Studies Examine Sleep Problems in Pregnancy

“One point I want to make about sleep across pregnancy is the enormous individual variability in the data,” she commented. As far as the change in total sleep time from before pregnancy to late pregnancy, 21% of women had little change (18 minutes or less), 15% had an increase of 1 hour or more, and 64% had a decrease of 1 hour or more. “Some women manage to maintain their sleep across pregnancy,” she observed. “Understanding the difference between these women and those who have more extreme changes may help identify strategies that can be utilized to improve sleep.”

Dr. Signal reported that she had no relevant conflicts of interest.

Data suggest that between 66% and 94% of pregnant women report pronounced changes in their sleep.

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