ArticleSleep health2021
Postpartum sleep loss and accelerated epigenetic aging.
Article in Sleep health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Inadequate sleep increases stroke risk: evidence from a comprehensive meta-analysis of incidence and mortality.GeroScience · 2025Pooled it
- Sleep disorders increase the risk of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and cognitive decline: a meta-analysis.GeroScience · 2025Pooled it
- Responsive parenting and Black mothers' postpartum sleep: Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2024Trial
- Maternal biological ageing and telomere attrition across parity, pregnancy, and the postpartum period.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- Device-measured postpartum sleep and breastfeeding contexts among women in urban Vietnam.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The quantified baby: real-world use of infant sleep monitoring technologies and its impact on parent mental health and medical decision-making.BMJ paediatrics open · 2025Article
- Article
- Sleep patterns and DNA methylation age acceleration in middle-aged and older Chinese adults.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- Sleep disturbances, shift work, and epigenetic ageing in working-age adults: findings from the Young Finns study.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- Quantification of Epigenetic Aging in Public Health.Annual review of public health · 2025Review
- Sleep Duration Polygenic Risk and Phenotype: Associations with Biomarkers of Accelerated Aging in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.International journal of aging & human development · 2025Article
- Sleep onset time as a mediator in the association between screen exposure and aging: a cross-sectional study.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Comparison of longitudinal PSQI and actigraphy-assessed sleep from pregnancy to postpartum.PloS one · 2025Article
- Influence of sleep on physiological systems in atherosclerosis.Nature cardiovascular research · 2024Review
- Using non-invasive behavioral and physiological data to measure biological age in wild baboons.GeroScience · 2024Article
- The association between sleep quality and accelerated epigenetic aging with metabolic syndrome in Korean adults.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Article
- The Importance of Sleep in Overcoming Childhood Obesity and Reshaping Epigenetics.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- The Cutting Edge of Epigenetic Clocks: In Search of Mechanisms Linking Aging and Mental Health.Biological psychiatry · 2023Review
- Childhood sleep health and epigenetic age acceleration in late adolescence: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2023Article
- The association between sleep quality and telomere length: A systematic literature review.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundInsufficient sleep has been linked to accelerated biological aging in adults, providing a possible mechanism through which sleep may influence disease risk. In the current paper, we test the hypothesis that short sleep in postpartum would predict older biological age in women one year post birth, as indicated by accelerated epigenetic aging.
methodsAs part of a larger study of pregnancy and postpartum health (Healthy Babies Before Birth, HB3), 33 mothers provided blood samples for epigenetic aging clock estimates. intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration (IEAA), extrinsic apigenetic age acceleration, phenotypic epigenetic age acceleration (PEAA), GrimAge, DNAmPAI-1, and DNAm telomere length (TL) were calculated using established protocols. Sleep duration was categorized as insufficient sleep (<7 hours per night) or healthy sleep duration (7+ hours per night). Sleep quality was determined using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Global score >5).
resultsMaternal postpartum sleep duration at 6 months, but not 12 months, following a birth was predictive of older 12-month IEAA, B (SE) = 3.0 (1.2), P = .02, PEAA, B (SE) = 7.3 (2.0), P = .002, and DNAmTL, B (SE) = -0.18 (0.07), P = .01, but not other indices, all P> .127. Self-reported poor sleep quality at 6 and 12 months was not significantly related to epigenetic age.
conclusionsThese findings suggest that insufficient sleep duration during the early postpartum period is associated with accelerated biological aging. As the sample size is small, additional research is warranted with a larger sample size to replicate these findings.
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