The impact of maternal sleep during pregnancy on childhood health: A systematic review

Abstract

The impact of maternal gestational sleep on pregnancy complications and birth outcomes has been well established by several systematic reviews/meta-analyses. However, the long-term health effect on children has not been summarized. Given the emerging evidence in maternal sleep is revealing new significant insights into this research field, the present review was particularly designed to systematically review and critically appraise existing population-based studies on the association between maternal sleep during pregnancy and childhood health. Available full-text studies that focused on the association were taken into account in this review; 6462 titles and abstracts and 36 full articles were screened from three databases, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, among which 24 studies were ultimately included in the synthesis. Based on childhood health indicators these studies covered, four areas of outcomes including metabolism, neurocognition, sleep, and allergy were categorized and summarized. Our analyses show that maternal gestational poor sleep and sleep disturbance negatively impact multiple aspects of childhood health, though the quality of the studies should be improved. The results inform future studies that should ideally reach out touching on broader health concerns and draw out longer follow-up periods, accompanying adopting more specific methods of assessing maternal sleep and children's health outcomes.