Does Breastfeeding Make You Tired? Why It Happens and How to Get Your Energy Back

Does breastfeeding make you tired? Yes, it often does, because frequent night feeds break up your sleep, making milk takes extra calories and fluids, and breastfeeding hormones change how you sleep.

If you feel tired in a way you have never felt before, you are in good company. Exhaustion is one of the most common parts of the early months, and breastfeeding brings a few extra demands of its own.

Below we explain what is behind breastfeeding fatigue, how it compares with formula feeding, which medical causes of tiredness are worth ruling out, how to stay safe when you are sleepy during feeds, and practical ways to get some energy back.

Does Breastfeeding Make You Tired? The Short Answer

Much of the exhaustion in the early months comes from caring for a newborn, however you feed. Breastfeeding adds some specific demands: you are the one who has to be awake for most feeds, milk production takes energy and fluid, and the pace of feeds can leave little time to eat or rest.

This guide explains the reasons, what the research actually shows, when fatigue may be a sign of something else, and practical ways to protect your energy and your baby’s safety when you are running on empty.

Prolactin and Deep Sleep: What the Hormones Do

Prolactin is the hormone behind milk production, and its levels stay higher while you are breastfeeding. Researchers have looked at whether that changes how breastfeeding mothers sleep.

A small 2002 study in the Journal of Sleep Research by Blyton and colleagues measured sleep in 12 fully breastfeeding women, 12 women who were not postpartum and 7 postpartum women who were bottle feeding. The breastfeeding women had about 182 minutes of slow-wave (deep) sleep a night, compared with about 86 minutes in the controls and 63 minutes in the bottle-feeding mothers. Total sleep time was similar across the groups. The authors said the change was most likely linked to the higher prolactin levels of lactation.

So lactation does seem to change the shape of your sleep, though one small study cannot tell you how any single person will feel. If you feel drowsy during or right after feeds, especially at night, you are not alone, and that is exactly why the safe sleep steps below matter.

Night Feeds and Broken Sleep

Newborns need to eat often, day and night. Even if your total hours in bed look reasonable, being woken every few hours means less unbroken sleep, which is a big part of why new parents feel so drained. Our guides to the newborn feeding schedule and cluster feeding show what frequent feeding looks like and why it is normal.

Night feeds also tend to fall on the breastfeeding parent, since you are the one with the milk. That is the main reason sharing the load with a partner (see below) helps so much.

For the bigger picture on coping, including how sleep loss affects mood, memory and work, read sleep deprivation in new parents.

Calories, Fluids and Food While Breastfeeding

Making milk uses energy and water, and skipping meals can leave you running low. Here is what the sources we reviewed say:

Caffeine can help you get through a rough morning, but it will not fix sleep debt, and the CDC notes that mothers of preterm or very young newborns may want even less because these babies clear caffeine more slowly. Keep easy snacks and a water bottle where you usually feed, so that food and fluids come to you.

Is Breastfeeding More Tiring Than Formula Feeding?

Not necessarily. In the Blyton study above, total sleep time was similar for breastfeeding and bottle-feeding mothers, and the breastfeeding group got more deep sleep. That study was small, so it cannot settle the question, but it does push back on the idea that breastfeeding always means less rest.

What differs most is who does the night feeds. If one parent breastfeeds every feed, that parent wakes every time. With bottles, either parent can take a turn. Breastfeeding families can get some of that flexibility with pumped milk, which we cover below.

When Tiredness Is Not Just Breastfeeding

New-parent tiredness is expected. Some causes of fatigue after birth are medical and treatable, and they are easy to miss because everyone expects you to be tired.

Cleveland Clinic points out that the fatigue and aches of caring for a baby can look a lot like an underactive thyroid, and that a blood test is how to tell the difference. Anemia is also diagnosed with a blood test, and the Cochrane review describes oral iron, intravenous iron and transfusion as treatment options. If your tiredness feels out of proportion, ask your doctor whether testing makes sense.

Exhaustion or Postpartum Depression? How to Tell

Exhaustion and depression overlap, which makes them hard to separate. NIMH describes the baby blues as mild, short-lived mood changes, worry, unhappiness and exhaustion that many women have in the first 2 weeks after giving birth. Postpartum depression is different: mood changes or anxiety that are severe or last longer than 2 weeks, and NIMH says women with it generally will not feel better without treatment.

