During pregnancy and postpartum, women's sleep undergoes significant changes due to various physiological and hormonal changes. In conjunction with today's social demands, these changes can present considerable difficulties for women as they begin to feel more tired than usual during the day and have trouble falling asleep at night, which affects their performance overall. However, knowing what to expect in terms of sleep throughout pregnancy can help pregnant women prepare and deal with this process.
Therefore, here I review how sleep is affected throughout the various stages of pregnancy and postpartum.
• First trimester.
The first trimester of pregnancy is characterised by a slight increase in the required hours of sleep at night, which fluctuates between 0.5 and 0.7 hours. Likewise, the ability to fall asleep and the amount of deep sleep, which is the most restorative sleep, decreases. Therefore, it is not surprising that women will start feeling more tired throughout the day.
• Second trimester.
During this period, the total hours of sleep decreases and the period of deep sleep increases. However, there are still many complaints about lack of restful sleep and episodes of insomnia, which are the result of hormonal changes.
• Third trimester.
During the last trimester of pregnancy, periods of REM* sleep and deep sleep decrease, while light sleep increases. As s result, women may find themselves more sensitive to environmental factors (e.g. noise, lights, among others).
In addition, the number of awakenings during the night increases significantly due to physiological changes, particularly the weight gain and the abdominal volume at the end of the pregnancy.
• Postpartum.
During postpartum, deep or slow-wave sleep is still affected, preventing mothers from achieving good quality sleep. In addition to this, sleep is highly fragmented because of the polyphasic sleep in the newborn. Therefore - and as most of you can intuit - it is during this period when women present high sleep deprivation, much greater than that which can occur in any other stage of life.
I hope that knowing about how sleep is affected during pregnancy will help pregnant women - and those who plan to have children in the future - to prepare and make modifications within their routine that allow them manage this changes, as much as possible.
Finally, I would like to wish all the women who are going through this beautiful stage and those who have already overcome it a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
Notes
[*] – REM Sleep: rapid eye movement sleep.
References
Pires, N.G., Andersen, L.M., Tufik, S. & Hachul, H. (2017). Sueño durante el embarazo y periodo de postparto. En Viguera (Eds.), Sueño: Fisiología y Medicina (pp. 137-159). Murcia, España.: Viguera.