ArticleBMJ open2022
Sleep patterns and intraindividual sleep variability in mothers and fathers at 6 months postpartum: a population-based, cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sleep patterns of Canadian women across the life course: A systematic review.Women's health (London, England)Pooled it
- Sleep and light ecologies of parents with young infants: descriptive findings from the SUNSHINE project.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Article
- Repeated device-based measures of daily movement, sedentary behavior, and sleep at 6 months postpartum: the Pregnancy Environment and Lifestyle Study-2 cohort.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2026Article
- Sleep quality in Spanish adults: an age- and sex-stratified cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Observational
- A Longitudinal Study of Postpartum Maternal Sleep and Sensitivity: Examining Depressive Symptoms and Social Support as Moderators.Journal of sleep research · 2025Observational
- Sleep Duration Irregularity is Associated with Elevated Blood Pressure During Submaximal Exercise in Young Adults.Nature and science of sleep · 2024Article
- Parents' Sleep Multi-Trajectory Modelling from 3 to 36 Months Postpartum in the SEPAGES Cohort.Nature and science of sleep · 2024Article
- Maternal Sleeping Problems Before and After Childbirth - A Systematic Review.International journal of women's health · 2024Review
- Night-time sleep duration and postpartum weight retention in primiparous women.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesGiven that postpartum sleep is an important family process, further investigations including both mothers and fathers are necessary. The present study aimed to describe and compare sleep patterns and intraindividual night-to-night variability in mothers and fathers at 6 months postpartum using subjective and objective sleep measures.
designCross-sectional study.
settingGeneral community-based study in Montreal, QC, Canada.
participantsThirty-three couples (mothers and fathers) with no self-reported history of medical and mental health conditions participated in this study.
resultsParental sleep was measured across 10 consecutive nights using both a daily sleep diary and actigraphy. Results demonstrated that mothers' subjective and objective sleep was more fragmented compared with fathers (shorter longest consecutive sleep duration and more nocturnal awakenings; p<0.001). While mothers and fathers did not differ in their self-reported nocturnal sleep duration (p>0.05), actigraphy indicated that mothers obtained significantly longer nocturnal sleep duration (448.07 min±36.49 min) than fathers (400.96 min±45.42 min; p<0.001). Intraindividual sleep variability was revealed by relatively high coefficients of variation for parents across both subjective and objective indices related to sleep fragmentation (between 0.25 and 1.32). Actigraphy also demonstrated variability by mothers sleeping 6 hours consecutively on less than 3 nights, 27.27% (±22.81), and fathers on less than 6 nights, 57.27% (±24.53), out of 10. Associations were also found between parental sleep and family factors, such as age and infant sleep location (p<0.05).
conclusionsThese findings advance our knowledge of how sleep unfolds within the family system beyond the early postpartum weeks and/or months. Given the link between disturbed sleep and family functioning, the current research accentuates the importance of examining postpartum sleep patterns and variability in parents.
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