Longitudinal changes in objective sleep parameters during pregnancy

Background: Sleep disturbances are associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. Thus, it is necessary to understand the continuous patterns of sleep during pregnancy and how moderators such as maternal age and pre-pregnancy body mass index impact sleep. Objective: This study aimed to examine the continuous changes in sleep parameters objectively (i.e. sleep stages, total sleep time, and awake time) in pregnant women and to describe the impact of maternal age and/or pre-pregnancy body mass index as moderators of these objective sleep parameters. Design: This was a longitudinal observational design. Methods: Seventeen women with a singleton pregnancy participated in this study. Mixed model repeated measures were used to describe weekly patterns, while aggregated changes describe these three pregnancy periods (10–19, 20–29, and 30–39 gestational weeks). Results: For the weekly patterns, we found significantly decreased deep (1.26 ± 0.18 min/week, p