Purpose of review: Sleep is a critical restorative behavior which occupies approximately one third of people's lives. Extensive data link sleep health with disease and mortality risk in the general population. During pregnancy and following childbirth, unique factors contribute to overall sleep health. In addition, there are unique implications of poor sleep during these time periods.
Recent findings: Poor maternal sleep may contribute to risk for adverse birth outcomes as well as poor maternal physical and mental health in pregnancy, postpartum, and longer term during childrearing. Moreover, the extent to which notable racial disparities in sleep contribute to disparities in adverse perinatal health outcomes remains to be fully explicated. Part I of this two-part review details these implications of poor sleep for mental health, physical health outcomes, and relationship functioning, while Part II delves into biological mechanisms as well as treatment approaches.
Keywords: Birth outcomes; Insomnia; Interpersonal relationships; Mental health; Mood; Perinatal health; Postpartum weight retention; Racial disparities; Sleep; Women’s health.