--- title: 'I Tracked My Sleep After Having a Baby' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=vYHrb6t_xhs' video_id: 'vYHrb6t_xhs' date: 2026-07-28 duration_sec: 503 --- # I Tracked My Sleep After Having a Baby > Source: [I Tracked My Sleep After Having a Baby](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vYHrb6t_xhs) ## Summary Matt tracked his sleep for a year around the birth of his child using an Apple Watch. He found that average sleep dropped dramatically, with many nights under 4 hours, and it took months to recover. The video discusses the realities of sleep deprivation for new parents and the strategies used to cope. ### Key Points - **Baseline Sleep Before Baby** [00:56] — Over nine months of tracking, Matt averaged 7 hours and 54 minutes of sleep per night before the baby arrived. - **First Two Nights After Birth** [02:15] — The first two nights with Frankie, Matt's sleep data was so minimal his Apple Watch thought he was dead, recording only 2 hours and 38 minutes of sleep across two days. - **Consecutive Sleep Details** [02:27] — Matt recorded specific sleep times like 2 hours 38 minutes and 3 hours 55 minutes, and didn't get a solid seven hours in a night for the first few weeks. - **Effects of Sleep Deprivation** [04:01] — Sleep deprivation slows reaction time, makes you forget when you last felt rested, and leads to emotional instability, similar to interrogation techniques. - **Implementing Sleep Shifts** [06:37] — After four months, Matt and his wife started sleep shifts: each parent slept half the night while the other handled the baby, using noise-canceling headphones. This increased Matt's average to five hours initially. - **Post-Shift Sleep Quality** [07:15] — Even with eight hours of sleep after shifts, Matt needed to spend over 12 hours in bed to achieve that, which is unrealistic for most parents. - **Key Coping Mechanism** [07:40] — Matt emphasizes that acceptance is the most important factor in dealing with sleep deprivation, along with venting and adjusting expectations. ### Conclusion The video concludes that sleep deprivation is brutal but acceptance and shifts help, and the sacrifice is worth it. ## Transcript It's the essential foundation Yet, it's been said that parents don't get much at all. before and after having a baby. What could I learn from an entire year Is it possible to break the stereotype This video is sponsored by Squarespace. the week that Natalie got pregnant. and partly by a desperate desire to hold onto my sleep. set it to Sleep Mode every night, Consumer sleep tracking devices like the Apple Watch used in sleep labs, of tracking my sleep and awake periods. The deeper the blue, the deeper the sleep. And what I found over the nine months I averaged seven hours and 54 minutes of sleep per night. Looking at some of the individual days here, Of course, there would be times when I was up all night, is now set in the past, but those were outliers. I've always done my best to get a good night's sleep, and listening to the soothing voice of Matthew McConaughey. to getting good sleep. Did the quality of my sleep hold up after Frankie's birth? on my phone for the past year, Here we go. (drum rolling) I guess this game wasn't really that hard. It's so bad, in fact, that one survey revealed were getting seven plus hours of sleep per night, might be a vasectomy. kind of like what got us into this mess. For some reason, the first two nights with Frankie I'm pretty sure my Apple Watch thought I was dead. across two days. two hours and 38 minutes, three hours and 55 minutes, I didn't get a solid seven hours of sleep in a night Now, it's important to mention but this still illustrates just how difficult those first few weeks were. Not great. - [Natalie] Working dad. - I got Frankie here. - [Natalie] Can you tell everyone hi? - [Matt] All right so who do you think is getting You're getting more sleep than I am, for sure. So I'm having to wake up with every time he wakes up, for like half that amount of time. but I'm definitely getting the shittiest sleep of my life. getting eight hours of sleep. is brutal on your physical, mental, and emotional health. but I'll try. You've been here before After a couple days, and your reaction time starts to slow down. and you can't remember the last time you felt well rested. something you have literally no experience doing. A few weeks later, you begin to fall asleep sitting down, out of a jar at 5:00am You immediately start crying. has you walking on an emotional tightrope It breaks you down into a shell of your former self It's no wonder that they use sleep deprivation - Um hm, he does. Frankie is gonna get some milk. my sponsor, Squarespace is allowing me That way I can catch up on sleep. What a bunch of suckers. for making your next website. perfect for blogs, businesses, and washed up YouTubers. Do you want to make a career but that's actually not what we wanna do for this thing. This whole thing needs to stop. post info about your business, because Matt prompted me to make his biceps It's honestly pathetic. Then when you're ready to launch, to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. and there's something you need to know. But yeah, basically Squarespace is a great place - [AI] Me too. to get the same quality as before. for the first few weeks, And at minimum, Again, that's at minimum. these are usually just the base realities for most parents. until after four months, we decided to start implementing sleep shifts. Then we took turns sleeping half the night Add in some noise canceling headphones You can actually see a huge difference and when I'm sleeping next to Frankie. I went from averaging five hours of sleep in the beginning which sounds amazing until you look closer at the data. and here's what eight hours of sleep looked like after. I needed to spend over 12 hours, which is getting more and more unrealistic and well, you know, have a life. more than anything else is acceptance. and it definitely helps to vent sometimes - If you're not complaining, are you even parenting? People are like, you know what? and it's gonna be great and I'm gonna be positive about it and I can at least control my mindset. Dunno how you do it. - [Matt] Life is just different now and you get used to it. You get by, some days are worse than others and in the end, the sacrifice is worth it.