Association of sleep quality and duration with gestational diabetes mellitus: The Qazvin maternal and neonatal metabolic study

Introduction: Association of a good sleep quality and adequate nocturnal sleep duration with metabolic health has been reported in several epidemiological studies. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of sleep quality and duration on gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) occurrence. Methods: In this longitudinal study, 821 pregnant women with the gestational age of ≤14 weeks were included from 2018 to 2020 by convenience sampling. The participants were evaluated in terms of sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and nocturnal sleep duration. They were also examined for GDM at gestational weeks 24–28. Two GDM and non-GDM groups were compared regarding sleep quality and duration. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the independent association of sleep-related variables with GDM occurrence. Results: The final analysis was performed on 658 participants. The means of age and gestational week of the participants were 29.8 ± 4.9 years and 8.8 ± 4.4 weeks, respectively, on inclusion in the study. During follow-up, GDM occurred in 104 (15.8%) participants. Poor sleep quality, sleep quality components, and nocturnal sleep duration showed no significant difference between groups. The frequency of night sleep duration <7 h was higher in the GDM group compared to the non-GDM group (14.4% vs. 7.8%, P = 0.028). However, in the multivariate analysis, there was no independent association between nocturnal sleep <7 h and GDM occurrence. Conclusion: Sleep quality, nocturnal sleep duration, and short nocturnal sleep duration had no independent association with GDM occurrence.