Sleep in women during pregnancy and postpartum

Sleep in pregnant and postpartum women commonly is disrupted as a result of multiple factors that vary across time. Sleep in early pregnancy often is disrupted by significant hormonal changes in women. As the pregnancy progresses, sleep can be challenged by physical changes and the potential onset of issues such as sleep-disordered breathing, restless legs and/or leg cramps, acid reflux, and physical discomfort and/or pain. In the postpartum period, sleep is affected most by infant care needs and resulting fragmentation of sleep. While sleep complaints are frequent in pregnant and postpartum women, objective studies of sleep in this population are actually relatively few. Recent research now is beginning to elucidate risk factors that potentially may be associated with poor sleep in pregnant and postpartum women, factors that may impact the physical (e.g., inflammation) and mental (e.g., stress, depression) health of mothers as well as their children (e.g., low-birth-weight). When examining the relationship between sleep and mood, subjective experience of sleep disturbance tends to predict mood disturbance better than objective measures of sleep problems. Obtaining sleep of sufficient quality and quantity is clearly an important concern for pregnant and postpartum women and therefore needs to remain an active area of interest for both researchers and clinicians.