Sleep deprivation might be a problem if I am unable to sleep when the baby sleeps, and that IS a big concern. I never suffered from sleep deprivation when I was young because I slept with my cosleeping babies. Whether I would be able to do it now during the day is a big question because back then I could just sleep whenever but now I need a bit of help. But in general I think that sleep deprivation is an artifact of the movement to force babies and toddlers into separate sleeping quarters and to maintain feeding schedules and I certainly will not do any of that - I know better. When my son was a baby, I only figured in the morning that I must have breastfed him at night because he was on the other side of the bed - so, I figured, I must have moved him during the night but I had no memory of it. And sleeping with cosleeping children is the most pleasant thing in the world and definitely as restful as it gets and something to look forward to. All in all, I think that sleep deprivation is an invented problem and if the mother follows the child's natural rhythms, she will not be sleep deprived. Had sleep deprivation been a real problem, humanity would not have survived.