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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · AJP Rep 2024; 14(01): e11-e15
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1778003
Original Article

The Association between Sleep and Depression during Late Pregnancy and the Early Postpartum Period

Angela G. Jones
1   Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana
,
Bachar S. Hadaie 
1   Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana
,
Rachel Bennett
1   Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana
,
Nimisha Kumar
1   Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana
,
Chandan K. Saha
2   Department of Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana
,
David M. Haas 
1   Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana
› Author Affiliations Funding Funding for this project was provided by the Indiana University Grand Challenges Precision Health Initiative's Diabetes Study, which funded the Hoosier Moms Cohort Study.
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Abstract

Objective To assess and correlate sleep quality and depressed mood symptoms in the late pregnancy and early postpartum periods.

Study Design In a prospective pilot observational study, participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) questionnaires at delivery, 1, and 2 months postpartum. Pearson's correlation coefficients and PROC MIXED function estimated overall correlation for repeated measures.

Results Twenty-six women were enrolled with a mean gestational age at delivery of 38.4 (± 2.4) weeks. Sleep quality and mood data were available at the three time points for 24, 16, and 11 participants, respectively. Poor sleep scores were noted by 75.0, 87.5, and 72.7% of women at the three time points. An elevated EPDS score of 10 or higher was claimed by 20.8, 12.5, and 18.2% of women, respectively. Higher PSQI scores were positively associated with higher EPDS scores overall (r = 0.71, p < 0.001) and at each of the individual time points (r = 0.79, p < 0.0001; r = 0.52, p = 0.04; and r = 0.70, p = 0.016, respectively). None of the women reporting good sleep quality had elevated EPDS scores.

Conclusion Poor sleep is commonly reported around delivery, and at 1 and 2 months postpartum, and there is an association between poor sleep and depression symptoms.

Keywords

pregnancy - sleep - depression - postpartum - postpartum depression


Publication History

Received: 26 October 2023

Accepted: 20 October 2023

Article published online:
23 January 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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