Poor sleep in pregnancy may increase kids’ risk of developmental delay

A recent study by researchers in China found that insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be associated with neurodevelopmental delays in children, especially in boys.

Not getting enough sleep during pregnancy could put women at a higher risk of having children with neurodevelopmental delays, according to a recent study.
Sleep deficiency is generally regarded as harmful to people’s health and has been linked to certain chronic problems such as, “heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression,” according to the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Still, a high rate of women are reported to experience poor sleep because of some pregnancy-related symptoms, like hormonal changes, physical discomfort, and needing to go to the bathroom.
The new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, looked specifically at short sleep duration (SSD), defined as getting fewer than seven hours of sleep, during pregnancy on the development of children after birth.
“This study highlights the necessity of managing sleep health during pregnancy,” Dr Peng Zhu, the lead author of the study from Anhui Medical University in China, said in a statement, adding that it can empower families to “shape healthier pregnancy habits”.
“Improving sleep habits during pregnancy may prevent or reduce the risk of neurodevelopmental issues in children,” Zhu said.
The data was from an ongoing large study that recruited participants from three different hospitals in China from March 2015 to January 2021.
They first collected data, including information on sleep duration, from the mothers during mid- and late pregnancy. Women with pregnancy complications or incomplete data, and children with birth defects were excluded from the study.
More than 7,000 children were screened for developmental delays at six months up to age three.
They also collected blood samples from the umbilical vein during the delivery of some children to obtain information on metabolic markers such as C-peptide levels in relation to neurodevelopmental delays.
The C-peptide levels tend to serve as a marker of how much insulin the baby’s body is producing.
The study found that insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be linked to a higher risk of neurodevelopmental issues in children, affecting their cognitive abilities.
This is when children have delays in developing social, emotional, behavioural, motor, cognitive, or speech capabilities.
“It is a finding that has now been replicated across a number of different studies so I believe sleep in pregnancy may really have an important role in the long-term health of the child,” Dr Claudia Lugo-Candelas, assistant professor of clinical medical psychology at the Columbia University Medical Center in the US, told Euronews Health in an email.
However, she added that none of those studies indicated that sleep is the most significant factor, rather it could serve as one of many small factors in determining whether a child will have specific neurodevelopmental issues.
“All of these factors add tiny grains of sand that when put together can increase risk, but I would not think that poor sleep in pregnancy by itself would determine whether a child has or does not have any particular neurodevelopmental outcome,” said Lugo-Candelas, who was not involved in the new study.
“It’s important to keep in mind that genetics plays a huge role in risk for neurodevelopmental disorders and so does the environment”.
The study also noted a positive association between sleep disturbances during pregnancy and the development of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children.
“In our own work, we have found that when pregnant people sleep poorly, their children are at increased risk for having sleep problems themselves. Children are also at increased risk for symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and issues regulating their emotions,” Lugo-Candelas said.
“But it’s important to note that when we say increased risk for any of these problems what we are saying is that sleeping poorly in pregnancy may elevate risk a little bit for your child but it doesn’t mean that if you slept poorly in pregnancy your child will 100 per cent go on to have any of these problems,” she added.
The researchers found a positive relationship between C-peptide levels in the umbilical cord and neurodevelopmental delays.
This led them to hypothesise that when pregnant mothers don’t get enough sleep, it could disrupt how their body handles glucose levels impacting the baby’s insulin and potentially their neurodevelopment.
The study also found significant differences in how sleep deficiency could affect newborns based on their biological sex.
It showed that boys had a higher chance of having neurodevelopmental delays when their mothers had insufficient sleep during pregnancy compared to girls. They were more than twice as likely to develop those delays compared to those born to a parent who had adequate sleep.
For girls, however, there was no clear increased risk of delays for them based on their mothers’ lack of sleep.
The same was found for C-peptide levels, as a higher level in cord blood was correlated with an increased likelihood of neurodevelopmental delays in boys, with no such link found for girls.
“It’s interesting because in our own work we hypothesised we would see this effect where males would be more affected than females by prenatal maternal sleep difficulties,” Lugo-Candelas said.
“The reason why we thought we would see males be more affected is that there is a lot of work that shows that male foetuses and the male placenta might be more vulnerable to exposures in pregnancy, particularly exposures that lead to more inflammation, like poor sleep health”.
For better sleep during pregnancy, Lugo-Candelas recommended that pregnant people who experience these problems inform their doctors.
“Sleep changes and deteriorates in pregnancy, but there are tons of strategies that have been proven to work to improve sleep and help folks manage these challenges in pregnancy,” she said.
However, she added, there are also some things they could do at home to make their sleep better, which include having a regular sleep schedule, and a pre-bedtime routine.
Following some basic sleep hygiene tips could also be beneficial like avoiding smoking, eating, drinking, exercising, or being exposed to devices and bright lights too close to bedtime, according to Lugo-Candelas.
“However, these are all things that you should discuss with your doctor to make sure that you get the right advice and confirm that there are no concerning reasons as to why you aren’t sleeping,” she said.