Maternal and paternal sleep during pregnancy in the Child-sleep birth cohort.
Maternal and paternal sleep insufficiency during pregnancy appears to be a risk factor for health and wellbeing in young families. Here, we evaluated the prevalence of sleep insufficiency and symptoms of insomnia during pregnancy (at 32nd pregnancy week) and their relationship to depression, anxiety and environmental stress.



The study is based on a population based sample from Finland consisting of 1667 mothers and 1498 fathers from the Child-sleep birth cohort. We evaluated both the core symptoms of insomnia (sleep onset problems, nocturnal awakenings, too-early awakenings, and poor sleep quality) and the presence of insufficient sleep. Insufficient sleep was defined as a two-hour difference between self-assessed sleep need and reported sleep duration, or sleep duration shorter than six hours per night.



We found that symptoms of insomnia were more prevalent among women than among men (9.8% vs. 6.2%), whereas sleep debt was less prevalent among women than among men (4.5% vs. 9.6%). Overall, 11.8% of the women and 14.9% of the men reported either significant insomnia or short sleep. Symptoms of insomnia were related to symptoms of depression both among women and men (AOR 3.8, 95% CI 2.6-5.6 vs. AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.2), while short sleep was related to depression among women (AOR 3.3, 95% CI 1.8-5.8), and to low education, poor health and a larger number of children among men.



The study showed that insomnia and sleep insufficiency are prevalent among women and men during pregnancy. The findings underline the impact of insomnia to both maternal and paternal health during pregnancy as well as to the implementation of effective interventions to prevent negative consequences of sleep disturbances.
Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland; Child Psychiatry, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: juulia.paavonen@helsinki.fi.
E
E
Juulia Paavonen
Pediatric Clinics, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland. Electronic address: outi.saarenpaa-heikkila@uta.fi.
Outi
O
Saarenpää-Heikkilä
Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: pirjo.polkki@uef.fi.
Pirjo
P
Pölkki
Psychology, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. Electronic address: anneli.kyllianen@uta.fi.
Anneli
A
Kylliäinen
Department of Physiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: tarja.stenberg@helsinki.fi.
Tarja
T
Porkka-Heiskanen
Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland; Psychiatry, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: tiina.paunio@thl.fi.
Tiina
T
Paunio
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Insomnia; Pregnancy; Sleep; Sleep debt; Sleep duration