Men really don't hear crying babies

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Rex Features

Women who suspect their partners are faking when they sleep through a baby's cries have got it wrong, according to new research.

Research by MindLab found that while a crying baby is the most likely noise to wake a women, it doesn't feature in the top 10 disturbances for men.

Fathers are more likely to be woken by a car alarm, the sound of wind or even the sound of a fly buzzing than their own child crying, reports the Mail.

MindLab measured the brain activity of sleeping volunteers to monitor how this was affected by different noises.

They found that women are more likely to be disturbed by noise than men, and to find it harder to go to sleep again.

Whether they are mothers or not, women are most likely to be disturbed by the sound of a crying baby.

'These differing sensitivities may represent evolutionary differences that make women sensitive to sounds associated with a potential threat to their children while men are more finely tuned to disturbances posing a possible threat to the whole family,' said Dr David Lewis, a psychologist.

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Monday 30 November 2009

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