Sleep and Breastfeeding

I have often wondered why Gabe and I would both nod off to sleep a few minutes into the feeding. It turns out that breast milk contains a hormone - the delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP) - that induce sleep in both moms and babies.

In their article on this subject, authors B.J. Pollard and C.J.D. Pomfrett says

DSIP is present in relatively high concentrations in human milk (10-30 ng mL-1).
Any mother who has breast-fed her babies will attest to the ability of a feed to
induce sleep.

So aside from giving moms an opportunity to bond with their little ones, breastfeeding also allows both moms and babies to catch some much-needed zzzzzs.