sleep make a feedback loop. The more you feel like you're drowning, the harder it gets to find sleep. Adding nighttime feedings just throws gas on the fire.

[WalterSear]

From a fine grained point of view, yes, stress causes sleep problems.

However, stress is a result of, and not the cause of the sleep deprivation that comes with nursing and changing a child throughout the night.