ArticleJournal of affective disorders2026
Sleep and fatigue complaints during pregnancy versus perinatal depression: Impact on toddler cognition.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Advancements in pediatric obstructive sleep apnea: cognitive implications and the role of AI in precision medicine.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Auricular magnetic bead acupressure improves postpartum sleep quality and fatigue, and reduces epidural-related maternal fever in primiparas: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Trial
- Behavioral Sleep Therapies During the Perinatal Period: A Scoping Review.Current sleep medicine reports · 2026Review
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundSleep and fatigue complaints during pregnancy may increase risk for cognitive impairment among offspring, yet this relationship is difficult to disentangle from related risk factors such as perinatal depression. This longitudinal study examined the role of prenatal sleep/fatigue disturbances, independent of pre- and postnatal depression, and offspring cognition at age 24-36 months in relation with the gestational timing of sleep/fatigue disturbances.
methodsParticipants included 127 mother-child dyads. Maternal sleep (i.e., difficulties falling/staying sleep or sleeping too much), fatigue, and depression were self-reported monthly via the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) across the second and third trimesters. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development-4 cognition subscale was administered at 24-36 months. Hypothesis-driven and data-driven (fuzzy c-mean clustering) analyses assessed relationships between prenatal sleep/fatigue, separately by trimester, and toddler cognition after accounting for pre- and postnatal depression symptoms and prenatal medications.
resultsMaternal sleep and fatigue disturbances in the second, but not third, trimester were associated with poorer offspring cognition at 24-36 months (β = -0.24, p = 0.038). Fuzzy c-mean clustering analysis of PHQ-9 data returned a 7-profile solution characterizing depressive symptom clusters. A cluster profile defined by high sleep/fatigue complaints and low mood symptoms in the second trimester was associated with lower offspring cognition at 24-36 months (β = -1.39, p = 0.028).
conclusionsMaternal sleep and fatigue disturbances during the second trimester were associated with poorer toddler cognition. Further studies should assess maternal biological mechanisms (e.g., stress, cortisol, oxygenation, inflammation, immunity modulation) as well as the impact of clinical sleep interventions in pregnancy on cognitive development of offspring.
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