Poor sleep is associated with higher blood pressure in pregnancy -- a
prospective cohort study
Abstract
Objective: To elucidate the correlation between sleep disturbances and
blood pressure during pregnancy in women with no pre-existing
hypertension. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Outpatient
specialist clinics at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore.
Population: Women with viable singleton pregnancies confirmed by
ultrasonography at less than 14 weeks of amenorrhea at first visit.
Methods: 926 subjects were recruited for this study in the outpatient
specialist clinics at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore,
between September 1, 2010, and August 31, 2014. They were followed up
throughout pregnancy with sleep quality, blood pressure and uterine
artery doppler assessed at each visit. Main outcome measures: sleep
quality, blood pressure and uterine artery doppler. Results: Sleep
progressively worsened as pregnancy advances. Shorter sleep duration and
poorer sleep efficiency were associated with higher blood pressure,
especially in the first trimester. Mixed model analysis demonstrated
overall positive correlation between sleep quality represented by
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score and diastolic blood pressure
(DBP) (p<0.001) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) (p=0.005)
during pregnancy after considering all trimesters. Sleep duration was
found to be negatively correlated with both systolic blood pressure
(SBP) (p=0.029) and DBP (p=0.002) while sleep efficiency is negatively
correlated with DBP (p=0.002) only. Overall poor sleep during pregnancy
was also found to be correlated to higher uterine artery pulsatility
index. Conclusion: Our prospective study demonstrated that sleep quality
is significantly correlated with blood pressure during pregnancy with
most prominent effect in the first trimester.