Prince Harry is contemplating sleep. More specifically, that he's soon going to have a lack of it.

During a visit to a YMCA in South Ealing, London, Prince Harry adoringly approached three month old baby Naz - who he was visibly excited and happy to see, according to mom Maria Ahmad. The million dollar question on his mind? Sleep and newborns.

Ahmad shared that he was asking about her newborn’s sleep. She was under the impression that he was worried and curious to know if she slept at night. The royal dad-to-be knows that fatherhood is impending; along with the deep fatigue that accompany the first few weeks of a newborn. With the arrival of baby Sussex any day now, his concern is quite fitting.

Sleep deprivation can have serious implications on one’s health, and is said to be one of the main causes of paternal depression in new dads. According the The Journal of the American Medical Association on the effects of ‘Prenatal and Postpartum Depression’ in fathers, it's a real condition affecting 1 in 10 fathers population. Despite this, the condition receives minimal scrutiny. It's highly undiagnosed and grossly under treated, says Philip Boyce, Professor of Psychiatry at Westmead Hospital, Sydney.

Boyce explains that Dads don’t experience the depressive chemical changes from childbirth that a mother gets. Rather, paternal depression comes from external forces of having a baby. It affects a dad’s emotional health, which also affects their baby’s emotional health. Vast research has established that the first years of a child’s life are crucial to their long-term emotional development– including intelligence, sociability, parental connection and happiness. With sleep affecting mental health, a dad’s lack of it can have detrimental consequences. . 

A 2013 study of 21 mother-father pairs enjoying their first infant experience found that fathers actually experienced less sleep than the mothers, and also qualified more confirmed sleepiness. This was measured using wrist trackers during their first few weeks with a newborn baby at home. The article suggests that, despite feeding schedules, mothers appeared to have more opportunities to "make up” sleep with the infant during the day, while fathers missed the opportunity to bank more rest time — in part due to work commitments or lack of parental leave.

Prince Harry is already an owner of a sleep tracker- an Oura health ring described as a product with simple and intelligent construction, which is also packed with advanced sensors. The chic and cutting edge device has been worn quite visibly for all the world to see. Oura’s website explains that it tracks body temperature, “measures your blood volume pulse,” and “detects the amplitude and intensity of your body movement” via a “3D accelerometer and gyroscope.” With the use of these distinct metrics- and with sleep as a main focus- it evaluates one’s readiness for certain tasks, and will recommend recovery when necessary.

Prince Harry’s cravings for the answers to newborn sleep is absolutely justifiable. According to Oura, “Even Heroes need sleep. Well, especially heroes.”