By the end of a long day my patience, tolerance and general energy levels are at an all time low.
I drag myself through those last couple of hours with my son, mindlessly making dinner, negotiating dessert and then putting on my battle armour to face the bedtime fight ahead.
Inevitably that last battle - which is comprised of bathing, cleaning teeth, stories and fending off multiple stalling tactics - can last anywhere up to an hour. And by the time he's actually asleep, it's all I can do to keep my eyes open myself.
Yet, whilst there are nights when it would be so much easier to give in to his demands, I very rarely do. And there's a simple and purely selfish reason for that - it's for my own mental sanity!
But it appears that I might be onto something.
Findings released from the 2015 Sleep DownUnder conference found that early bedtimes for children not only benefited them, but also their parents.
The results of the Growing up in Australia study showed that children who go to bed early not only have better health-related quality of life, but have mothers with improved mental health too.
This was in comparison to those mothers with children who go to bed later.
Lead researcher Dr Quach from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute says, "Mums and dads, getting kids to bed early is not just great for them. It's good for you too."
"These benefits were seen in all early-to-bed kids regardless of whether they woke early or slept late."
Whilst this study may be unique in pointing out the benefits of children's sleep for mothers, it's certainly not the first to point out the benefits of sleep for children.
Recent Deakin University research found that children who don't get enough sleep are almost two and a half times more likely to be obese compared with those who do.
And other research has revealed that the impacts of bad sleep stretch further than just those younger years.
For example, a 2015 study conducted in London showed that adolescents sleeping less than the average recommended nine hours a night were jeopardising their school grades.
The researchers found that poor sleep quality and quantity negatively affected the students' ability to learn and remember.
So are these studies that we should take note of? Well, the answer is yes.
According to the Sleep Connection, over 30 percent of Australian primary school children and 70 percent of Australian teenagers are sleep deprived. In fact, Australian teens currently rank as the third most sleep deprived in the world.
Sleep connection recommends that preschoolers have between 10-13 hours a night, school-aged children have between 9-11 hours a night, and teens have between 8-10 hours a night.
"Sleep provides the downtime we need for our brains to grow, repair and sort out memories," says health psychologist, Kathy Turner. "Without balanced sleep in childhood, development can be delayed (long term) as well as result in mood issues (short term) such as irritability."
"Eat, play, sleep is a good mantra for the first few years, and sets us in good stead for life."
Sharon Moore, a speech pathologist who is currently authoring a text on sleep for parents, agrees that childhood sleep is extremely important.
"If children's sleep is compromised, the brain is unable to perform critical 'cleansing' functions which also activate hormones that regulate appetite, growth and immunity, repair tissue and consolidate memory," she says.
"There are numerous studies that show the negative impact that poor sleep has on all facets of child development, behaviour and learning. There's also ample evidence that children can be misdiagnosed with ADHD."
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