Summary
During pregnancy many women may experience negative emotions and sleep disturbances. This systematic review and meta‐analysis was conducted to assess the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT‐I) or sleep disturbance in pregnant women. From the earliest available publications to 15 April 2022, seven electronic literature databases were searched: PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, and VIP Database for Chinese Science and Technology Journal. Randomised controlled trials of CBT‐I in pregnant women with insomnia or sleep disorders were included. The methodological bias of the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The meta‐analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software. Stata Statistical Software: Release 15 was used for sensitivity analysis and publication bias. We included eight randomised controlled trials involving 743 pregnant women. Meta‐analysis showed that, compared with the control group, CBT‐I significantly improved the Insomnia Severity Index (mean difference [MD] = −4.25, 95% confidence interval [CI, −6.32, −2.19], p < 0.001), The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (MD = −3.30, 95% CI [−4.81, −1.79], p < 0.001), sleep onset latency (standardised mean difference [SMD] = −1.25, 95% CI [−2.01, −0.50], p = 0.001), anxiety (SMD = −0.99, 95% CI [−1.32, −0.67], p < 0.001), and depression (SMD = −0.40, 95% CI [−0.72, −0.07], p = 0.02). No significant differences were found in total sleep time (SMD = 0.31, 95% CI [−0.54, 1.17], p = 0.47) and sleep efficiency (SMD = 0.80, 95% CI [−0.53, 2.13], p = 0.24). CBT‐I significantly improved pregnant women's sleep quality, insomnia severity, depression, and anxiety. This meta‐analysis provides evidence that CBT‐I is valid for insomnia or sleep disturbances during pregnancy.