A recent study indicates that pregnant women who do not get adequate sleep may be at a greater risk of having children who experience neurodevelopmental delays, as reported in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Short sleep duration (SSD) refers to sleeping less than seven hours each night. Pregnant women often face sleep difficulties due to hormonal shifts, discomfort from pregnancy, frequent urination, and other related issues.
It has been noted that nearly 40% of pregnant women experience SSD. These individuals may encounter a higher likelihood of impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and gestational diabetes, which can increase the risk for their children to face neurodevelopmental delays. Affected children might take longer to develop social, emotional, behavioral, motor, cognitive, or speech skills.
“This research underscores the importance of addressing sleep health throughout pregnancy. By linking maternal sleep patterns during pregnancy to children’s development, our findings provide families with valuable information that can foster healthier habits during pregnancy and enhance the well-being of future generations,” explained the lead researcher, Dr. Peng Zhu, from Anhui Medical University and the MOE Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle in Hefei, China. “Enhancing sleep practices during pregnancy could help prevent or lower neurodevelopmental issues in children.”
The research involved examining sleep data from 7,059 mother-child pairs across three hospitals in China. The children were monitored for developmental delays from the age of 6 months to 3 years, and the researchers looked into the relationship between the mothers’ sleep duration and the risk of neurodevelopmental delays. Additionally, they assessed the significance of cord blood serum C-peptide levels, which are a steady measure of fetal insulin secretion.
Key findings from the study include:
- Inadequate sleep during pregnancy may be linked to an elevated risk of neurodevelopmental challenges in children, impacting their cognitive skills, behavioral development, and capacity to learn.
- Boys seem to be at a greater risk for neurodevelopmental delays when their mothers undergo SSD during pregnancy, indicating that gender may significantly influence how offspring respond to prenatal environmental factors.
- SSD during pregnancy could disrupt the mother’s glucose metabolism, which in turn might affect the fetal development environment.
- A positive association may exist between C-peptide levels found in umbilical cord blood and the occurrence of neurodevelopmental delays in children, suggesting that a mother’s glucose metabolism during pregnancy can affect the fetus’s insulin secretion and, subsequently, their neurodevelopment.
“Prenatal health is crucial not just for the mother but also for the enduring health of the unborn child,” stated Zhu.
Additional authors of the study include Lei Zhang, Hai-Xia Wang, Yuan-Yuan Zhu, Rui-Rui Ma, and Yu-Hong Wang from Anhui Medical University and the MOE Key Laboratory of Population Health Across Life Cycle; Wen-Xiang Li from Anhui Medical University; along with Yu Zhang and Dao-Min Zhu from the Affiliated Psychological Hospital of Anhui Medical University, the Hefei Fourth People’s Hospital, and the Anhui Mental Health Center, all located in Hefei, China.
This research received financial backing from various sources, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Innovative Research Group Project from the same foundation, the National Key R&D Program of China, the Research Funds of the Center for Big Data and Population Health of IHM, and the Foundation for Scientific Research Improvement at Anhui Medical University.
