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Parenting is a tough job that siphons freedom.

Naturally, you’d think the difficulties and demand would weigh on a parent’s happiness.

In fact, according to a new study, non-parents are 75 percent more likely to sleep more than eight hours a night than parents. And they’re also more healthy, considering that they’re far more likely to work out and far less likely to eat fast food.

But despite the statistics, parents came out as happier than non-parents in the same study, which showed that moms and dads were more likely to say they were “very happy.” Non-parents, meanwhile, were 27 percent more likely to say they were “unhappy” or “very unhappy.”

The reason? Well, there seems to be just one variable.