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. 2023 Dec 27;5(1):zpad056.
doi: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpad056. eCollection 2024.

Night-time sleep duration and postpartum weight retention in primiparous women

Jeanna T Ryan  1 , Heather Day  2 , Marlene J Egger  3 , Jiqiang Wu  2 , Christopher M Depner  1 , Janet M Shaw  1
Affiliations

Night-time sleep duration and postpartum weight retention in primiparous women

Jeanna T Ryan et al. Sleep Adv. .

Abstract

Objectives: Approximately 75% of women weigh more at 1-year postpartum than pre-pregnancy. More than 47% retain >10 lbs at 1-year postpartum, which is associated with adverse health outcomes for mother and child. Disturbed sleep may contribute to risk of postpartum weight retention (PWR) as short sleep duration is associated with increased risk of obesity. Thus, we investigated whether night-time sleep duration is associated with risk for excessive PWR. We also explored night-time sleep duration and change in postpartum waist circumference.

Methods: This is an ancillary analysis from a prospective cohort study. Participants were healthy primiparous adults with a singleton birth. Excessive PWR at 1-year postpartum was defined as ≥7% of pre-pregnancy weight. Log-binomial and linear regression assessed associations between night-time sleep duration at 6 months postpartum and PWR at 1-year postpartum. Linear regression assessed the association between night-time sleep duration and change in postpartum waist circumference.

Results: Mean age of participants (N = 467) was 29.51 (SD ± 4.78) years. Night-time sleep duration by actigraphy or self-report was not associated with risk for excessive PWR (risk ratio 0.96, [95%CI 0.87-1.06]; risk ratio 0.95 [95%CI 0.83-1.07], respectively) or change in waist circumference.

Conclusion: Night-time sleep duration at 6 months postpartum was not associated with PWR at 1-year postpartum. Mixed findings among our results and previous research could be due to our focus on night-time sleep, and differences in sleep measurement methods and timeframes across studies. More comprehensively assessing sleep, including multiple sleep dimensions, may help advance our understanding of potential links between sleep and PWR.

Trial registration: The parent study, Motherhood and Pelvic Health (MAP Study), is registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02512016, NCT02512016.

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Conflict of interest statement

C.M.D. reports during the conduct of the study receiving personal fees from Elsevier Inc. All other authors report none.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Participant flow chart showing the progression of participants starting at enrollment of the MAP study [30] through eligibility after delivery and exclusion criteria of this ancillary study.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Postpartum weight retention by category of gestational weight gain (GWG). GWG was classified as inadequate, adequate or excessive based on category of prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) as defined by the Institute of Medicine. For underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m2), recommended GWG is 28–40 pounds (lbs). For normal weight (18.5–24.9 kg/m2), recommended GWG is 25–35 lbs. For overweight (BMI = 25–29.9 kg/m2), recommended GWG is 15–25 lbs. For obese (BMI≥30 kg/m2), recommended GWG is 11–20 lbs (Supplementary Table S1). Inadequate GWG is less than recommended GWG for BMI, adequate is GWG within recommendations for GWG for BMI, and excessive is greater than recommended GWG for BMI [43].
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Postpartum weight retention by category of pre-pregnancy body mass index (kg/m2).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Mean ± SD (hours) of sleep duration by postpartum weight retention (PWR) of ≥7% versus <7% and sleep duration measurement method of actigraphy versus self-report.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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