NIMH lists these signs of perinatal depression, among others:

• A sad, anxious or empty mood most of the day, nearly every day, for at least 2 weeks.
• Fatigue or an abnormal drop in energy.
• Trouble sleeping even when your baby is asleep, waking early, or oversleeping.
• Trouble concentrating, remembering or making decisions.
• Loss of interest in things you used to enjoy, or trouble bonding with your baby.
• Thoughts of death, suicide or harming yourself or your baby.

A useful question: when you finally get a chance to sleep, can you? Ordinary exhaustion usually means you fall asleep the moment you can. Lying awake while your baby sleeps is one of the signs NIMH lists. Read more in sleep deprivation and postpartum depression.

You can call or text the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262 (1-833-TLC-MAMA). NIMH says it is available 24/7 with English- and Spanish-speaking counselors.

Safe Sleep When You Are Exhausted During Feeds

Falling asleep while feeding is one of the biggest safety risks of breastfeeding fatigue. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is clear on these points:

• Never on a sofa, couch or armchair: avoid falling asleep with your baby on a sofa, couch, armchair or cushion. The AAP says the risk of sleep-related infant death is up to 67 times higher when babies sleep with someone on these surfaces.
• If you feed in bed: the AAP recommends against bed sharing. If you bring your baby into your bed to feed, remove pillows, blankets and anything that could cover your baby’s face or cause overheating, and put your baby back in their own sleep space before you fall asleep.
• If you do doze off: move your baby to their own sleep space as soon as you wake up.
• Your baby’s own space: a firm, flat, bare surface, on their back, in your room for at least the first 6 months (AAP).

If you know you are fading, feeding in bed with the bedding cleared is safer than feeding on a sofa or recliner where you might nod off. Our guides to a safe sleep environment and what to do when your baby falls asleep while nursing have more detail.

How to Get More Energy While Breastfeeding

• Protect one longer stretch: if a partner can give one night feed with pumped milk, you can sleep a longer block. Pump around the time of the missed feed, since skipping feeds regularly can lower supply (see signs your milk supply is decreasing).
• Split the night: the non-feeding parent can handle diaper changes, burping and resettling so you go straight back to sleep.
• Rest when your baby rests: even lying down with your eyes closed is better than catching up on chores.
• Eat real meals: with protein and iron-rich foods, and keep snacks and water within reach of your feeding spot (CDC, Mayo Clinic).
• Limit caffeine: to about 300 mg or less a day, roughly 2 to 3 cups of coffee (CDC).
• Say yes to help: let visitors bring food, fold laundry or hold the baby while you nap.
• Get feeding help: a lactation consultant can fix painful or very long feeds, which are tiring in their own right.

If feeds are taking a very long time, or your baby seems hungry soon after, ask your pediatrician or lactation consultant whether something is making feeding less efficient.

Related Betteroo Guides

• Sleep Deprivation for New Parents
• Baby Falls Asleep While Nursing
• Sleep Deprivation and Postpartum Depression
• Signs Your Milk Supply Is Decreasing
• Cracked Nipples
• How to Increase Milk Supply

When to Talk to Your Doctor or a Lactation Consultant

Call your doctor or midwife if:

• Your tiredness is extreme, not improving, or getting worse.
• You feel short of breath or dizzy, which can come with anemia (Cochrane review).
• You have weight changes, feel unusually cold or notice your milk supply dropping, which can come with an underactive thyroid (Cleveland Clinic).
• You have felt down, anxious or empty for more than 2 weeks, or cannot sleep even when your baby sleeps (NIMH).

Get help right away: if you have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or call 911. NIMH says postpartum psychosis, with confusion, hallucinations, paranoia or mania, is a psychiatric emergency: call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. If you ever feel too exhausted to care for your baby safely, put your baby on their back in their own safe sleep space and call someone for help.

See a lactation consultant (IBCLC) if feeds are painful, take very long, or your baby seems hungry soon after feeding. This article is general education, not medical advice.

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