Maternal subjective sleep quality and nighttime infant care

Abstract

The current study explored the relationship between maternal subjective sleep quality and two factors that have been independently linked to maternal sleep: infant caretaking at night and maternal depressive symptom severity. Participants were a follow-up cohort of 94 women (mean age 33.3, SD=4.4), who were depressed during pregnancy and part of a larger randomised controlled trial. Participants were evaluated 10 weeks after delivery, using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and daily sleep logs for one week. On average, women woke to attend to the infant 2.2 times (SD=1.1) and spent 47.3 min (SD=33.0) awake to attend to the infant. Regression analysis revealed that the number of times a woman's sleep was disrupted by attending to her infant was a significant predictor of her perceived subjective sleep quality; however, the total amount of time she spent attending to her infant and her depressive symptom severity were not predictors. The findings of this study suggest that during the third postpartum month, sleep fragmentation appears more detrimental to maternal subjective sleep quality than amount of time awake during the night. This finding is relevant to the implementation of clinical interventions for improving maternal subjective sleep quality during the early postpartum period.

Sleep and Mood During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period

“…25,26 Actigraphy studies have shown that maternal sleep was closely associated with infant sleep/wake behaviors during the first 3 months post partum. 10,27 In addition, the number of self-report infant-related nighttime awakenings, but not the self-estimated total wake time, was found to be associated with perceived sleep quality, 28 highlighting the role of sleep disruption over reduced TST in perceived sleep quality.…”

Goodness of fit between prenatal maternal sleep and infant sleep: Associations with maternal depression and attachment security

“…Specifically, poorly-matched infant and mother sleep patterns may contribute to maternal postpartum depression. Indeed, some of the mixed findings regarding the associations between postpartum sleep and depression (e.g., Gress, Chambers, Ong, Tikotzky, Okada, & Manber, 2010; Warren et al, 2006) may be accounted for by individual differences in mothers’ sleep needs and the match with their infants’ sleep patterns.…”

Infant Sleep Development: Location, Feeding and Expectations in the Postnatal Period

“…Gress et al [31] suggest that maternal perceptions of their own sleep quality are affected by the number of infantrelated sleep disruptions, rather than the duration of infant care during the night. Tiredness (a temporary state, relieved by a single sleep period) and fatigue (which continues despite rest, persisting through circadian rhythms) are commonly reported by parents in the postpartum period.…”